186 



THE LANCASTER -FARMER. 



[December , 



Teach tliem to say "No!" and mean it, or 

 "Yes!" and stick to it. 



Te.ach them to liavo nothing to do with 

 dissohite or intemperate men. 



Teach them all tlie mysteries of the kitchen, 

 dining-room and the parlor. 



Teach them that a good, round, rosy romp 

 is worth fifty delicate consumptives. 



Teacli them that the more they live within 

 their incomes the more they will save. 



Teach them that the farther tliey live be- 

 yond their incomes the nearer they get to the 

 poor-house. 



Teach them that a good, steady mechanic, 

 without a cent, is worth a dozen oil-pated 

 loafers in broadcloth. 



Teach them accom]ilisliments — painting, 

 music, drawing — if you have time and money 

 to do it with. 



Teach them the essentials of life— truth, 

 honesty, uprightness— and at a suitable time 

 let them marry. 



Teach them that God made them in his own 

 image, and that no amount of tight lacing will 

 improve the model. 



FACTS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. 



Melons were found originally in Asia. 



The cantaloupe is a native of America, and 

 is so called from the name of a place near 

 Kome, where it was first cultivated in Europe. 



The nectarine is said to have received its 

 name from the nectar, the particular drink of 

 the gods. 



Pears were originally brought from the East 

 by the Romans. 



The Greengage is called after the Gage 

 family, who first took it into England from a 

 monastery in Paris. 



Filberts originally came from Greece. 



The walnut is a native of Persia, the Cau- 

 casus and China. 



The Greeks called butter bouturos — "cow 

 cheese." 



Before the middle of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury tea was not used in England, and was 

 entirely unknown to the Greeks and Romans. 



The bean is said to be a native of Egypt. 



The cucumber was originally a tropical 

 vegetable. 



The pea is a native of the South of Europe. 



Spinach is a Persian plant. 



The tomato is a native of south America, 

 and takes its name from a Portuguese word. 



The turnip came originally from Rome. 



Sweet marj(jram is a native of Portugal. 



Coriander seed came originally from the 

 East. 



The clove is a native of Molucca Island, as 

 also is the nutmeg. 



Capers originally grew wild in Greece and 

 Northern Africa. 



Garlic came to us first from Sicily and the 

 shores of the Mediterranean. 



Ginger is a native of the East and "West 

 Indies. 



Sage is a native of the South of Europe. 



The goosebcn-y is indigenous to Great Bri- 

 tain. 



Cloves come to ns from the Indies, and take 

 their name from the Latin chu-us, or French 

 clou, both meaning a nail, to which they have 

 a resemblance. 



The horseradish is a native of England. 



Vinegar is derived from two French words, 

 vin aiyre, "sour wine." 



The nasturtium came originally from Peru. 



Parselej' is said to have fust come from 

 Egypt, and mythology tells us that it was 

 used to adorn the head of Hercules. 



It is a curious fact that while the names of 

 all our domestic animals are of Saxon origin. 

 Norman names are given to the fiesh they 

 yield. 



When .Tames Buchanan was Minister to 

 England he had ears of corn, hermetically 

 sealed, sent to him from this country. 



The w^ord biscuit is French for " twice 

 baked," because, originally, that was the 

 mode of entirely depriving it of moisture to 

 insure its keeping. 



Claret is a corruption of dairet, a term ap- 



plied in France to any red or rose colored 

 wine. 



Almonds are natives of the northern part 

 of Asia and Africa. In ancient times they 

 were much esteemed by the natives of the 

 East. 



Apples were originally brought from the 

 East by the Romans. The crab apple is in- 

 digenous to Great Britain. 



The a.sparagus was originally a wild 

 sea-coast plant and is a, native of Great 

 Britain. 



The chestnut is said by some to have origi- 

 nally come from Sardis in Lydia, and by 

 others from Castenca in Thessaly, from which 

 it takes its name. 



The onion was almost an object of wor- 

 ship with the Egyptians two thousand years 

 before the Christian era. It first came from 

 Egypt. 



Quinces originally came from Corinth. 



Apricots are indigenous to the plains of 

 Armenia. 



Cherries were known in Asia as far back 

 as the seventh century. 



Damsons originally came from Damascus. 



Lemons were used by the Romans to keep 

 moths from their garments, and in the time 

 of Pliny they were considered an excellent 

 counterpoison. They arc natives of Asia. 



Citron is supposed to be the Median, As- 

 syrian, or Persian apple of the Greeks. 



Rhubarb is a native of Asia. 



The strawberry takes its name from an an- 

 cient custon of putting straw beneath the 

 fruit when it began to ripen. Its delicacy 

 was praised by both Virgil and Ovid. 



The peach originally came from Persia. 



We are indebted to the infamous Catherine 

 de Medici for ice creams. 



TEN RULES FOR FARMERS. 



1. Take good papers and read them. 



2. Keep an account of farm operations. 



8. Do not leave farm impleinents scattered 

 over the farm exposed to snow, rain and heat. 



4. Repair tools and buildings at a proper 

 time, and do not suffer a subsequent expendi- 

 ture of time and money. 



5. Use money judiciously, and do not at- 

 tend auction sales to purchase all kinds of 

 trumpery because it is cheap. 



C. See that fences are well repaired, and 

 cattle not grazing in the meadows, grain 

 fields or orchards. 



7. Do not refuse correct experiments, in a 

 small way, of many new things. 



