424 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



said they were the Red Grape, and the White 

 Grape. They bear this summer, and prove to be 

 very inferior fruit, probably some old native bush- 

 es which were begged or stolen, to supply orders. 

 Others were equally cheated. Perhaps it will 

 teach us better than to purchase trees of travel- 

 ling, irresponsible venders. 



What will destroy slugs on pear trees ? I have 

 a few nice trees, two of them dwarfs, that are 

 nearly divested of foliage by them. 



L. Varnet. 



Bloomfield, C. W., 1th Mo. 30th, 1861. 



Remarks. — It is said that washing with whale 

 oil soap will kill the slugs ; we have never found 

 any certain remedy except the thumb and finger. 



THE THADE IN TOADS. 



None but Frenchmen, of course, would ever 

 think of making a regular business of trading in 

 these brown-coated gentlemen, and accordingly we 

 find the trade flourishing in Paris alone. Toads, 

 for some years, have been the indispensable allies 

 of the French market gardeners, cultivating rich 

 and moist grounds. Many of these men fill their 

 gardens with them to get rid of a throng of insects 

 injurious to the vegetables they have raised by 

 laborious and scientific culture. Especially do 

 toads attack and demolish the slugs and snails, 

 which, in a single night, utterly destroy the com- 

 mercial value of lettuce, carrots, parsnips, aspar- 

 agus, and even early fruits. In having recourse 

 to these singular auxiliaries, the French garden- 

 ers imitate their English brethren. A great por- 

 tion of the vegetable supply is derived from the 

 kitchen gardens in the immediate vicinity of that 

 immense city, cultivated, it is said, by 35,000 per- 

 sons. These gardens are a perfect marvel of la- 

 borious culture. You see sometimes acres and 

 acres covered with hand-glasses. Richly ma- 

 nured, and sedulously tended, some of these gar- 

 den spots are so managed as to yield five crops 

 annually. Not only is there not a weed among 

 them, but the vegetables are examined with lenses 

 to detect mildew and fungi. Besides toads, which 

 they pay six shillings a dozen for, they make use 

 of fowls to destroy the aphides, rigging them with 

 boots to prevent their scratching, and allow them 

 the use of their bills. The price of toads is low- 

 er in Paris than in London ; in the former city 

 they are still sold, notwithstanding the demand, 

 for about fifty cents a dozen, and many are ex- 

 ported to England. The dealers in this strange 

 commodity keep them in the bottom of huge 

 casks, into which they are constantly plunging 

 their bare hands and arms, without showing the 

 slightest fear of the liquid secreted by the toads 

 which science has sometimes pronounced veno- 

 mous. Busy little fellows these repulsive look- 

 ing creatures are, and worthy of all possible en- 

 couragement and patronage. — Exchange. 



Willow Ware. — The editor of the Wiscon- 

 sin Farmer, in acknowledging a present of a wil- 

 low basket, manufactured in that State, says that 

 the soil of the West is the best in the world for 

 growing willows. 



THE DE"W. 



The following quotation from Dr. Wells on 

 dew is highly instructive : "1 had often smiled in 

 the pride of half-knowledge at the means frequent- 

 ly employed by gardeners to protect tender 

 plants from cold, as it appeared to me impossible 

 that a thin mat or any such flimsy substance 

 could prevent them from attaining the temperature 

 of the atmosphere, by which alone I thought them 

 liable to be Injured. But when I had learned 

 that bodies on the surface of the earth became, 

 during a still and serene night, colder than the 

 atmosphere, by radiating their heat to the heav- 

 ens, I perceived immediately a just reason for the 

 practice which I had before deemed useless. Be- 

 ing desirous, however, of acquiring some precise 

 information on the subject, 1 fixed perpendicular- 

 ly in the earth of a grass-plot four small sticks, 

 and over their upper extremities, which were 

 six inches above the grass, and formed the cor- 

 ners of a square whose sides were two feet long, 

 I drew tightly a very thin cambric handkerchief. 

 In this disposition of things, therefore, nothing 

 existed to prevent the free passage of air from the 

 exposed grass to that which was sheltered, except 

 the four small sticks, and there was no substance 

 to radiate downward to the latter grass, except 

 the cambric handkerchief. The sheltered grass, 

 however, was found nearly of the same tempera- 

 ture as the air, while the unsheltered was five de- 

 grees or more colder. One night the fully ex- 

 posed grass was eleven degrees colder than the 

 air, but the sheltered was only three degrees cold- 

 er. Here we see the power of a very slight awn- 

 ing to avert or lessen the injurious coldness of 

 the ground !" 



CORN IN THE EAB. 



A very intelligent Irishman tells the following 

 story of his first experience in America : 



I came to this country several years ago, and 

 as soon as I arrived, hired out to a gentleman 

 who farmed a few acres. He showed nie over 

 the premises, the stable, cow, and where the corn, 

 hay, oats, &c., were kept, and then sent me to 

 get my supper. After supper he said to me : 



"James, you may feed the cow, and give her 

 corn in the ear." I went out and walked about, 

 thinking what could he mean ? Had I under- 

 stood him ? I scratched my head, then resolved 

 I would inquire again ; so I went into the libra- 

 ry where my master was writing very busily, and 

 he answered without looking up, "I thought I told 

 you to give the cow some corn ih the ear." 



I went out more puzzled than ever. What sort 

 of an animal must this Yankee cow be ? I exam- 

 ined her mouth and ears. Th"e teeth were good, 

 and the ears were like those of kine in the old 

 country. Dripping with sweat, I entered my 

 master's presence once more. 



"Please sir, you bid me give the cow some corn 

 in the ear, — but didn't you mean in the mouth V* 

 He looked at me for a moment, and then burst 

 into such a convulsion of laughter, I made for the 

 stable as fast as my feet could take me, thinking 

 I was in the service of a crazy man." 



While there is so much within us to make 

 war upon, it is gratuitous to commence a war 

 with exterior enemies. 



