o74 



KEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



the caterpillar and the chrysalis stages through , 

 ■which it passed ; and also sonic of the parasites ] 

 which distur)i its peace and destroy its life. All 

 butterriies and moths deposit their eggs and die ; ' 

 from these eggs hatch catei'inllars, which have 

 strong jaws and voracious appetites ; they eat and 

 grow till the time comes for them to take a nap ; 

 in their sleeping dress, which is of various patterns 

 and colors, they are called chrijsalids or chrysalis ; 

 from this stupor they come forth with four scaly 

 or powdery wings and mount into the air in the 

 gaudy dress of butterflies. Their strong jaws are 

 gone ; coarse food is no longer relished ; thej are 

 decidedly aristocratic in their associations, and i 

 fastidious in their tastes, sipping the honey of 

 flowers, &c. ; they appear determined to have a I 

 gay time of it generally ; they deposit their eggs 

 for a succession of their species, and disappear 

 from the stage of action. I 



the wing, like a humming bird. On the back of 

 the caterpillar, at E, are seen the cocoons of the 

 larva; of the ichneumon flies F and f, and at e two 

 of these cocoons magnified, with the end of one of 

 them cut open, and the top pushed otT like a hinged 

 lid, by the insect which had emerged therefrom, 

 and become a perfect ichneumon fly. These para- 

 sites destroy large numliers of catci-pillars, which 

 might otherwise increase so immensely as to de- 

 stroy vegetation entirely in spite of all that man 

 could do. So much for this potato worm and its 

 enemies, to watch the operations of which a mag- 

 nifying glass is necessary. 



The full gi-own caterpillar is marked A ; and the 

 chrysalid B. The jug-handle appendage of this 

 chrysalid is peculiar to this butterfly, and is a very 

 neat contrivance to protect its long tongue. . The 

 butterfly is marked C, and at G we have its head 

 magnified to show its leg, antenna, or feeler, and 

 its peculiar tongue, now coiled up like a watch- 

 spring, but with which it sucks fiowers while upon 



■WHEAT IN READING, VT. 



I have been reaping the past week for my neigh- 

 bor, Rufus Stearns. He has raised wheat for 

 twenty years, and he assures me that he has not 

 had a single failure in this crop during that time. 

 He estimates the yearly average as high as twenty- 

 five bushels per acre. Until about three years 

 past he occupied a hill farm, near the old cen- 

 tre brick church in this town, Eeading. He 

 now lives on the old "worn out" meadow land 

 liordering Mill Brook. Here he has raised 

 three beautiful crops of wheat, on land on 

 which farmers generally abandoned wheat rais- 

 ing about thirty years ago. Mr. Stearns tells 

 me that he raised one year on the hill farm 

 forty-five Inishels of wheat on seven-eighths 

 of an acre. This 3'ear on just about the same 

 area of intervale land he has 69-4 sheaves, 

 double band, and he estimates the yield equal 

 to thirty bushels. 



His practice is to turn over sward land in the 

 spring, manure liberally in the hill for com, if 

 he has not enough to spread, and after harvest- 

 ing the corn, ploughs in the fell. In the spring, 

 as earlj' as the season will allow, he ploughs 

 again and spreads on onlj' about seven one- 

 horse cart loads of manure per acre, eight to ten 

 l)ushels of refuse lime. This he obtains at the 

 lime kiln at ten cents per bushel, then slakes it 

 dry, adds what ashes he has, and broadcasts it 

 at the time of sowing the Avheat, and harrows 

 it all in together. The sec'iet of his uniform 

 success in wheat raising on hill and intervale 

 consists, he thinks, largely in the use of lime. 



Another neighbor, Mr. Jarvis Pratt, a very 

 thorough hill farmer, has kept up the pi'actice 

 of raising wheat every j'car, but . some of his 

 later crops have been rather poor. He has not 

 used lime. There are but few other farmers 

 who have liaised wheat in this neighborhood for 

 many years. 



I have spoken of the secret of Mr. Steam's 

 success with this crop. This however is not a 

 proper word to use, as he has no secret; but 

 tells us all that we can raise wheat as well as 

 he if we will follow his practice, every step of 

 which he is ever ready to explain and illus- 

 trate. 



With the advice and example of these two 

 neighbors, whose farms adjoin that of my 

 own, I was induced to try about an acre and a 

 quarter of my hill land, near Mr. Pratt's, with 

 winter wheat last fall, as I have been in the prac- 

 tice of seeding in the fall, believing that the oat 

 crop with which many seed their grass fields is a 

 hard one Ijoth for the land for the j'oung grass. 

 ISIr. Stearns estimates my harvest at thirty bushels, 

 though I applied no manure, lime or ashes to the 

 crop. It should be remarked, however, that the 

 present season has been unusually favorable to 

 wheat. 

 The success of Mr. Steams for the past three 



