1877.] 
AMERICAN AG-RIGULTURIST. 
227 
rontract to make mouey oi- lose it for the town, but simply 
to do the business. -wia or lose; whether the town made 
money or not is quite another question. The agent's state- 
ment, then, would be as follows ; 
AGENT IX ACCOUKT WITH TOWX. 
2>r.— To cash received on takin:: office ^2.17 
fiom sales .102.97 
135.U 
Cr.— By paid for liquor i^9.91 
salary 25.00 
*' balance due town 50.23 135.14 
And the town would find that upon tak- 
ing stock thev had lost $S.l 1 as below. 
On band upon coramencing business.— Cash.... 3-*.17 
Liquor 57.54 S9.71 
On hand when agent went out of officL'.— Cash.. 50.2o 
Liquor 31.37 81. 60 
Loss to town $8.11 
Hoping that I have not taken up too mucli of your time in 
frivinf: such a loni: answer to a simple question in book- 
keeping, in haste. I am etc^ etc. 
If you want a more exhaustive fnot to saj exhausting) 
statement, you can study tlie following : 
To loss.... 
Balance... 
I>r. 
Dr. 
To cash on hand 
received... 102.97 
BTOCK ACCOUNT. 
.5 8.11 By cash... 
. 81.60 " mdse.. 
^9.71 
CASH ACCOUNT. 
..$ 32.17 By mdse... 
Cr. 
$32.17 
")7.54 
. $ -9.91 
Expenses 2;i.00 
Balance nO.'^iS 
$135.14 $135.14 
Dr. MEECHAKDISE ACCOUNT. Cv. 
To liquor on hand..$ 51M By cash $10^? '97 
'* cash 59.91 " liquor remaining 
Balance Hi .89 ou hand 31 .37 
$134.34 $134.34 
r}r. EXPENSE ACCOUNT. Cr. 
. .$ '."..oo By loss $'ii.00 
To salary., 
Cash 
Dr. PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT. Cr. 
To expenses $25.00 By mdse $IG.S9 
Balance 8.11 
$23.00 $25.00 
By a "glance" overtliese five accounts, the transaction 
may be kept as *' plain as a pike-staff." 
Yours, etc„ 150 Macon St., Brooklyn. 
Besides the before mentioned names, the account has been 
correctly rendered by T. M. H., G. "W. Y., G. P. B., Fred. 
M. N., J. AV. C, G. H. N., Lucius E.B., G. E. Bunwell, 
Mrs. Theodore D. G., J. A. L., J. H. C., J.M.B., F."\7. T., 
G.H. "Warner. A. F.S., Macon Street, "Warren L.F., Ed. 
H. S.. Frank P. D., Mount Venion, and Mrs. J. G. T. 
April 18th, 1877. 
Send communications intended for Aunt Sue, to Box 111, 
P. C, Brooklyn^ N. Y., and, iiot to ^45 Broadway. 
Xlie Doctor's Corre5>x>oii€lciice. 
That is right !— When boys or girls do not understand, 
let them ask. When oue knows all about a thing him- 
self, he may iu telling others about it, forget some little 
point, or fall to describe it so as to be clearly understood. 
Here is Master Charles M. E., of New York City, who 
would like to try the 
PIANO KALEIDOSCOPE, 
which I described last month, only he does not quite un- 
derstand how it is done. Well, Charlie, let me tiy again, 
Yig. 1.— PIAXO KALEIDOSCOPE. 
and this time see if an engraving will not help. Let 
figure 1 rcin-cscnt your piano, as you stand looking to- 
wards the end. When you open the piano, the part tViat 
lifts is in two pieC'-s, one of which goes straight down in 
front, and is hinged to the piece which is directly over 
the keys, and that again, is hinged to the larger part of 
the cover, which usually remains shut, and in its place. 
