1864. 



THE ILLESTOIS FAEMER. 



205 



Langpage of Insects. — A most singular discov- 

 ery, the credit of which appertains, we believe, to 

 llr. Jesse, is that of the antennal language of in- 

 sects. Bees and other insects are provided, as 

 everybody knows, with feelers or antenna. These 

 are in fact, most delicate organs of touch, warning 

 of danger, and serving the animals to hold a sort 

 of conversation with each other, and to communi- 

 cate their desires and wants. A strong hive of 

 bees will contain thirty-six thousand workers. — 

 Each of these, in order to be assured of the pres- 

 ence of their queen, toucties her every day with 

 its antennae. Should the queen die or be removed, 

 the whole colony disperse themselves, and are seen 

 in the hive no more, perishing every one, and 

 quitting all the store of new useless honey, which 

 they had labored so industriously to coUect for 

 the use of themselves and the larvae. On the con- 

 trary, should the queen be put into a small wire 

 cage placed at the bottom of the hive, so that her 

 subjects can touch and feed her, they are content- 

 ed, and the business of the hive proceeds as usual. 

 Mr. Jesse has ;ilso shown that this antennal power 

 of communication is not confined to bees. Wasps 

 and ants, and probably other insects, exercise it. 

 If a caterpillar is placed near an ant's nest, a cu- 

 rious scene will often aiise. A solitary ant will 

 perhaps discover it, and eagerly attempt to draw- 

 it away. Not being able to accomplish this, it 

 will go up to another ant, and by means of the an- 

 tennal language, bring it to the caterpiller. Still, 

 these two, perhaps, are unable to perform the task 

 of moving it. They will separate and bring up re- 

 inforcements of the community by the same 

 means, until a sufficient number are collected to 

 enable them to drag the caterpillar into their nest. 



Men who Mistook their Calling. — Mr. Charles 

 Mathews made his first appearance in the character 

 of a student of architecture. Ben Jon.«on was an 

 apprentice to a brick layer, and then enlisted for a 

 soldier, before he set up as a wit-co;nbattant with 

 Shakespeare, and fell out with Inigo Jones, who 

 was associated with him in the production, of the 

 fanciful court masques of his day, and before he 

 was a member of the club Sir Walter Raleigh 

 founded, and wrote that song, "Drink to me only 

 with thine eyes," that lies like a loose pearl among 

 his more lengthy works. James Cook, the navi- 

 gator, instead of running away to sea like another 

 Robinson Crusoe, was apprenticed to a small coun- 

 try shopkeeper, who, however, detecting the wist- 

 ful glances the lad cast towards the ocean, return- 

 ed him his indetures. As a reverse to this exam- 

 ple, enacted within remembrance. Clarkson Stan- 

 field, R. A., went to sea, instead of turning his 

 steps straightway to a studio. Mr. Charles Dick- 

 ens and the younger Disraeli both mistook their 

 roads on first setting out in life, thinking a lawyer's 

 office lay in their right paths. Barry Cornwall fell 

 into the same error, Mr. Thackeray likewise lost 

 his way at first and tarried in Rome, studying as 

 an artist. David Roberts, R. A., climbed the lad- 

 der that led to his present elevation from the level 

 of a house-painter's apprentice, with an interval of 

 noviciateship spent as a scene-painter in Drury 

 Lane Theater. Mr. Ruskin coquetted with the 

 brush before he took up the pen, as vigorously as 

 Bishop Colenso attacked algebra before he distin- 

 guished himself as a theologian. — Builder. 



Anothek New Siij^worm. — Most of our readers 

 know that a few years since the French introduced 

 a silkworm that feeds on the allanthus, and that it 

 has been so successful that a very large area in 

 South France and North Italy is now covered with 

 allanthus orchards (so called), and that the silk 

 produced from it is becoming quite an important 

 article of commerce. Recently the Director of the 

 Society of Acclimations communicated to the 

 Academy of Science at Paris the fact, that Mr. Si- 

 mon had sent from Japan the eggs of a silk worn 

 that feeds on the oak. That from eighty-three 

 worms hatched, seventy-seven cocoons were ob- 

 tained ; that the only feed w^s the common oak ; 

 that they commenced spinning on the first of June 

 and ended on the 25th ; that the cocoons are the 

 size of those of the mulberry worm, and as easily 

 reared ; that the silk is as fine, is stronger, but not 

 quite as brilliant. The Japanese name for the 

 worm is Yama-mai, and the Directer thinks this 

 worm the most important one yet found. 



TnE Oldest Rose Tree.— A botanical as well as 

 an archajological curiosity is seen nf^w at Hilde- 

 sheim, in Germany. Ancient legends connect, if 

 not the foundation of die city, at least the founda- 

 tions of its see, by the Emperor Louis the Pious, 

 the son of Charles the Great, with a certain wild 

 rose tree, which is supposed ty have stood in its 

 present place on the cemetery of the Dome long 

 before even those days. Although documentary 

 evidence as to its existence in Charles the Great's 

 time is wanting, it is yet distinctly mentioned in a 

 document of Bishop Hezilo, who in 1078 carried a 

 fence around it. There is no doubt whatever that 

 it is the oldest rose tree in Europe ; and for centu- 

 ries it has attracted the attention of naturalists in 

 a high degree. But the most extraordinary cir- 

 cumstance is this, that two new .-hoots have come 

 out of the root in the course of this summer, the 

 one of which has already reached a hight of twelve 

 feet, and its diameter measures no less than an 

 inch near the root. There is an interesting account 

 of this tree in Mr. River's invaluable 'Rose Ama- 

 teur's Guide." 



Profitable Sheep.— E. A. Parks, of St. Johns- 

 bury, Vt. says ; 



"I keep about 100 sheep. The flock was at 

 first of the Leicester breed. I have two rams of 

 that cross that will weigh 200 lbs. each. They 

 have yielded fleeces of 13 lbs. each. My whole 

 flock generally averages 4^ lbs. washed wool. My 

 flock last year gave me 6* lbs. of wool per head 

 unwashed, and raised 100 lambs from 98 ewes! 

 The sheep brotight me in about $4 50 per head 

 last year, and would have done as well this year if 

 I had not sold till now. I have mv lambs come in 

 April or last of March ; keep them under sheds 

 and give them what good hav thev will eat, and 

 give them grain when they first come to the barn. 

 About the first of March I commence giving them 



grain, and continue it till they go to pasture. 



\Vheu the hay crop is short I give them grain all 

 winter. I have sometimes bought in Boston the 

 second quality of beans, when they could be had 

 cheap. It is a good plan to give sheep some 

 browse through the winter, and give them sulphur 

 in their salt occasionally and let them have good 

 water as they want it." 



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