THE ILLIlSrOIS FA-HMEK. 



123 



In disposition it is anything but amiable, 

 using its mandibles with all the ferocity of a 

 tiger, when stroked down the back, even 

 though it be accomplished in the most approv- 

 ed and caressing manner. 



The chrysalis measured one and a half 

 inches in length, by nearly half an inch in 

 width. With regard to this it is only neces- 

 sary to say that the chrysalis is the apparent- 

 ly torpid state of the insect, that in which we 

 tind it, in the cocoon, changing from the 

 larva) or grub into the moth or perfect state 

 of the insect. 



About one week since, the imago, or perfect 

 moth, emerged from its chrysalis or pupa 

 state. In size it is equal to the largest bum- 

 blebee; thorax and head black and glossy, 

 while the abdomen and wings are covered 

 with white and black scales or down, present- 

 ing a mottled or brownish gray appearance. 

 It has six legs, four wings, (two pair) eyes 

 large antenna) half an inch long and taper- 



mg 



Being a female it has laid numerous eggs 

 which are covered with a glutinous substance 

 that sticks them fast to that on which they 

 were first deposited. In all probability the 

 egg is deposited in the openings in the rough 

 bark of the tree, when the larva) is ha,tched 

 out and aflerwards bores or cuts its ways into 

 the body. The iviago is not supplied with a 

 lance or organ with which to perforate the 

 bark in order to deposit its eggs. I am in- 

 clined to believe that if the rougher external 

 bark of the tree was carefully shaved ofi" and 

 the inner bark washed frequently with some 

 strong alkaline solution, during the months 

 of June and July, the egg might be destroy- 

 ed. — C. 11. Parke, Bloomiugton, 111., June 

 17th. ■ 



->*— 



West Urbana, 111., Julj 14, '58. 

 aS'. Francis, Esq.: 



Dear Sir : — In your July number 

 under the head of Meteorogical, the 

 printer has committed a slight error in 

 placing the separatrix one figure too far 

 to the right. 



. It may be interesting to your readers 

 to have the figures of the amount of rain 

 for the past six months, as taken at this 

 point. We will, premise that Blodgett 

 in his valuable work on climatology gives 

 for this latitude forty-five inches as the 

 average amount of rain for the year 



Inches of rain 

 and melted snow. 



Jannary 6,2350 



February 5.3400 



March 1.9520 



April 5,7130 



May 8,4017 



June 8,0310 



MuBne 

 temperature. 

 6 rainy days 35 



11 



3 



9 



18 



8 



.20 

 .39 

 .51 



..57 

 .73 



35,6727 



It -will thus be seen that "we require 

 less than two inches to make our annual 

 quota. 



When we look over this record Ave can 

 easily account for the drowned outcrops, 

 the small amount of work done and the 

 great luxuriance of the "weeds in our 

 cornfields. 



Urbana is in latitude 40 ° 9 min. N., 

 longitude 11 ° 16 min. W., and 759fdet 

 above the level of the sea. 



Yours truly, M. L. DUNLAP. 



Extravagance. 



It seems clear to us, in surveying the causes 

 of panics, that the industiy of the world is 

 employed too largely on useless things. Lux- 

 uries, like tobacco and spirits, are wholly un- 

 necessary, and how much industry is thrown 

 away? how many fields that might otherwise 

 be used for the sustenance or clothing of 

 man? Then, again, how many expensive 

 fabrics are manufactured that the world could 

 do without? They furnish an industry, in 

 place of a better, to the workshops of Europe, 

 to those who make them, but they impover- 

 ish the consumer. We are not arguing 

 the disuse of all luxuries;but protest that there 

 is too much time lost on them, that they do 

 their part to cause panics, are the source of 

 much poverty, aflbrd temptation to all, and sap 

 the heart of society. 



Gold and silver ornaments, precious stones, 

 are useless beyond their power of being trans- 

 formed into mediums of exchange, or used in 

 the arts. As so our abandoning taste, we 

 might as well abandon our limbs, but why 

 require the world, one half of which has not 

 common food or clothing enough, to exhaust 

 its labor on' articles of a fictitious and fre- 

 quently of a monstrous value, when a more 

 healthy taste can array itself in splendor, 

 equal to Solomon's, at very little cost? Dyes, 

 far surpassing the Tyrian, are now in common 

 use; fine cottons and woolens are brilliantly 

 made, and silk with modest embellishment is 

 not objected to; but the age demands, and will 

 have, a taste above meretricious ornament. 

 It cannotstand extravagance. The wheels of 

 business are stopped by it, ruin follows, and 

 where felt the most but in the lower ranks of 

 life? 