Ordinarily, in opening the piano to play, these two hinged 
pieces fold together, and lie flat upon the other part of 
the cover. To make the Kaleidoscope, yon do not let the 
covers lie down flat, but prop tliem up with books or 
something else, as shown iu the engraving at 5. The 
piano cover being highly polished, the utulerside of tlic 
movable part A, and the surface of the fixed part, C, act 
exactly like the two mirrors of blackcued glass in the 
Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 
Ivaleidoscope. But as you have no tube to put your big 
mirrors into, you must hang a cover, such as a shawl, all 
along the open space, represented by the book, from one 
end of the piano to the other. Having done this, I think 
yon will understand, from the description given last 
month, how to operate it... All the letters do not come 
from youngsters, for I sometimes fi^nd in those from older 
persons things that will interest you. For instance, a 
gentleman in Maryland sends specimens of 
AN INSECT THAT BUILDS A STONE HOUSE. 
A box came with some specimens, and a letter asking 
what they were. I wrote and told him about them, but I 
give yon, what I could not send him, an engraving of one 
of them. The box was full of little tubes of the size and 
shape of that iu figure 2. Each tube was made up of little 
bits of stone, small pebbles, which were put together, 
and as nicely fitted as the stones iu a well built wall ; 
they were fastened together by a cement that water would 
not dissolve. Each of these tubes was built by an insect, 
to serve as its house ; or, as it is caiTied about by the 
creature, it is more like a great 
coat. As soon as they came, I put 
the tubes into water, but the in- 
sects were all dead, so I have to 
borrow the picture of the builder 
of this pretty mason work, fig. 3, 
from Mr. Packard's book. I have 
told you so many times, that I 
hope yon remember it, that the 
difi'erent states of an insect are 
1st, the egg— 2nd, the lama., which 
comes from the &^^ ; we know 
some kinds of larva as caterpillars, 
and others as grubs and maggots ; 
it is in the larva stale that the 
insect feeds most, and makes its 
growth ; after a while it goes to 
rest, and becomes 3rd, the pupa, 
or chrysalis, one kind of which 
is a cocoon, and sooner or later there comes from 
this, 4th, the perfect insect, usua'ly the winged form, 
such as we see in the butterfly, the beetles, and all other 
winged insects, including tlie house-fly and moscLuito. 
Now I hope you will recollect this about insects, as I 
shall not repeat this again — at least not this year. Well, 
the fellow who builds this mason work, is 
THE LAEVA OF A CADDIS-FLT, 
and is shown in figure 3. Tou must know that the larva 
of many winged insects pass their "lives in the water; the 
well known mosquito does this, and the " wrigglers " 
you see in water that stands awhile, such asihatina 
rain-water cask, are the larval form of our musical friend 
the mosquito. The laiwa of the Caddis-fly passes its life in 
the water. It has a pretty bard head and front, but the 
rest of its body is very soft, and as it can not move very 
quickly, it would fare poorly, did it not build a case to 
protect its long and soft body. There are several Caddif=- 
flies, and their larviB (plural of larva), do not all build 
stone houses. Some prefer straws, small chips, and twigs, 
for a covering. Some use dead leaves, others build their 
cases of little bits of moss, and one would never 
suspect that there was an insect inside of the little tuft, 
did he not see it travel off; then there is one fellow that 
hunts around for the empty shells of little fresh water 
animals, and builds its case of them. All of these are 
raorefrequent than the stone-building one, which is put 
down in the books as belonging in Labrador and else- 
where far north, and I was surprised at seeing it from so 
far south as Maryland. The insect, when first hatched, is 
very small, but young as it is, it starts its case, and as it 
is not built, as boys* clothes are cut, " to allow for grow- 
ing," it has, as it increases, to keep on adding to the case. 
After it has reached its full size, it finds a safe place, 
closes up each end of its case by spinning some bai-s, and 
remains a while as a pupa; at last it conies out as the 
winged insect, or Caddis-fly. As the perfect insect of 
this stone-mason Caddis is not known, I cannot give you 
its portrait ; but the Caddis-flies generallj', are much like 
the Dragon-flies, or Darning-needles, though their bodies 
are not so long. You may not find these stone-builders, 
but in most slow streams, if you watch carefully, you can 
find those that build cases of other materials. But before 
leaving the Caddis-fly I must tell you how a lady iuEngland 
MADE AN INSECT DO ORNAMENTAL WOIIK. 
