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THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



277 



AGRICULTURAL. 



Au Agricultural Ode. 



BY WM. C. BRYANT. 



Far back in ages 



The plough with wreaths was crowned, 

 The hands of kings and sages 



ISntwined the chaplets round, 

 Till met! of spoil 

 Disdained the toil 



By which the world was nourished. 

 And blood and pillage were the soil 



In which their laurels flourished. 

 Now the world her fault dispairs — 



The t'ilt that stains her story, 

 And weeps her crimes amid tlie cares 



That forms her earliest glory. 



The throne shall crumble, 



Tho diadem shall wane. 

 The tribes of earth shall humble 



The pride of those w.io reign ; 

 And war shall lay 

 His pomp away; 



The fame tliat heroes cherish, 

 The glory earned ia deadly fray 



Shall fade, decay and perish. 

 Honor waits o'er all the earth. 



Through endless generations — 

 Tho art that calls the Iiarvosl fortli. 



And feeds the expectant nations. 



Hangarian Millet. 



BT z>. B. c:x«-ir, or mbicatins, I9wa. 



The Molia de Iloagrie, (Panicam germani- 

 cum.) iaipsrted by the Patent Office ia 1854, 

 and d'jgcribed in the Af^ricultura! Report of 

 that yenr, was first grown in this region ia 

 Maate* tdwnship, Monroe eoHiity, and ia here 

 commonly kno'-m aauer lite name of "Hungar- 

 ian Gr*»«." It 13 ianiriiint in it3 growth, and 

 produces bay of tbe fiivst qaaiity. Horses i-nd 

 cattle eat it with uridifcy. Farmers in every 

 part of the country should give it their atten- 

 tion, a« it x-iii make siore tind better feed than 

 any other kind ot grass now known in tbe Uuit- 

 ed'States. Our western iarmers, in particu;ar, 

 should 'anrn its value; for ifs dcatiny is to change 

 the agfrieultura! producta of this portion of tha 

 Uninn, »nd 3'i';st;tati' cows. h»rses, mules, and 

 sheep in pldce o,' h:)-s. We harv° raised hogs, 

 heretofore, froi« necessity, siaiplj because our 

 only reliable cr.>p wa» corn, and other domestic 

 aniaials rrqaired h;<y, or its equiralsnt, which we 

 could not produce with cheapness and certaiuty. 



A good crop of the Han^airian grass is about 

 3 torn of bfcy and SO bushela of 8e«'d t» an acre, 

 while it will often ^o beyond, and seldom fall be- 

 low this. Suck cropn were grown l^dt season, 

 notwithstaniing t«e drought. 



The ."^eed may be sown in this region, from tha 

 Ist of May to the 15th of Jane, »t the rate of 

 a buthel to 3 acres. It Bhoald be put into the 

 eroind in the iame raanner as oats, harrowing 

 before %ti »fter sowinj. The time for cuttinf 

 is when tL« seei ia nearly ripe, and the whole 

 plant of a fine yellow color. If cut too early, 

 tha ioed will not be perfect, and if too late, it 

 will shell eut ia csring; the stalks will also be 

 too woody. It may be cured in the same isaan- 

 ner as other kay. As fodder, after threshing', it 

 i- fally equal to Timothyjand when fed out with 



the seed in, as it generally should be, it is better 

 than good sheaf-oats. 



I am gowing;, this season, 100 acrea of thii 

 grass, from which I expact to raias at least 



3,000 bushels of seed. .^ 



-«•»- 



Mural Enemiei of Inieets. 



One ef the most esefal ia the toad. He feeds 

 wholly on iasacts. Perhaps soaac reader may 

 demur to this, and cite the authority of a so-cal- 

 led "Professor" and some of his "Institute" as- 

 sociates, that "toada eat atrawberries," and not 

 satisfied with a fair avsrage of the crop, "they 

 aiwiiya pick out the beatt" But our strawberry 

 cultiraters seed not feel any special alarm at 

 the presence of the toad in their greunds, as it 

 was only the superior berriea that wera prO". 

 daced by the applicatioa of "tanic acid," that 

 this animal has ever been a accased of eating. 



The toad feeds mostly at eveoiag twilight, at 

 which time he hunts for hia prey. He 13 not 

 dainty, bat swallows bugs, grubs, and fliea as 

 they eome in his way, or aa he chaucea to find 

 them. There ere maay insects which seldom 

 go abroad by daylight — such aa rarious moths, 

 the May bag (Melolontha,) and other beetles, 

 and several jpeciv^s of insecta, thelarraeof which 

 are called "eut worms," &c. All these are de- 

 voured by tbe toad. Later in the season he feeds 

 on crickets and grasshoppers. As before, -re- 

 maned, he is entirely harmless ia referenee to 

 vegetatias, and on the whole, is the most useful 

 of all asiima'g as au isaect dtstroyer. His man- 

 ner of catching insects is aaeh that eren the 

 most delicate plant is laot injured by the act. — 

 His long tongue ia thrust with ttnerring aim on 

 the Tietim, who vanishes so sudden that snless 

 the observe? pays closa attention he caa hardly 

 describe the aperation. 



The toad is particslarly uselal in gardens, 

 where poultry eannot be introduced on ectouat 

 of the injury they would in various ways produce, 

 althoajh they might destroy .many insects. — 

 Tne toad neitht-r scratches the ground ner feeds 

 on the crop, and his small size and trifling 

 weight permit him to go everywhere in search 

 of his iood. We are aware that many people 

 have an antipathy to this insoceut little animal 

 To "c9aqia:;r" *McA "prejudices would net only 

 be a TJrEBe en the score of humanity, but would 

 be found to pay in a pecuniary sense, which 

 relieves tho case of those conflicting points ao 

 embarrasdng to some minds." 



The frog it an eater of insects to a considera* 

 ble extent, bat as most of the species stay near 

 water, they take comparatively few of the in- 

 sects most prejudicial to agriculture. But some 

 kinds of frttgs by no means confine thsir carni- 

 veroa=! propensities to insects; they swallow 

 young d»cks which go on the water, or chickens 

 which happea lo come near it. Probably they 

 would not eal inseets enoajh to make it an ob- 

 ject to harbor them; aad to feed them with ducks 

 and ehickeas weald be altogether too expensive, 

 even if we should adopt the custom of the Gallie 

 epicures, and tur» the carcass of the frog to the 

 best account. 



The repulsive animal, the skunk {Mephiiia 



^c; 



4, 