It is seldom denied that a lady in plain and 

 simple attire, looks the best, and we might 

 remind them that men think so more gener- 

 ally than they imagine. Milton, in reference 

 to Eve in Paradise, says, "when unadorned 

 adorned the most," and when the full worth 

 of humanity out of Paradise is appreciated, 

 the inhabitants will require less ornamentation 

 than now. As to men, the}- are quite as cul- 

 pable as the women in the decoration of their 

 persons, and he need not be a fop or an ex- 

 quisite to know, that he is incurring expenses 

 in his apparel for appearance sake alone far 

 beyond what good taste requires, or his income 

 can sustain. 



The calico balls, so much in vogue in our 

 cities of late, gotten up with some consid- 

 erable success, are a protest in their way against 

 show and extravagance. For ourselves we 

 believe the interest and attraction of the per- 

 son, whether male or female, is lost in much 

 of the gilded trappings of modern society. 

 Doctor Franklin, at the Court of Versailles, 

 before the King and Queen of France, espe- 

 cially illustrious as the exponents of all that 

 was sumptuous in European monarchy, did 

 not lose but gained interest and power from 

 the simplicity of his mariners and the plain- 

 ness of his attire; — -and Mr. Blarcy, one of 

 the best of our statesmen, when Secretary of 

 Stat€, endeavored to restore that plainness 

 and simplicity in the personnel of our ambas- 

 sadors, but the nation had been too much 

 tainted to insist upon the reform! The ladies 

 of Philadelphia, imbibing something of the 

 manners of Penn, however unwittingly, are 

 doubtless the best dressed of their sex in the 



: United States, but we have heard it said that 

 the "essence was there" to as great an extent 

 as on others ot their more pretentious sisters. 

 The farmers are doubtless extravagant, al- 

 lured to it as they are by the credit system; 

 their families go into the towns and do not 

 go out again without those packages telling 

 tales that years, to be serious, may not repair; 

 — "uecessitas non habet legem," "if we sow 

 the wind, we must reap the whirlwind." 

 We believe that under simpler modes of liv- 

 ing there would be surplusage of means for 

 all matters of taste, for good houses, works of 

 art, for all true embellishment, for leisure, 

 recreation, diversions, for, in short, the pro- 

 motion of every rational desire. But so long 

 as extravagance, that finds no excuse in our 

 wants or necessities, prevails, we shall be at 

 the mercy of panics and revulsions. 



It is supposed that the more cultivated the 

 taste, the more nearly it approaches simpli- 

 city and plainness. The North American 

 Indians, on the coast north of Oregon, cut 

 their lower lips laterally, and insert a piece 

 of wood or bone to make them attractive. 

 The negroes flatten and depress the skull. 

 The Chinese cramp their feet, aim at rotundity 

 and fatness. Others wear trinkets. The 

 South Sea Islanders indulge in showy gar- 

 ments, flowing with the wind and picturesque 

 enough in those warm and beautiful lands, 

 where man exists rather a make shift to 

 higher and better types of humanity; and we 

 of our day go to the death on anything that 

 is rare and expensive. A Cashmere shawl 

 is only more beautiful than others because 

 its cost is so great. Then, again, it comes 

 from a distance, has been worn by Nabob.' of 

 fabulous wealth — (for be it known that men 

 of distinction wear them. in India) — and is 

 MOrn only in this country by few persons, 

 and those few in positions tfiat lend a charm 

 to the admiring throng. We know of a 

 shawl much prettier that cost less than a 

 t}i;he of the money, has lasted more years 

 than we are willing to mention, and bids fair 

 to last as many more. . 



We have seen a collar made by youthful 

 hands, that has caused more happiness than 

 the laces of Brussels could ever confer, and 

 intrinisically as good, or if not quit« so dura- 

 ble, a score of them might be made for the 

 past-time. It is quite surprising how much 

 a little ingenuity can do in the way of decor- 

 ation at a little expense. We are extrava- 

 gant in our pleasures and entertainments; 

 we degrade common social life, in our fami- 

 liar gatherings, with unusual provision for its 

 astonishment, when the usual sources of grati- 

 fication are lost sight of. Our theatres, — for 

 we are not of those who object to them, be- 

 lieving they are subject to the laws of pro- 

 gress, — are only an arena for fashionable dis- 

 play and extortionary expense, if not in them- 

 selves, yet in the side issues which they in- 

 volve. So of the concert; and a ride into the 

 country is hardly possible from our cities un- 

 less at the nether end there is a public resort 

 that possesses every appendage but simplicity 

 and innocence. 



We are extravagant in our churches, sel- 

 dom or ever pay for them, impose heavy taxes 

 upon the pews that shut out those who be- 

 came more than all others, the disciples of 

 Christ. We do not object to a house of wor- 

 . ship as durable as stone can make it, and of 



