THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



437 



will not exceed what was made last year, and 

 may possibly fall below it. But we wish it 

 distinctly understood that we do not write with 

 a view to force the market up. We give only 

 such facts as we gather, and every one must 

 make his own inferences. 



Good Asparagus. 



Mr. H. J. Smith, the owner of Kossuth, and 

 of a fine market garden near this city, has sent 

 ns two bunches of asparagus that was really 

 good. It was tender to the bottom, and half a do- 

 zep stalks would be about as much as one. would 

 want. The largest stalks he had, and which he 

 means to preserve for exhibition at the State 

 Fair, were of the following dimensions : 



1 stalk 13J inches long, 4-f- inches in circum- 

 ference — weight oz. 



4 stalks, including the above, weight 26f oz. 

 9 " " " " 54£oz. 



When any other gardener beats this we shall 

 put Mr. Smith up a notch or two higher. 



Kossuth. 



It will be seen in our advertising columns 

 that this fine stallion, one of the best trotting 

 horses in the world, and probably the stoutest, 

 for his speed, of any in the United States, will 

 make a fall season to a limited number of mares 

 at his owner's stable near Richmond. 



Dr. Fitch's Report on the Insects of New 

 York. 



We are very much indebted to the very able 

 and courteous Secretary of the New York State 

 Agricultural Society, Mr. B. P. Johnson, for a 

 copy of the above work, which includes Dr. 

 Fitch's first and second report on the noxious, 

 beneficial and other insects of the State of New 

 York. We have perused enough of it to satisfy 

 us of its value as a contribution to the vast 

 and important science of entomology. 



The report; is the result of an appropriation 

 from the Legislature of the State. How long 

 before Virginia, with her large and engrossing 

 family of federal relations — the most, of whom, 

 by the way, seem not to reciprocate her atten- 

 tions, will find time to undertake a similar en- 

 terprize. 



By the way, Dr. Fitch seems to think, (see p. 

 296,) that " commonly it is only a narrow strip 

 on one side of a field which is seriously infected 



with chinch bug. In this he is mistaken. 

 They fly in groups all over a field, and alight 

 in spots, from which they extend in every di- 

 rection. We have known them, in our own ex- 

 perience, to come out of a piece of wheat 

 grown on a ridge in a piece of low ground, 

 attack the adjoining corn, and work into it 

 twenty feet until they came to moist, but not 

 wet land — the lowest and richest part of the 

 low grounds penetrated by a small tide-ditch, — 

 and then to rise and fly up across the inter- 

 vening corn to the top of a hill some three 

 hundred yards off, from which they spread in 

 spots over all the adjoining upland. 



Pissant vs. Chinch Bug. 



The vilest of all insects, and most destruct- 

 ive of all pests to wheat, oats, corn and grass, 

 seems likely to meet its match at last. We 

 have heard from two distinct sources, that the 

 ants have been observed, in large numbers, 

 feeding greedily on the chinch bugs. They 

 seem to be generally disappearing ; from what 

 cause we know not, except in the particu- 

 lar cases we refer to. We have not had the 

 pleasure of witnessing the execution of any of 

 them by the ants, but we have no doubt of the 

 facts detailed to us. The season has been a 

 good one up to this time, but not wet enough to 

 have exterminated them, as they seem to have 

 been from some neighborhoods, where very re- 

 cently they existed in such numbers that a per- 

 son riding along the road had to keep his 

 mouth shut to prevent them from flying down 

 his throat. 



The Army Worm. 



This destructive worm, whose history and 

 character, extracted from the Patent Office Re- 

 port for the year 1855, will be found below, has 

 appeared in unusual force, and over a very wide 

 extent, within the last two or three weeks in cer- 

 tain sections of the State. On the lower James 

 River and the contiguous counties, in lower 

 York River counties, and in the Northern 

 Neck it has been particularly destructive. In 

 the neighbourhood of Richmond also, and 

 of Hanover Court House, it has done or is 

 doing a good deal of damage. A friend from 

 I Westmoreland gives a sad account of its rava- 

 j ges in that region, and asks for a remedy. 



We proceed to give one that we found com- 

 pletely effectual when practicable, and which 



