146 TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 



SECTION XXII. 



Useful Notices on Husbandry at St. Helena — Crops liable to Attacks of 

 Caterpillars and Aphides — Crops not liable to Injury from those Insects 

 — Lord Bacon's Idea of the Generation of Caterpillars apparently sub- 

 stantiated — Method tried to prevent their Generation — the Haulm of 

 Potatoes suggested as an auxiliary Food for Cattle — Experiments to 

 determine the Produce of Cos Lettuce — yields, in three Months from 

 the Period of Sotving, about 15 Tons per Acre—an excellent Food 

 for Hogs. 



It is an essential part of husbandry, to make clioice of those 

 crops that can be most advantageously raised in the country where 

 it is practised. Almost every kind of esculent and grain may be 

 cnltivated here with facility and success ; and the returns, from 

 the time of sowing the seed, are much more rapid than in colder 

 climates ; seldom exceeding from four to four months and a half. 

 Some plants are, however, more liable than others to attacks of 

 the caterpillar and aphides. Amongst these may be reckoned 

 the potatoe, cabbage, turnip, mangel wurzel, and radish : but 

 the potatoe rarely suffers so as materially to injure the crop ; yet 

 the haulm, from this cause, and the present system of culture, is 

 entirely lost to the farmer. 



Amongst the crops least liable to injury from those insects, are 

 corn of all sorts ; kidney beans, carrots, and lettuces ; wherefore 

 these are particularly deserving attention. 



In regard to the loss sustained in potatoe haulm, it seems to 

 me, there is a very simple, and perhaps an advantageous mode 

 of averting it. I have observed that caterpillars generally make 



