279 



American microscopist, the founder of this branch 

 of research in this country. His delight, from a 

 boy, was to examine every minute organization in 

 stagnant waters, mud and fossil deposits, in guano, 

 or wherever they may be found, which is indeed 

 ahnost everywhere around us. So ardent was he in 

 his enquiries that he made for himself globules of 

 glass for magnifying lenses, and with these made 

 his earliest researches. He made many valuable 

 contributions to science, demonstrated the vegetable 

 nature of anthracite coal, showed that by examin- 

 ing the mud brought up by the sounding lead, that 

 it might be possible to determine in many instances 

 a ship's place in fogs and darkness, and made many 

 investigations into the origin of our green sand. He 

 found upon examining specimens from many locali- 

 ties, not only the altered shells of the minute 

 Rhizopods, but also their unaltered shells in the 

 green sand of Mullica Hill, Timber Creek, and at 

 Mount Holly in New Jersey ; but in marl, properly 

 so-called, from Virginia, South Carolina and Tennes- 

 see, as well as from the limestone and other rocks 

 containing green sand from North and South 

 Carolina, Alabama and Texas. 



Thus this substance which occurs over vast areas 

 in Europe as well as in this country — though not 

 always as available as is the New Jersey deposit — 

 has been produced by the individual alteration of 

 minute shells at the bottom of the ocean. All 

 doubt as to the nature of this substance under notice 

 must be removed when we state that the process of 

 converting these shells into grains of green sand is 

 now going on, and a bed of this substance is in 

 course of formation off our Southern coast. But 

 we must reserve for another paper the interesting 

 evidence to be adduced from the Pv-eport of the 

 United States Coast Survey of 1858.— J. S. Lip- 

 pin cott, in the Farm and Fireside. 



Sulzer's Method of Propagating Poses. — 

 Propagating the rose by cuttings is our hobby, and 

 one which we ride quite successfully ; we prefer a 

 hot bed-frame for striking cuttings, to any other 

 method ; prepare your frame in an open, airy situ- 

 ation, in the best manner, using fresh, fermented 

 horse manure, which place evenly from 12 to 18 

 inches deep, and tread it slightly to prevent its 

 settling unevenly, on which place your frame; fill 

 in a layer of good compost about two inches deep, 

 upon which put sand of a suitable depth. The best 

 cuttings are those selocted from the plants called 

 blind shoots, (i. e., such shoots as produce no 

 flower-buds) ; prepare your cuttings in lengths of 

 two or three eyes each ; cut off square at the lower 



joint, and trim off all the foliage except the upper 

 pair of leaflets; insert in the frame and when the 

 frame is filled, give a gentle watering ; place your 

 sash, and shade the glass from the direct raj'-s of the 

 sun for the first ten or twelve days — to be successful, 

 it is absolutely necessary to retain the foliage — by 

 which time they will be well calloused and commence 

 pushing out roots, they should be gradually inured 

 to the full light of the sun by the time they are 

 well rooted, which will be in from 15 to 20 days 

 from the time they were put in, and will be ready 

 to transfer to pots. Poses can be propagated by 

 cuttings in spring from plants grown in the green- 

 house in the months of April and May, or in the 

 Fall from plants grown in the open air. September 

 and October is the best time in the Fall ; the liights 

 then being cool, the sash can be taken off in order 

 that the cuttings may receive the benefit of the 

 night de\Y.— Essay before Chicago horticultural 

 Society, reported in Prairie Farmer. 



The Cotton and Boll Worm in Louisiana. 

 — A'low me to call your attention to the destruction 

 of the cotton crop by the worms, which appear to 

 increase yearly. In 1864, 1 planted about one hun- 

 dred acres in cotton. In July the worms made 

 their appearance. Having no experience in raising 

 this crop, I searched in the agricultural reports for 

 information. Mr. G-lover recommended the burning 

 of trap lanterns, and I made three of them with a 

 coal-oil lamp and tin basin, with soapsuds under- 

 neath, and burned them every night. The first 

 night I caught about seventy-five millers and in- 

 numerable other insects. The number increased to 

 three hundred millers, and then gradually diminished 

 to none. For three weeks after the crops of my 

 neighbors were destroyed, I found only a few of my 

 plants attacked ; about the last week of the three 

 I caught no millers, but all at once the catch was 

 seventj^-five, next night one hundred and fifty, then 

 three hundred, and even up to five hundred. The 

 worm, however, gradually made its appearance 

 more and more, until in the middle of August my 

 cotton was stripped of every leaf and bloom. The 

 worm then turned in pupa. In ten days after this 

 the miller again appeared. Meanwhile the cotton 

 had sprouted again, and was in full bloom when the 

 third brood made its appearance in immense num- 

 bers. In three days every leaf and young boll was 

 eaten, and the worm was eating the bark of the plant 

 and the glazed protection of the nearly-matured 

 bolls. The heavy rains of September soaked into 

 the bolls and rotted them. I made only three bales 

 of cotton. In July the prospect was good for at 



