340 



NEW ENGLA^T) FARMER. 



July 



Resolved, That dead wool, or any other wool of 

 inferior quality or condition, should not be put 

 within fleeces ; hut that such being the prevailing 

 and well understood custom in this State, it is 

 proper, in the absence of any contrary understand- 

 ing, to put the tags of every fleece within it, if in 

 equal condition. 



Resolved, That any unifonn and arbitrary rate of 

 deduction on unwashed fleeces operates unequally 

 and unjustly on growers, because some breeds and 

 varieties of sheep have far more yolk or "grease" 

 in their wool than others, because the proportion 

 of yolk or "grease" which is retained in the un- 

 washed fleeces of even the same sheep, depends in 

 a great degree upon the care with which they are 

 housed from rain and snow, because some flocks 

 arc kept where their wool becomes mixed with 

 dirt and other heavy substances, while others are 

 not; that such arliitrary rate of deduction for im- 

 purities is not tolerated in the sale of other farm 

 products ; that no excuse can be set up for it in the 

 case of wool, but the inability of the buyer to 

 determine the relative amounts of the impurity — in 

 other words, his ignorance of his business ; that 

 wool growers are not required to submit to loss and 

 injustice to enable wool dealers or wool manufac- 

 turers to employ cheap and unqualified agents. 



Resolved, That the practice which has obtained 

 among buyers of establishing a maximum price to 

 off'er for the Ijcst wools of a ncighhorhood, which 

 is sufficiently low to enable them to offer nearly 

 the same price for all the wools of that neiglilior- 

 hood, thus, in effect, sacrificing the interests of the 

 gi-ower who aims at high quality and condition, 

 for the benefit of the grower of inferior and dirty 

 wools ; directly encourages the production of the 

 latter, and otters a premium on those l)ad modes 

 of preparing wools for market, of which the buyer 

 60 loudly complains ; that it has tended, more than 

 all other causes put together, to the debasement of 

 American wools ; that when the buyer will make 

 a just discrimination in favor of superior quality 

 and condition, he will have no difficulty in secur- 

 ing them. 



Resolved, That we favor no proscriptive combi- 

 nations, and that we utter no menaces to those of 

 our number who do not carry out our recommen- 

 dations ; nor do we propose to be in the least de- 

 gree influenced by such action on the part of oth- 

 ers towards the persons who buy of us. 



■WOOL SAMPLES APPKOVED, 

 We learn by the Boston Cultivator that the 

 committees appointed by the National Wool 

 Growers' Association and the National Asso- 

 ciation of Wool Manufacturers, for the pur- 

 pose of examining the Samples of Wool pre- 

 pared by Geo. W. Bond, in compliance with 

 a provision in the late taritF law, met at the 

 office of Mr. Bond, in Congress street, Boston, 

 May 23. 



These committees consisted of the follow- 

 ing gentlemen : fr-om the Wool Growers'' Asso- 

 ciation, Henry S. Randall of N. Y., Chair- 

 man, with N. S. Townshend of Ohio, Ed. 

 Hammond of Vt., A. M. Garland of 111., and 

 Burdett Loomis of Ct. ; from the Wool Manu- 

 facturers'' Asssociation, J. Wiley Edmunds of 

 Mass., Nelson Kingsbury of Ct., and John L. 

 Hayes, of Boston, Secretary. 



Each of the eight) -four samples were thor- 

 oughly and critically examined. The Cultiva- 

 tor understands that but one of the samples 

 was changed, and one omitted, subject to the 

 decision of the Secretary of the Treasury. 



Having completed their examination, the 



following resolution was unanimously adopted 



and signed by the committee and transmitted 



to the Secretary of the Treasury : — 



Resolved, By the Committee of the "National 

 Wool Growers' Association," and the "National 

 Association of Wool Manufacturers," convened in 

 Boston, May 2'2d, 1867, under the authority of the 

 Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, to examine the 

 samjiles of wool, hair, &c., collected and prepared 

 liy Mr. George Wm. Bond, to be used as a stamhird 

 of' cdiuparit^on in the Custom Houses of the United 

 States, under the provisions of the Act of March 2d, 

 1867, that they have carefully examined and com- 

 pared all the said samples now prepared, and that, 

 as finally agreed on, they are suitable for the ob- 

 jects for which they are intended. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 NOXIOUS ANIMALS, INCLUDING IN- 

 SECTS.— NO. VI. 

 Plant Lice. 



The insects which we have had under con- 

 sideration in previous numbers are the Agroti- 

 dians, cut worms, of the order Lepidoptera — 

 the perfected insects of which are moths or 

 millers, having four wings covered with branny 

 scales. Our present examples — the Aphides, 

 plant lice, belong to the order Hemiptera and 

 sub order Homoptera. 



Although the ditierent orders of insects have, 

 very properly, received their names from some 

 peculiarity of their wings in the adult state, as 

 sheath wings, scaly wings, half wings, net 

 wings, &c., yet they have other distinguishing 

 characteristics ; and the order in which is found 

 the plant louse, unlike the insects with jaws, 

 take their nourishment by suction, through a 

 horny beak provided for that purpose. Their 

 transformations, also, are only partial, the 

 larva and pupa, though wingless, resembling 

 the adult. To this order belong various bugs, 

 as the squash bug, the yellow stripped bug, 

 the chinch bug of the West, the bed bug, &c. 

 A perfect plant louse has four wings, perfect 

 and similar, as the term Homoptera implies, 

 although the posterior pair is smaller. 



We have now a genus of very small animals 

 under consideration, — some of the Aphidians 

 being so minute as to escape common observa- 

 tion ; yet their injuries are far from insignifi- 

 cant. Indeed, the difficulty of repelling the 

 attacks of noxious animals is nearly in an in- 

 verse ratio to their size ; for what they lack in 

 magnitude is more than made up in number, 

 while their minuteness shields them from our 

 ordinary means of destruction. 



The genus Aphis embraces a vast number 

 of species of various sizes and colors ; and 

 there is scarcely a plant that grows, that on 