8. Plant fruit trees well, care for them and 

 get good crops. 



9. Practice economy, by giving stock shelter 

 during the winter ; also good food, taking out 

 all that is unsound, half rotten or mouldy. 



10. Do not keep tribes of dogs and cats 

 around the premises, who eat more in a month 

 than they are worth in all their lifetime. 



^ 



SOMETHING ABOUT DRAGON FLIES. 

 It is not to be wondered at that several 

 young people should wish to know something 

 about Dragon -files, for they are among the 

 most noticeable of insects. Their long slen- 

 der bodies, their large heads, with prominent 

 eyes, and their wido^'read, gauzy wings, 

 which reflect beautiful colors in the sunlight, 

 are sure to attract attention. More than all, 

 their rapid flight, now darting with the great- 

 est swiftness, then remaining stationary over 

 a spot, and then as .suddenly moving back- 

 wards, gives them a mysterious air that no 

 other insects have. It is no wonder that they 

 have been looked upon as harmful insects, for 

 they go about in a silent, strange way, as if 

 there was some mischief to be done. There 

 are over 400 kinds of Dragon-flies, found in 

 various parts of the world, of which we have 

 om- share in this country ; about .^0 are known 

 to live in the Northern States, and there are 

 others in the South, hut while they differ in 

 size, color, etc., all have similar ways of 

 living, and a description of the habits pf one, 

 answers for all. While their long, snaky 

 bodies, their savage look and their darting 

 flight, make them suspected, and they are 



generally looked upon as dangerous, I may as 

 well say here, and answer several questions at 

 once, that they are perfectly harmless, so far 

 as man is concerned. They have no piercer 

 or sting, and though the larger ones may be 

 able to pinch with their jaws, if you put your 

 finger there and try to make them do it, they 

 do not bite, sting, or otherwise harm people in 

 any manner. I know that they have a bad 

 reputation. When I was a youngster, they 

 were called "Devil's Darning Needles," and 

 I was told by the older boys that if a boy 

 should tell a fib, one of those "Darning 

 Needles" would come and sew up his mouth. 

 All my playmates must have been very truth- 

 ful, as I never saw one with his mouth darned 

 by one of these " Needles. " But such notions 

 are not found among boys alone ; in various 

 places these insects are called by names which 

 show that they are thought to be dangerous. 

 In England they are called "Horse-stingers," 

 and in Scotland "Flying Adders." In some 

 parts of this country they are known among 

 the boys as "Snake Doctors," it being thought 

 that they attend upon snakes, probably be- 

 cau.se they are seen hovering over the ponds 

 where there are water snakes. On the conti- 

 nent of Europe they have more pleasing 

 names. In France they are Demoiselles, or 

 "ladies," and in Germany Wasserjungfern, or 

 "Virgins of the Water." In traveling in the 

 Southern States, I had heard them often 

 called "Mosquito Hawks," and was told that 

 they devoured so many mosquitoes that it was 

 considered wrong to kill one of them. At 

 last I had an opportunity to learn that, for 

 once, a popular notion was correct. One ex- 

 cessive hot day in June I happened to be on 

 Lake Pontchartrain, not far from New Or- 

 leans ; there were several pleasure houses, to 

 which the people came from the city in the 

 cool of the evening for a drive, and for ice- 

 cream and other refreshments. These places 

 were mere sheds, or shelters, and on the inside 

 of them were mosquitos by the million, rest- 

 ing in the heat of the day, to be all fresh to 

 receive the evening visitors. I never before, 

 or since, saw so many mosquitoes, for they 

 were so thick as to make the sides of the 

 building look gray. There were also hundreds 

 of Dragon-flies — good big fellows — which flit- 

 ted about and fed upon the mosquitos at such 

 a rate, that I saw at once that they were well 

 named "Mosquito Hawks." When we see 

 these insects so busy darting here and there 

 they are no doubt hunting for mosquitoes and 

 other insects upon which they feed. But the 

 early life of the insect is quite as interesting 

 as that of its perfect or winged state. The 

 female insect places her eggs upon the stem 

 of water plants, just at. or below the surface, 

 and from these hatch out the larva, or the 

 first form of the insect. The larvae of the 

 butterflies and moths we know as caterpil- 

 lars, and that they live on plants on the land, 

 but the larvffi of some insects, including the 

 mosquito and Dragon-flies, live entirely in the 

 water until they are ready to change into per- 

 fect insects. Tlie larvie of the Dragon-flies, 

 sometimes called the "Water Tiger," and 

 well deserves that name, for it is one of the 

 most voracious of living creatures. The 

 "Water Tigers" may be found in pools and 

 muddy ponds, and in still places along the 

 margins of rivers, and, though not handsome 

 to look at, they are very interesting to wiitch. 

 If you wish to study their ways, you can 

 easily catch them with a small net and put 

 them in an aquarium, or what is better, a jar 

 by themselves, in which some water plants 

 are placed. If you put them in an aquarium 

 there will, after a while, be little else left, at 

 least of the smaller inhabitants, for they at- 

 tiick creatures much larger than themselves. 

 It is diflicult to .say which is the most curious 

 in the "Water-tiger," (which is a convenient 

 and shorter name for the Dragon-fly larva,) 

 its head or its tail. Curiously enough, the 

 creature breathes through its tail 1 You, no 

 doubt, know that fishes breathe through gills 

 placed in the head, and as the water flows 

 over these they take up the air that is dis- 

 solved in the water, and thus carry ou a slow 



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