tttE SOUTHS 



RN PLANTER. 



177 



ports it very ingeniously. He puts some tough 

 questions to the eg gists; whatever they may 

 have been imagined to have done, he denies that 

 any insect in nature has been seen, guilty of the 

 gross absurdity of poking its bill into the bur of 

 a chesnut, for the purpose of laying its egg in 

 the embryo fruit ; in short, he seems to think 

 that the king was not more puzzled to imagine 

 how the apple got in the dumpling, than his 

 opponents will be to explain the introduction 

 of the egg in the grain. For our own part, 

 we candidly confess it was always a mystery 

 to us, and one of those kind of things that, 

 without understanding, we have been in the ha- 

 bit of believing, upon the faith of other men's 

 assertions. If the thing is as ridiculous as Mr. 

 McKenney seems to suppose it, in spite of its 

 antiquity and authority, we shall gladly see it 

 exploded. 



The practical deduction that Mr. McKenney 

 draws from the supposition, that the insect is 

 the product of the vegetable growth, is, that 

 there is no means of avoiding its ravages, but 

 by high manuring and superior tillage, which, 

 in spite of season and weather, may push the 

 vegetable fibre beyond the degree of tenderness 

 required to satisfy the delicate appetite of the 

 little epicure, who is then driven to the tender 

 shoots of the young grass, with which he is 

 surrounded. 



If our readers only knew how many theories 

 we have to pore over, not one in a hundred of 

 which, after all the sifting, is worth even the 

 condensation we have bestowed on this, they 

 could then form some idea of how little of an 

 editor's labors is apparent upon the face of his 

 work. 



TIME FOR CUTTING TIMBER, 



Many persons finding that timber cut in the 

 spring is not durable, have been careful to cut 

 at a season as far from that as possible, and 

 acting on this principle, the fail or first of the 

 winter has been fixed upon as a good time for 

 this purpose. But so far as experiments have 

 been made, they generally show that June is the 

 best time for cutting timber, provided the bark 

 be taken off, and this can be done conveniently 

 at this season. In June the sap is passing into 

 the leaves, and after becoming elaborated into 

 suitable juices for the forming of wood, it is re- 

 turning and forming a new layer of wood be- 

 tween the wood and bark. This sap causes a 

 rapid decay of wood if the bark remain on, but 

 when the bark is taken off the wood seasons 

 Vol. III. — 23 



very fast, and as the sap has been constantly 

 passing into the leaves, there will be but little 

 in the wood to cause its decay. 



A "Jack at all trades" who had used timber 

 for more than twenty years, for various purposes, 

 which had been cut at different seasons, re- 

 marked that timber cut in June was harder, 

 heavier, and more durable than that cut at any 

 other season. When the tree is in its greatest 

 vigor the sap is thin and rapidly passing through 

 the wood, and if the tree be then cut and peeled, 

 the sap will readily escape through the pores of 

 the wood. But in the winter and spring', the 

 sap contained in the tree is thick, having been 

 prepared the previous year and reserved to com- 

 mence the new growth. This thick sap will 

 not so readily escape, but remains stagnant in 

 the timber and becomes the principle of its de- 

 struction. 



A gentleman who has been considerably en- 

 gaged in ship building informed us that he had 

 used in the same vessel, timber cut at different 

 seasons, and that cut in June was the most du- 

 rable. Numerous experiments in cutting tim- 

 ber for ships and other purposes show the same 

 results. — Boston Cultivator. 



BUTTER 



There is no article of provision with which 

 our market is so poorly supplied as that most 

 necessary condiment, good butter. In the pro- 

 duction of the good things of life, our country 

 people generally excel, but in this most impor- 

 tant one, with a few exceptions, we entirely fail. 

 And to such an extent does this failure exist, 

 that a great man}^ have never seen, and do not 

 know what good butter is. We have known 

 many a neat and tidy housewife, an excellent 

 provider too, pride herself upon her butter, 

 which, in comparison with some that may be 

 had from Northern dairies, was not fit to feed 

 a dog upon. Such stuff as is sold in the Rich- 

 mond market at this time for twenty-five cents 

 a pound, would not bring, in Philadelphia, more 

 than nine or ten: much of it would hardly be 

 thought good enough to grease a cart-wheel. — 

 We can assure our readers that we do not ex- 

 aggerate this matter, and if they could only 

 taste the sweet, rich, and marrowy butter that 

 can be had in the Northern and Eastern mar- 

 kets for seventeen cents a pound, they would 

 ever afterwards appreciate as it deserves the 

 miserable grease they have been accustomed to 

 dignify with the name of butter. 



A few days since, we happened to meet with 

 an article in a celebrated grocery of this city, 



