AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 289 



INSECTS. 



Total destruction of the turnips near London, in 1714. In 

 October, we Iiad easterly winds; dry for a week or ten days. 

 Several thousand acres of turnips well grown, turned yellow and 

 decayed, except where sheltered by hedges, houses or trees. 

 The hedges and trees kept green for a week when insects 

 destroyed them too. Some of the farmers thought that the great 

 flocks of birds did the mischief, and did all they could to destroy 

 them. But they were our friends instead of enemies — they came 

 to devour the caterpillars which were in such numbers that each 

 turnip plant had not less than a thousand on it. They did not 

 touch the other greens in the fields such as cabbages, carrots, 

 parsnips, and the like. I suppose that nature designs the plant 

 for peculiar insects. Oil is the greatest enemy of insects. Some 

 of them live sometime in spirits but not a minute in oil, it 

 suffocates them. Pellitory (Anacyclus pyrethrum, a powerful 

 rubefacient and stimulant,hot5acrid and permanent) placed in hand- 

 fulsliere and there in a granary, keeps ofiTor destroys the weevil. 



Tlie Secretary read from the valuable little duodecimo hardly 

 larger than an almanack, the " Principles of Agricultural Chem- 

 istry,'' with special reference to the late researches made in Eng- 

 land by Justus Von Liebig, printed by and given to the Farmers' 

 Club, by John Wiley, the publisher, 851 Broadway, 1855; and 

 the secretary drew the attention of the club to this interesting 

 fact — that here, in fifty verses (as we may say) he says " arc con- 

 tained one proposition. That the nutrition, the growth, and the 

 development of a plant, depend on the assimilation of certain 

 bodies, which act by virtue of their mass or substance. The fifty 

 paragraphs, occupy but thirteen pages duodecimo! Here is a boon 

 to agriculturists ! Here is the pure gold washed from a thou- 

 sand times as much refuse sand ! The thanks of the club were 

 unanimously voted to Mr. Wiley, for the volume. 



The Secretary remarked that very recently Prof Faraday has 

 complained of the farrago of words in which chemistr}^ has be- 

 come darkened. He reduces the components of all matter to 64, 

 and these may be further contracted to about a dozen. 



The Chairman called up the subjects of the day. Market 

 gardening — ordinance of the common council relative to the mar- 

 kets — pruning fruit trees in summer, milk, butter and cheese. 



Chairman — It seems to me that experience proves that the 

 more we prune a tree the more we must. 



[Am. Inst.] 19 



