PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 97 



cord after cord to the edges of the leaf, and with what skill and continued 

 effort it draws those edges together, until it finally forms its little house, 

 where it is protected from the weather and hidden from its great enemies, 

 the birds, while it undergoes its transformation. 



The Value of Cats on the Farm. 



Many farmers do not know one great value of cats. Without them the 

 farmer could scarcely succeed in growing clover. Naturalists have de- 

 termined that clover blossoms are fertilized by the work of the humble-bee, 

 and the principal reason why the first blossoms do not produce seed, is the 

 scarcity of these insects at that season of the year. Among the greatest 

 enemies of the humble-bee are the meadow mice, and without cats these 

 would naturally increase to such an extent as to destroy the humble-bee, 

 and thus in a great measure prevent the maturing of clover-seed, so that 

 we should be under the constant necessity of going abroad for a new 

 suppI3^ Tlius we see how admirably all nature is balanced, and how ne- 

 cessary it is for farmers to distinguish both among insects and animals, 

 which are their friends and which are their enemies. Those who desire 

 to grow clover-seed, should not make war upon cats, nor should they, as 

 many of them do, destroy every nest of humble-bees, which they find in their 

 fields, just as they would the nests of the most noxious vermin. 



New Tea Plant. 



Mr. R. T. Ostrander, Geneva, Walworth county, Wisconsin, sends us an 

 account of a new tea plant indigenous to Wisconsin, which makes a bever- 

 age which he prefers to any but the very best tea. The plant is 

 perennial; when young shows a strange mingling of brown, green and 

 yellow, and looks sickly. At maturity the stalk is sweet and has a pleas- 

 ant aroma. Over every leaf grows a small yellow flower, which forms a 

 seed ball of about the size of coriander seed. It can be propagated by 

 seed or runners, and bears transplanting from the forest to the garden. 

 The writer says it is found in Kentucky, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, 

 Michigan, and Wisconsin, Plants should be gathered when matured, and 

 dried in a dark room. 



Wm. R. Prince. — "This plant, said to be declared genuine by a China- 

 man, The Williami<port Bulletin states, is found upon wild lands in Clinton 

 Co., Pennsylvania, and several persons skilled in the taste of tea, declare 

 this native sort as good as the imported." The whole statement is utterly 

 erroneous, and must have originated from a person grossly ignorant. The 

 two species, Thea viridis and Bohea, my father and self have cultivated for 

 more than 70 years, and I am as familiar with these plants as with any 

 other shrub. They, together with the Ehamnus Theezans, are evergreen 

 shrubs, natives of the middle district of China, through which the mighty 

 river Yang-tse-Kiang flows, and have never been found in any other coun- 

 try of the globe. These three shrubs constitute the great basis of all the 

 Chinese and Japanese teas, although the Chinese do admix the leaves of 

 the Camellia sasanqua and of some other shrubs among the commonest class 

 of teas. The only other shrub from which the oriental teas are made is 

 the Thea Assamica, grown in Assam and the adjoining portions of British 



[Am. Inst.J G 



