234 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



muck heap ; and we can well excuse his unprepossessing 

 exterior, for the sake of the jewel which he wears in his 

 tongue. This, like that of the chamelion, of which he is a 

 cousin-german, he darts out with lightning rapidity, and clasps 

 his worms or insect prey within its glutinous folds, which is 

 with equal rapidity transformed to his capacious maw. Appa- 

 rently dull, squat, and of the soil's hue, whatever that may be, 

 he sits silent, meditative, yet watchful in the thick shade of 

 some overgrown cabbage ; and then as the careless insects 

 buzz by, or the grub or beetle crawl along unheedful of danger, 

 he loads his aldermanic carcass with the savory repast. Six- 

 teen fresh beetles, a pile equal to his fasting bulk, have been 

 found in the stomach of a single toad. The Frog, traipsing 

 over the dewy fields, procures his summer subsistence in the 

 same way as his seeming congener the toad, and with equal 

 benefit to the farmer. The striped snake is a harmless object 

 about the farm premises, and like the toad, he is also a great 

 gormandiser of worms and insects. The sole drawback to 

 his merits, is occasionally feasting on the toad and frog. 

 The black snake is sometimes destructive to young poultry, and 

 he is a fierce and formidable foe to all whom his indomitable 

 courage induces him to attack, lie charms the old birds and 

 robs their nests both of eggs and young ; but his consump- 

 tion of superfluous squirrels and field mice, perhaps fully atones 

 for his own delinquencies. 



FENCES. 



In many countries which have been long under cultivation, 

 with a dense population and little timber, as in China, and 

 other parts of Asia, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and 

 other parts of Europe, fences are seldom seen. In cer- 

 tain sections of the older settled portions of the New Eng- 

 land states also a similar arrangement prevails. This is es- 

 pecially the case over the wide intervals or bottom lands 

 which skirt the banks of the Connecticut river, where peri- 

 odical inundations would annually sweep them away. 

 Wherever this systen is adopted, cultivation proceeds without 

 obstruction, arid a great saving is made not only in their origi- 

 nal cost, but in the interest, repairs and renewal ; all thft 

 land is available for crops ; no weeds or bushes are permitted 

 to send their annoying roots or scatter their seeds over the 

 ground ; no safe harbors are made for mice, rats or other 

 vermin ; the trouble and expense of keeping up bars or 

 gates are avoided ; and a free course is allowed by the con- 