She caught a lot of Ciiddis-worms. and gently pushed 
them out of their cases into a dish of water. Of course 
the insect set about hunting for material to make a n<!W 
case. The lady supplied it with— what do you suppose? 
—small glass beads of- different colors I Being the only 
things they could find, the poor Cuddies went to wurk, 
and in time had very gay cases of variously colored beads, 
all nicely cemented together. Very pretty they must 
have been, and I was very sory not to find a single one, 
of several dozen sent me, that was alive, as I much wish- 
ed lo try the experiment with tlie beads. Il is not at all 
likely that the Caddls-worm would use beads, no matter 
how plenty tiiey where, if offered to it in the braok, for 
it would know that they Avould make it all the mord 
showy and readily seen by fishes and other animals. All 
their covering are intended to 
HEDE THEM FEOM THEIR ENEMIES, 
It is curious to notice the various ways in which insects, 
especially those that move slowly, are disguised, either by 
their color or form, so as to be less noticed by birds. Ou 
another page is given an account of an insect, very de- 
structive to trees in one place, which is called a Walking- 
Stick. or Stick-bug, as it looks so much like a twig that 
it would not be noticed, unless seen in motion. It is a 
Fig, 4. ^WALKING LEAP, 
veiy slow traveler, although so well supplied with legs, 
and no doubt this resemblance to a stick cheats the birds. 
In the East Indies there are several insects called '•Walk- 
ing-Leaves," one of which is shown in figure 4. They 
look much like a leaf in form and color, and are evident- 
ly thus disguised that they may the better hide from 
their enemies among the leaves Jenny L. has had a 
present of a Cologne bottle with 
HER KAME ENGRAVED TTPON THE GLASS, 
and of coarse wonders how it is done. Engraving is now 
a very popular style of ornamenting glass, and it is a 
beautiful one. It is not uncommon, for those who can 
aflbrd it, to have their goblets and other glassware orna- 
nunted with such designs as they may select, and mark- 
ed with their own initials, and most of the large stores 
that deal in such articles keep engravers to do this work. 
The usual bright surface of glass, wheii rubbed with 
something harder than itself, will become dull. It may 
be scratched and made dull by the use of a file or by nib- 
bing it with sand; in engi-aving, the material used is 
emery, a stone much harder than ordinary saud, and for 
some work, diamond dust is used. The engraver has a 
sort of lathe, as iu figures, to which he can attach wheels 
of various sizes, and by means of a treadle, worked by 
his foot, this wheel can be made to revolve very rapidly. 
The wheels are from an inch to six inches across, accord- 
ing to the work, and are made, usually, of copper of 
different thicknesses. The edge of the wheel, like that 
in the engraving, is smeared with oil and fine emery, the 
oil being used to make the emery stick to the wheel, and 
Fig. 5. — ENGRAVING ON GLASS. 
the wheel is set to going very rapidly. If a goblet, or 
any other thing of glass, is brought against the wheel, its 
surfiicc will be scratched at once, and yon can sec, that 
by turning the goblet a Hue can be scratched or cngnived 
quite around it. Straight lines are but little used; Iho 
engraving is usually in most graceful lines, and vines and 
other figures are represented. To undci-staud how these 
are made, fasten a lead pencil so that it can not move, and 
then try lo draw or write something by moving .i card 
against the pencil. You would finditvery difficult at 
first, but could soon get the knack of moving the card, 
sons to write your name. The wheel is like the fixed 
pencil, and the glns^s, like the card, must be moved in 
order lo form Uie engraving. You am see that it requires 
nmch practice and skill to engrave on gloss nicely, for, 
of course, a mistake or wrong line cannot be rubbed out. 
