628 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



ness that he was born to, and he is, therefore, 1 

 respectable. Greasers and vagabond sailors j 

 together have brought the same contempt on 

 sheep herding here that the "niggers" have on 

 all manual labor in the South. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 



BAROMETERS. 



From the good old davs of John B. Russell, 

 Thos. G. Fessenden, Geo. C. Barrett, &c., I have 

 been a subscriber and reader of your weekly, 

 which is always looked for and eagerly perused. 

 Very seldom do we see in it anything which is not 

 readable and instructive. Now I ask leave to sug- 

 gest to you to invite some one who is capable and 

 experienced in the matter, to write a code of plain 

 and simple rules for observing the variations of the 

 barometer, so that every one who feels an interest 

 in such things may know how to anticipate ap- 

 proaching changes of the weather. Farmers, 

 every one of them, ought to have in their house a 

 barometer and thermometer just as much as a 

 clock, and should understand the use of them as 

 well. A few simple rules easy to be understood by 

 the common people, would 'induce almost every 

 resident in the country to possess one of these use- 

 ful instruments, which might in the course of a 

 year save them many times its cost. m. 



Lauderdale, Mass., imi. 



Remarks.— Directions for the guidance of those 

 who use barometers have been published ; but if 

 any one can, from his own experience and observa- 

 tion, furnish any more practical and simple rules 

 and directions than those which usually accora- 

 panj' good instruments, or which are to be found 

 hi ordinary woi'ks on meteorology, we shall be 

 happy to communicate them to the public. 



TOMATO WORMS. 



Are those large worms found on tomato vines 

 poison if they bite ? This question has been raised 

 of late by finding them on my own vines, and 

 learning that they were very numerous in this vi- 

 cinity, and that much fear exists by reason of a 

 general impression that to be bitten by them is 

 certain death. There is a prevalent notion that 

 these caterpillars throw a spittle which, if it comes 

 in contact with the flesh, is eqimlly poisonous. 



While at the New England Fair, last week at 

 Lowell, I saw a collection of insects by H. M. 

 Hutchinson, of Lowell, Mass., and in conversation 

 with him was shown the moth said to be the 

 mother of tliose worms. I remarked that we were 

 finding them very plenty on our vines, and that 

 many feared that we should be bitten by them. 

 Mr. Hutchinson replied that they were not poison- 

 ous ; that he had handled "l)ushels of them ;" they 

 never bite, but do throw a juice or spittle, which 

 he had received on his hands and even on sores on 

 his lingers, but never was poisoned by them. He 

 said that he knew a man th.at had eaten them to 

 prevent starvation. He also said that there was a 

 small tly, of a green color, I think he said, found 

 on tomato and potato vines that was poisonous, the 

 bite of which had been mistaken for the worm. 

 Now if those worms are not poison, and never bite, 

 it ought to be known, as it would relieve many 

 from cruel fear and anxiety lest themselves or their 

 children l)e bitten by them. Shall we have this 

 sutiject investigated ? Alex. S. Phelps. 



.Sharon, Vt., Sept. 11, 1871. 



Remarks. — Your friend, Mr. Hutchinson, is un- 

 . doubtcdly correct as to the harmlessness of the to- 



mato caterpillar. "Worms," toads and snakes are 

 nnich abused creatures. They are badly slandered 

 and much disliked by almost every body, while 

 birds are popular favorites. Yet they arc all God's 

 creatures, and, notwithstanding our prejudices, 

 each performs its appointed part in the economy of 

 the universe. 



About two years ago the Syracuse, N. Y., Stan- 

 dard published an article on the authority of a cer- 

 tain Dr. Fuller, of that city, in which ii was stated 

 that :— 



"This worm was first discovered this season, and 

 is as poisonous as the bite of a rattle sn ike. It 

 poisons Ijy throwing spittle, which it can throw 

 from one to two feet. The medical profession i» 

 much excited over this new enemy to human exis- 

 tence. Three cases of death jn conscquiice of this 

 poison have been reported." 



This statement made a capita! sensation item for 

 the newspapers, few of which stopped to question 

 its truthfulness. In the first place this caterpillar 

 has been well known to entijmologists for about 

 half a century. It is described by Harris. It be- 

 longs to the Sphinx family, and we suppose it to 

 be the caterpillar of thcFive-spotted Hawk Moth 

 figured in the Farmer of August 26. 



The following remarks by Benj. D. W. Walsh, 

 editor of the American Entomologist, may serve to 

 allay the "cruel" and perfectly unfounded fears 

 and anxiety to which our correspondent alludes : 

 Dr. Walsh says, "Why or whei-efore it is impossi- 

 ble to say, but this poor unfortunate tomato-woi-m 

 has been selected by the popular voice, out of 

 about fifty others belonging to the same family and 

 found within the limits of the United States — all of 

 which have a similar horn growing out of their 

 tails — to be falsely accused of using this hom as a 

 sting. The tomato-worm and the tobacco-worm 

 are as like as two peas, and produce moths which 

 resemble each other so closely that entomolagists 

 for a long time confounded them together. Each 

 has exactly the same kind of horn growing on the 

 hinder extremity of its liody ; yet while the tomato 

 worm is generally accused of stinging folks with 

 this horn, nobody, so fiir as we are aware, ever yet 

 said that the tobacco-worm would or could do so. 

 The real truth of the matter is that neither of them 

 can sting, either with its tail, or with its head, or 

 with any part of its body. Yet not a season 

 elapses but the newspapers publish horrible ac- 

 counts of people being stung to death by tomato- 

 worms, and earnestly recommend those that gather 

 tomatoes to wear heavy buckskin gloves. These 

 stories, however, have been contradicted so flatly 

 and so often, that latterly the penny-a-liners have 

 struck otf upon another tack. Tomato-worms, it 

 appears, do not sting with the hom that gi-ows on 

 their tails, but they 'eject with great violence a 

 green caustic fluid from their mouths to a distance 

 of from three to fifteen inches ! !' Now what is the 

 real truth .about this matter ? Tomato-worms do 

 really discharge from their mouths, when roughly 

 handled, a greenish fluid, and so do the larvie of 

 almost all moths, and so does every species of 



