68 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



way was open she would mount up to the box, 1 

 and enter it quickly. But deprived of the as- 

 sistance of her husband, who would not dare 

 such a feat in his disabled condition, her young 

 ones suffered, and they all died but two. These 

 she raised and carried off without attempting a 

 second brood. In the spring of 1857, I had a 

 box, with a very small hole made for them and 

 put in a porch near the Mimosa, they, or an- 

 other pair, raised two broods in it, with great 

 comfort and satisfaction. 



They were avenged upon the blue birds too 

 this season. I removed the identical box that 

 was the bone of contention the previous year, 

 and appropriated it to the use of the blue birds. 

 They raised their first brood very early. But 

 when they returned to raise the second, a pair 

 of wrens had possession. After several days 

 of contention they went off and the wrens rais- 

 ed their young in peace. 



The house wren is very prolific, and if none 

 are destroyed, in three years there will spring 

 from a single pair, nearly four hundred wrens. 

 They likewise lay a great many eggs, many 

 more than they hatch. In my friend, Mr. 

 Roane's tin cup, for instance, I once saw him 

 count twenty-two eggs — all laid, I believe, by 

 one wren. What they do with these eggs I 

 cannot say, though I suppose they are for some 

 useful purpose. 



The number of insects, more or less hurtful 

 to the agriculturalist, destroyed in a season by 

 a pair of wrens and their young, is truly aston- 

 ishing. I once made a calculation of the num- 

 ber, by holding my watch in my hand for thirty 

 minutes, and carefully noting the times they 

 fed their young. I have forgotten the exact 

 number, but I think it was something like 20 

 times in the half hour. When we consider 

 too, that all these insects are more prolific by a 

 thousand fold than the wrens, and it is in their 

 breeding season that they are cut off, we may 

 then begin duly to estimate the services of this 

 little creature to man. We have the means of 

 multiplying the wrens to an indefinite extent 

 by making boxes for them, and protecting them. 

 They even become very gentle and fearless. — 

 The boxes should be made four inches square, 

 and of the same height, the hole may be bored 

 in the gable end with an inch and a quarter 

 auger. If the box be too large they will fre- 

 quently spoil their eggs, in spending all their 

 time in filling it up with sticks. 



I trust that every reader of the Planter will 

 have a half dozen of these little boxes put up 

 next spring for this little friend and benefactor 

 of man. F. 



King William County, January. 



Mulching and Stirring the Soil. — The 

 more experience we have in horticultural pur- 

 suit, the more we are convinced that we should 

 protect our plants by mulching ; and that the 

 drier the season the more frequently should the 

 soil be stirred. 



Use of Gas Lime. 



We have several times lately had queries in 

 regard to gas lime put to us. The following 

 answer, which we copy from the American Ag- 

 riculturist, is from good authority. 



[Ed. So. Planter. 



In all our larger towns where gas is used for 

 lights, there is a considerable quantity of waste 

 lime thrown out from the gas houses, lime be- 

 ing used for passing the gas through to purify 

 it. We have various reports from farmers who 

 have tried this, some in favor, some that it has 

 no effect, while others have condemned it as 

 rank poison to crops. Several inquiries have 

 recently been addressed to us, one of which 

 from F. S. Hawley, of Binghampton, N. Y., we 

 forwarded to Prof. S. W. Johnson, of the Yale 

 Analytical and Agricultural School requesting 

 an opinion. His reply will throw some light 

 upon the subject. 



To the Editor of the American Agriculturist : 

 The various contradictory opinions held among 

 practical farmers, with reference to the value of 

 gas lime as a manure, are justified by the ex- 

 treme variableness of its composition. When 

 perfectly fresh from the gas purifiers, it is in 

 general a rather dangerous application to any 

 growing crops, or in contact with seed. Mr. 

 Solomon Mead, of New Haven, Ct., informs me 

 that he once applied it in the hill to potatoes, 

 and they never came up. A gentleman in Wal- 

 lingford, Ct., applied it to grass land and to the 

 roots of peach trees. The trees were destroyed 

 and the grass severely scorched, so that it did 

 not fairly recover until the ensuing year. 



It may be used in the fresh state upon naked 

 fallows, especially when it is desirable to free 

 the soil from slugs, injurious worms, or couch 

 grass. What its action upon vermin may be 

 inferred from the fact, that when fresh, it con- 

 tains a substance (sulphid of calcium) which 

 is the actual ingredient in the depilatiors and 

 cosmetics, which articles are employed for re- 

 moving hair. There is an account of its being 

 thrown into a hog-pen with the intent that the 

 swine should incorporate it with the compost 

 heap. This was effectually accomplished, but 

 at the expense of the bristles and hair of the 

 hogs, which were, in a great measure, removed 

 by the operation. 



It is thought, too, that the odor of the coal- 

 tar which is mixed with the gas time in greater 

 or less quantity, serves to dislodge insects and 

 vermin, and it is sometimes sowed in small 

 quantity over young turnip-plants to prevent 

 the attacks of the turnip-fly. In Scotland it is 

 largely applied to moss-land which it is intend- 

 ed to reclaim. 



The quantity of easily soluble matters, (sul- 

 phid of calcium, sulphite and hyposulphite of 

 lime,) is so variable, ranging according to ana- 

 lytical data, from 2£ to 15 parts in 100, that we 



