52 



NEW ENGLAKD FARMER. 



Jan. 



from the wood, these juices continue to thicken, 

 until growth ceases altogether, and the new wood 

 is completely formed ; and when this new wood 

 is in the state of a thick paste or cement, then is 

 the time that the bud will adhere most perfectly. 

 This is the period when the bark may be peeled 

 from a tree without destroying its vitality. And 

 this is the time for cutting timber. Early in 

 spring, the tree is full of sap, which is little else 

 than pure water, and which has been gradually 

 accumulating through winter by the absorption of 

 the roots, with no outlet for its escape, as there is 

 in summer through mj'riads of leaves. While the 

 tree is thus replete with water, it is in the worst 

 condition to be cut. But towards mid-summer, 

 when a portion of this water has passed off 

 through the leaves, and the rest has been much 

 thickened by conversion into material for wood, 

 the case is very different ; for while the watery 

 sap promotes only decay, the thickened juices 

 soon dry and harden, and assist in the preserva- 

 tion of the wood." 



The editor states that his opinions are corrob- 

 orated by those of Mr. Isaac Hathaway, of Far- 

 mington, Ontario countj-, N. Y., a man of great 

 experience in the preparation and use of timber. 

 His opinion is, that timber cut at the proper time 

 in summer will last ihree times as long as M'hen 

 felled in winter ! 



Hickory contains a sweet sap, sweeter, per- 

 haps, than that of the maple ; insects instinctive- 

 ly turn to it as a suitable place to deposit their 

 eggs and for hatching their young, and we have 

 Been axe helves and large quantities of the finest- 

 looking ox-bows rejected, in consequence of be- 

 ing perforated by worms. The term applied to 

 such timber \& j)owder-post. When in this con- 

 dition, it becomes utterly valueless for any pur- 

 poses Avhere strength is required. Persons who 

 deal in such timber are obliged to keep it in cel- 

 lars or damp rooms, and darkened, so as to pre- 

 vent the entrance of the insect that deposits the 

 egg pregnant with so much mischief. 



If this timber were cut in June, peeled at once 

 and properly housed, it would probably become 

 so hard before the appearance of the insect in the 

 following spring, as to resist all their efforts to 

 deposit their eggs in it. The question of our cor- 

 respondent — "What is the best time to cut tim- 

 ber ?" is an important one ; the true time ought 

 to be ascertained, beyond all doubt, and then 

 made public. 



Nature from the Water. — A person should 

 go out upon the water on a fine day to a short dis- 

 tance from a beautiful coast, if he would see na- 

 ture really smile. Never does she look so joy- 

 ous as when the waves are rippling gently, and 

 the scene receives life and animation here and 

 there from the glancing transit of a row-boat, and 



the quieter motion of a few small vessels. But 

 the land must be well in sight ; not only for its 

 sake, but because the vastness and awfulness of 

 a mere sea-view would ill sort with the other parts 

 of the gay and glittering prospect. — Guesses at 

 Trulh. 



HOW A FLY HOLDS Olf. 



I have here inclosed a small window fly in the 

 live box of a microscope, that you may examine 

 the structure of its feet as it presses them against 

 the glass cover ; and thus not only get a glimpse 

 of an exquisitely formed structure, but acquire 

 some correct ideas on the question of how a fly 

 is able to defy all the laws of physics, and to walk 

 jauntily about on the under surface of polished 

 bodies, such as glass, without falling, or appar- 

 ently the fear of falling. And a personal exami- 

 nation is the more desirable because of the hasty 

 and erroneous notions that have been promulgat- 

 ed on the matter, and that are constantly dissem- 

 inated by a herd of popular compilers, who pro- 

 fess to teach science by gathering up and retail- 

 ing the opinions of others, often without the 

 slightest knowledge whether what they are re- 

 porting is true or false. 



The customary explanation has been that given 

 by Derham in his "Physico-theologj'," that divers 

 flies, and other insects, besides their sharp, hooked 

 nails, have also skinny palms to their feet, to en- 

 able them to stick to glass, and other smooth 

 bodies by means of the pressure of the atmos- 

 phere, after the manner as I have seen boys carry 

 heavy stones with only a wet piece of leather 

 slapped on top of a stone." Bingley, citing this 

 opinion, adds that they are able easily to over- 

 come the pressure of air "in M-arm weather, Avhen 

 they are brisk and alert ; but toward the end of 

 the year this resistance becomes too mighty for 

 their diminished strength ; and we see flies labor- 

 ing along, and lugging their feet on windows as 

 if they stuck fast to the glass ; and it is with the 

 utmost difficulty they can draw one foot after 

 another, and disengage their hollow cups from 

 the slippery surface." 



But long ago another solution was proposed, 

 for Hooke, one of the earliest microscopic observ- 

 ers, described the two palms, pattens, or soles, 

 (as he calls the pidviUa,) as "beset underneath 

 with small bristles or tenters, like the wire teeth 

 of a card for working mooI, which, having a con- 

 trary direction to the claws, and both pulling dif- 

 ferent ways, if there be any irregularity or yield- 

 ing in the surface of a body, enable the fly to sus- 

 pend itself very firmly." He supposed that the 

 most perfectly polished glass presented such ir- 

 regularities, and that it was moreover always 

 covered with a "smoky tarnish," into which the 

 hairs of the foot penetrated. 



The "smoky tarnish" is altogether gratuitous ; 

 and Mr. Blackwell has exploded the idea of at- 

 mospheric pressui-e ; for he found that flies could 

 walk up the interior of an exhausted air-pump. 

 He had explained their ability to climb up verti- 

 cal polished bodies by the mechanical action of 

 the minute hairs of tlie interior surface of the 

 palms ; but further exj^eriments having showed 

 him that flies cannot walk up glass which is made 

 moist by breathing on it, or which is thinly coat- 

 ed with oil or flour, he was led to the conclusion 



