478 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



store them from their shrunken, withered ap- 

 pearance. Make sweet pickles of the ripened 

 cucumbers not wanted to go to seed. 



Grapes. — Unless good attention has been 

 pfiven, they will have mildewed, more or less, 

 from the unusual wet and cold of the season. 

 Gather when fully ripe and preserve for fami- 

 ly use, or market ; use care in gathering, not 

 to rub or bruise them ; preserve the bloom on 

 them to the fullest possible extent, as it adds 

 much to their attractiveness. 



Hops. — Gather before frosts, dry and pre- 

 serve in boxes or barrels for use. It is better 

 to remove them without cutting the vine till 

 fully dry, as the vine will bleed and injure the 

 root for future bearing. 



Manure. — Saving and making all that can 

 be turned into usefulness is always in order; 

 too much can hardly be had for profit. 



Raspberries. — Cut out the old bearing 

 wood and tie up the young canes ; hoe and 

 clean them out thoroughly. 



Squash. — Pick and pack away where they 

 will keep dry and safely before frosts touch 

 them. Being a tropical plant, they will not 

 bear even a moderate frost without injury. 



Tomatoes. — Make pickles of the green 

 ones, together with peppers, small cucumbers, 

 string beans, nasturtions, &c. A slight pro- 

 tection from the first early frost will contmue 

 the vines fresh and in bearing some weeks, fre- 

 quently. Can and make catsup from the ripe 

 ones. 



Continue to gather and save all seeds as 

 they ripen, also all vegetables and fruits as 

 they arrive at perfection. Cut sage and other 

 herbs as needed. W. H. White. 



South Windsor, Conn., Aug., 1867. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ABOUT FLIES. 



"Flies, flies, flies, flies 1 



From pools, and fens, and bogs, and sties, 



As in Egypt of old, the swarms arise. 



Darkening the windows and clouding the skieB, 



Covering earth with their dark disguise, 



Filling the air with their hungry cries; 



In at our mouth and nose and eyes, 



Making us mad, however wise, 



At the plague of the flies, flies, flies, 



Flies, flies, flies, flies 1" 



So sang the distracted poet, probably some 

 warm September aflernoon, when the swarms 

 were peculiarly thick and troublesome. ' 'Where 

 do they all come from ?" is the thousand times 

 repeated (juestion. Perhaps a brief reply 

 may not be una<'ceptable. 



It was formerly taught that flies "are be- 

 gotten of dung and of any other filthy matter 

 putrefied by heat in summer time." Many 

 people, even at the present day, believe and 

 write such nonsense, and it Avould not be 

 surprising if the incjuiry should call out sun- 

 dry letter-writers who will gravely maintain 

 tliat flies are produced from decaying vegeta- 

 ble and animal matter, and call otlier people 

 iools for not believing them. The old adage, 



fully believed now by every scientific man, 

 ^'Omne vivtim ex ovo,'''' ^'everything living 

 comes from an egg," is sufficient to refute all 

 such mistaken beliefs. "Spontaneous genera- 

 tion" is a myth, whether with reference to fly- 

 maggots in a dunghill or pollywogs in a mud- 

 hole, or oaks upon a prairie. The only thing 

 spontaneous about it is the idea itself, and that, 

 in fact, is hatched from the big egg, Ignorance. 



So, whatsoever some may believe or teach, 

 it is certain that wherever there is a maggot, 

 there was an egg, and, before that, a fly to lay 

 the egg. The eggs of the common house fly, 

 however, are always deposited in dung or some 

 other decaying substance, and in that sense it 

 is true that flies come from decaying matter. 

 These eggs are very small, cylindrical in shape, 

 and shining like pearl. If a little decaying 

 wheat be placed in a tumbler in the summer. 

 eggs will generally be deposited upon it, and 

 their curious transformations may very read- 

 ily be followed. 



In about twenty-four hours, varying some- 

 what according to the weather, the eggs will 

 be hatched, and the little white, footless ma<r- 

 gots will appear. Their heads are provided 

 with two small hooks with which they cling to 

 their food, or perhaps tear it in pieces. 1 hey 

 live on the tilth with which they are surrounded, 

 eat greedily and grow rapidly to the length of 

 a quarter of an inch or more. In al)out a 

 fortnight the little maggot ceases to eat. its 

 skin becomes brown, and it becomes a pupa, 

 and remains at rest for another two weeks, 

 when, having perfected its changes, it bursts 

 its shell and comes out an active, buzzing fly. 



Such is the simple biography of our much- 

 despised best friend. For, with our notorious 

 carelessness in regard to decaying refuse, sur- 

 rounding our houses with tilthy cess-pools, and 

 stench-breeding, pestilence-breeding ofl'al, as 

 we do, what woidd become of us Avere it not 

 for these myriads of flies and other insects that 

 live in, and devour, such substances, ridding 

 us of the tilth that we are not neat enough to 

 rid ourselves of? And if, as Dr. Harris well 

 observes, "these filthy, dung-bred creatures 

 swarm in some houses, covering every article 

 of food by day, and absolutely blackening the 

 walls by night, in others comparatively few are 

 found ; for the tidy housekeeper takes care not 

 to leave food of any kind standing about to 

 entice them in, and makes a business of driv- 

 ing out the intruders at least once a day." 



Dr. Harrises fiy-poi son may be of service to 

 some readers, inasmuch as it is as certain death 

 to flies as tiie most a])proved "fly-papers," 

 and is very simple, and harmless to all human 

 kind, being nothing more than well sweetened 

 green tea. 



The above, however, is but little of the sto- 

 ry of the fly ; for take him in all his modes of 

 life, his structure, and the curious adaptation 

 of the various parts of his body to his needs, 

 he is one of the most curious things in nature. 

 The feet are provided with two little hooks. 



