416 



XEW ENGLAND FAIi:\IER. 



Sept. 



came dry and firm enough to support a team, and 

 I have plowed some of it and raised good potatoes 

 and corn tliereon ; not however without having 

 first talvcn out a great many loads of hemlock roots, 

 logs, &c. On this meadow the peat is from one to 

 ten feet deep, covering about five acres. When I 

 commenced here I had had no experience with 

 muck, but had it all to learn. I tried it in various 

 ways, and in all cases found some good result from 

 it. For the last fifteen years I have taken but one 

 course with it, and that is, to cart it in the fall into 

 my yards, even it off carefully, and put the stock 

 on through the winter. In the spring as soon as 

 it is thawed the great part of the dung is taken off; 

 the more there is left, however, the better for the 

 muck. After planting, it is put into heaps of con- 

 siderable size, where it lays until haying, when it 

 is worked over during lowery days, &c., being 

 careful to pulverize it finely. It is then thrown into 

 heaps again. There it will ferment and become 

 like any rotten manure. I let it lay until perhaps 

 the last of September, when it is drawn out on to 

 such parts of the grass land as need it most. 



With this management, I find no difficulty in 

 keeping my land in a good state of cultivation. I 

 sell the larger part of my hay, and I think I could 

 sell it all, except enough to keep a team, and still 

 keep my farm in a good state of cultivation. But 

 I would say to all farmers and farmers' boys, work 

 with j'our hands and keep manuring, for if we 

 should stop manuring we could not live in this 

 country, nor in fact, in any other, but a short time. 

 Keep a hoe and shovel in a handy place, and do 

 not let them rust, but wear them bright by use. 

 Scrape up all refuse vegetable matter about the 

 buildings and roads, and put it in with the hogs. 

 They are a mighty help to make manure. I think 

 that I can make as much worth of manure from 

 ten hogs in a year, as you can from ten oxen in the 

 same time. 0. Foster. 



Tunbridge, Vt., April 7, 1867. 



TREE BORERS. 



Messrs. Editors : — In glancing over an article 

 in your last issue, July 6th, headed "Tree Borers," 

 I find one or two corrections necessary, to render 

 it valuable to the community. I will briefly enu- 

 merate them without further preamble. 



First, "The borer" is the popular name given to 

 the larva; of several kind of insects, not only bee- 

 tles, but various moths and wood-wasps ; as the 

 locust-tree borer, the pear, and the hickoi'y, the 

 peach, and the squash vine borer, even, belong to 

 the moth order, Lepidoplera. Pine trees are much 

 injured in the Middle States by a borer which is a 

 bee, Xylocopa. Secondly, ^'beetles'' are not "btiffs 

 with icings and hard shells " unless a coio is a horse 

 with legs and a tail! Many bugs have hard shells, 

 and the majority have wings, while numbers of 

 beetles have no wings, and a still larger number 

 have soft shells. 



Line 8th. Their <A/)-(i period is called th(i pupa 

 state. The first state is that of the egg, the sec- 

 ond that of the larva, the third as above, that of 

 the pupa, and the fourth and last that of the imago 

 or adult. 



The cocoon is not a condition, or state, but as it 

 were a felted l)lankct spun or woven Ity the larvic 

 of many insects, to enclose and protect them dur- 

 ing the pupa state. Few larvjc of butterfiies do 

 this, but suspend their pup;v\ which are sometimes 

 called chrysalides, by the tail, and freciuently also 

 by a girdle about the middle. 



At the close of your fifth paragraph. The larva 

 of the oak-pnmcr l)eetle does not enter the ground, 

 lam not aware that the larvic of any of the Long- 

 icornia, Hong-hoined beetles, mostly borers,) or 

 Buprestiaa, (short-horned beetles, mostly borers,) 



do so. All pass their preparatory stages in the 

 bodies of the plants on which they feed. 



The branch containing the oak-pruner larva or 

 pupa, may by falling to the ground be kept more 

 moist, (a great desideratum by the way) or pro- 

 tected by the snow and fallen leaves from sudden 

 changes of temperature during the winter. 



Paragraph seven has one slight typographical 

 error; Bivittata, or "two striped" was the name 

 applied by Thomas Say to this species ; its older 

 i and more proper name however is Ca^idida, mean- 

 ing white. 



With sincere regard, and an earnest wish to as- 

 sist in furnishing the public with correct informa- 

 tion, I am very truly yours. 



Francis Gregory Sanborn. 



Rooms of Boston Hoc. Nat. Hist., July 8, 1867. 



Remarks. — We thank our friend for his correc- 

 tions. And while we cheerfully accept his amend- 

 ments, we must be permitted to say that we are 

 pleased that the keen eye of a thoroughly read nat- 

 uralist should have discovered so few errors of 

 fact and expression in an article hastily written in 

 a most busy season upon the farm, and for read- 

 ers who see much more of the operations of borers, 

 beetles, bugs and pruners, than they hear or think 

 of their proper classification, or of the exact terms 

 which the books employ to express the various 

 stages of their wonderful transfonnation in com- 

 ing to maturity. 



THE SEASON IN MAINE. — FEEDING COLTS. 



In our vicinity we have had a very backward 

 spring. Some among us did not commence planting 

 until the very last of May. Others, upon sandy 

 fiirms, planted as early as usual ; l)Ut most of the 

 farms in our vicinity have clayey loam, which re- 

 tains the water longer than most other soils. But, 

 the late spring is tollowed by a very gi'owing sea- 

 son. Corn planted the 10th of June has come for- 

 ward finely, and has been hoed the second time. 

 The hay crop promises to be fair, but not abun- 

 dant, i don't think there will be twice as much as 

 there was last year. It is predicted tliat July will 

 be a showery month, and if hay is not considerably 

 damaged I shall be mistaken. 



Please inform me whether oats, com or meal 

 should be fed to a colt in the winter after it is a 

 year old in the spring. c. H. ^v. 



IViscassct, Me., July 8, 1867. 



Remarks. — That depends greatly on the quality 

 of the hay or other fodder which the colt is expected 

 to eat. Where there is plenty of good clover hay, 

 and a few potatoes, we doulit the expediency of 

 feeding much grain. Colts should never be forced 

 with provender, nor stunted for want of nourish- 

 ing food. They should, however, be kept in a 

 growing, thrifty condition, even if it be necessary 

 to give them a little grain. Will some practical 

 horse raiser answer our correspondent's inquiiy 

 more fully. 



DRY CLAY as A DEODORIZER. 



I have frequently seen plnstc r of Paris recom- 

 mended to si)read on manure heaps, juit in privies 

 and cess-pools to ab^orl> ilie gasisand deodorize 

 the mass. The objection to the use of i>laster isits 

 cxptnsc. To use a su(Hcient quantity to be effec- 

 tual, would require to tardea lerceutage that when 

 the niaiua'c is sjiread in the lield, more than four 

 times as muth plaster is used (iu an a( re as is of 

 any benefit. An equally clhcieut and much cheaper 



