1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



479 



and between them is a soft cushion covered 

 with hiiirs, by means of which the fly is enabled 

 to walk up the ceiling, or head downward, or 

 wherever else it pleases. It was formerly 

 thought that this cushion on the foot acted like 

 a sucker, so that when the air was exhausted 

 beneath, the insect was held suspended by the 

 pressure of the air outside. But it was found 

 that the (iy could cling as well where there was 

 no air at all ; and later investigations have shown 

 that many of the minute hairs with which this 

 cushion is covered, are little tubes, exuding a 

 gummy substance by means of which the Hy 

 sticks to the wall or window-pane. The 

 hair feet serve another important purpose also, 

 as all have seen, being used as brushes, in 

 keeping wings, face, and other parts clean. 



The general appearance of the tongue is 

 well-known to every one — a short tube or 

 sucker with a fleshy knob or disk at the end. 

 This disk is I'idged and covered with hairs, 

 making a sort of rasp of it. It is the rubbing 

 of this that causes the tickling sensation of the 

 fly's bite, and aided by a saliva that it secretes, 

 enables it to devour sugar and other hard sub- 

 stances. In a groove in the tongue are two 

 little sharp bristles, which can be thrust down 

 like a lancet into anything which the fly is eat- 

 ing. In the fly which oftens torments us so 

 during stormy days in summer, these sharp 

 bristles become almost needles in size and 

 strength ; and in other insects, as the mosquito, 

 their number is increased to five or six, often 

 with little hooks at the end, Avhich are broken 

 off and left in the wound when the tormentor 

 is suddenly driven away. The irritation from 

 the bites of flies and other insects, is generally, 

 however, produced by a slightly poisonous 

 saliva injected into the bite. 



When we consider the enormous number of 

 young that flies produce — some single blow- 

 flies, for instance, depositing 20,000 maggots, 

 which, in twenty-four hours, increase to two 

 hundred times their original size, and in a few 

 days arrive at maturity, each in turn ready to 

 repeat the process — we can readily credit the 

 saying of Linnaeus, that "three flies will de- 

 vour the carcass of a horse as quickly as a 

 lion," and we can appreciate, in some sort, 

 tlie important position they hold as the scav- 

 engers of nature. We are also more readily 

 disposed to believe the accounts of the enor- 

 mous swarms of flies that have sometimes ap- 

 peared — covering every part of a vessel at 

 sea and leagues of ocean around, raining down 

 before the wind, as in Lincolnshire, in 1699, "so 

 that people had to turn their backs to them as 

 to a storm of hail ;" destroying hundreds of 

 cattle, and even depopulating whole countries, 

 as has happened repeatedly in the Levant. 



Some of the whims and superstitions of peo- 

 ple in regard to flies, recorded by Cowan, — 

 "Curiosities of Insects," — are curious enough. 

 The tail of a wolf, buried in a house, will keep 

 out flies. To dream of flies denotes enemies ; 

 to dream that they went into on'i's mouth or 



nostrils forbodes great sorrow. A multitude 

 of flies denotes a plague. If one fall into the 

 J glass, as a person is drinking, great good luck 

 will surely befall the drinker. Flies dying in 

 great numbers in a house betoken the death 

 of some member of the family. If flies bite 

 harder than usual there will be rain (which 

 seems to be true.) Pliny says that flies' heads 

 are a specific for baldness, and Mucanius, who 

 was thrice a consul, used to carry a live fly 

 about with him as a preventive of ophthalmia ! 



The Philistines and Canaanites worshipped 

 Beelzebub, the god of flies. The ancient 

 Peruvians made sacrifices of flies to the sun. 

 In Scotland a tutelary fly presided one of the 

 fountains, and another large blue-bottle was 

 currently believed to be a witch. Among 

 some of the ancients, punishment was inflicted 

 on criminals by smearing them with honey and 

 exposing them to the stings of flies, till their 

 flesh putrefied and they were eaten up by mag- 

 gots. 



The famous Regiomontanus of Nuremberg, 

 it is said, made an iron fly that would dart out 

 from his hand and, taking a round, return and 

 alight again.. One of the bishops of Naples, 

 however, performed the most remarkable feat 

 we have any account of, for he not only made 

 a brass fly, but he placed it on the gates of the 

 city and trained it so that like a shepherd's 

 dog, it prevented any other fly from entering 

 Naples ; so much so, that for eight years the 

 meat exposed for sale in the market, was never 

 once tainted ! v. 



Dec. 10, 1866. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE CROPS ON THE SEABOARD. 



Thus far the season has proved most unpro- 

 pitious for that class of farmers whose fanning 

 lies close akin to market gardening. 



With the exception of the very earliest of 

 the early varieties of potatoes, the rot pre- 

 vailed to a degree of fatality that has never 

 been excelled in all our experience, if ever 

 equalled. About all the early crop, of Se- 

 bec and Orono, (usually, but erroneously, 

 called Jackson Whites,) are gone by the board. 

 Some tracts of several acres in extent, that 

 have received the highest culture possible have 

 been offered in return for a single barrel of 

 sound potatoes. Some farmers with four 

 hands at work, get out eight barrels of sound 

 potatoes after a day's digging, which have 

 brought them from $1.25 to $2 a ban-el, after 

 having been carried fifteen miles to market. 



The Jackson White, (the true Jackson White 

 is nearly a round potato,) has fared somewhat 

 better than the Sebec, but still is sorely af- 

 flicted. 



The early Goodrich, though growing side 

 by side with the Sebec, has thus far been but 

 little affected by the rot. Our farmers don't 

 like the early Goodrich, as an early variety, 

 on account of its small size, when compared 



