•420 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
UNEXPECTED COLLISION. 
Here is trouble enough for the youngsters who were 
having snqh a grand ride with their four-goat team. Their 
handsome, well-trained animals have been set upon by a 
lot of untamed, ill-bred street goats, the harness is broken, 
and the pets are suffering severely from the cowardly at- 
tack. "We can all sympathize with the plucky fellow who 
rushes to the rescue, and belabors the vicious brate with 
his tiny umbrella. "What could have provoked such a fierce 
attack? "We have seen something like it among boys. 
The well-dressed and well-behaved are disliked by the 
ragged and the vulgar, who do not enjoy seeing others 
have what they do not possess. This is the hateful spirit 
of envy, that would drag others down to one's own level, 
instead of striving to rise to theirs. It is at the bottom of 
many of the quarrels and much of the mischief in the 
world. In a goat it may be less hateful, although even 
there it entitles the trespasser to a sound beating ; but in 
a boy or girl, it is difficult to find any excuse for it. The 
best way to overcome it is by trying to bring one's self 
up to a desired position ; this is praiseworthy ambition, 
one of the noblest motives that can inspire the soul. 
Curions Work of Sees* 
Some of the insects mentioned in the following account 
taken from Merry's Museum are very common in this 
country. Sharpen your eyes and spy them out while at 
work. " The poppy bee makes her nest in the ground, 
burrowing down about three inches. At the bottom she 
makes a large round hole, and lines it splendidly with the 
scarlet leaves of the wild poppy. She cuts and fits the 
pretty tapestry, till it is thick, and soft, and warm, then 
partly fills the cell with honey, lays an egg, folds down 
the red blankets, and closes up the hole, so that it can- 
not be distinguished; and there, in its rosy cradle, with 
food to eat, and a safe nook to rest in, she leaves her 
baby bee to take care of itself. The leaf cutting bee 
makes her cells of green leaves, shaping them like 
thimbles. These little jars she half fills with rose col- 
ored paste of honey and pollen from thistles, lays her 
eggs, and covers the pots with round leaf lids that fit ex- 
actly. The mason bee makes its nest of mud or mortar. 
It looks like a bit of dirt sticking to a wall, but has little 
cells within. The mother bee does all the work, sticking 
little grains of sand and earth together with her own 
glne. The carpenter bee bores in posts, and makes its 
cells of sawdust and glue. The carding bees live in 
holes, among stones and roots, making nests of moss, 
lined with wax, to keep the wet out, with a long gallery 
by which to enter. They find a bit of moss, and several 
bees place themselves in a row, with their backs toward 
the nest ; then the foremost lays hold of the moss and 
pulls it up with her jaws, and drives it with her fore feet 
under her body as far towards the next as possible. The 
second does the same ; and in this way heaps of prepared 
moss are got to the nest ; others weave it into shape." 
Agricultural Jofees.— It is desirable that farm- 
ers shonld increase the growth of useful plants, but it is 
poor policy to prop-a-gate with old rails and boards.— 
Although a man who attends sheep is properly called a 
shepherd, it does not follow that one who keeps cows is 
a coward, or that one who fats steers is a good steersman. 
—Knowledge is favorable to prosperity ; even the swine 
will in most instances thrive best that nose the most. 
Precision in XSusiness* 
Haney's Journal relates the following: On a certain 
Saturday night the clerks of the bank of England could 
not make the balance come out right by just one hundred 
pounds. This is a serious matter in that establishment— 
not the cash, but the discrepancy, however slight. An 
error in the balancing has been known to keep a dele- 
gation of clerks from each department at work sometimes 
through the whole night. A hue and cry therefore was 
made after this one hundred pounds, as if the old lady in 
Threadneedle street would be in the Gazette as an in- 
solvent for the want of it. Luckily on the Sunday morn- 
ing following, the clerk— in the middle of the sermon, 
perhaps— felt a suspicion of the truth dart through his 
mind quicker than a lightning flash. He told the chief 
cashier on Monday morning that perhaps the mistake 
might have occurred in packing some boxes of specie for 
the West Indies, which had been sent to Southampton 
for shipment. The suggestion was immediately acted 
upon. Here was a race— lightning against steam, and 
steam with a start of forty-eight hours. Instantly the 
wires asked if such a vessel had "left the harbor." 
u Just weighing anchor," was the reply. "Stop her," 
frantically shouted the telegraph. It was done. "Have 
up on d^ck certain boxes, marked so and so, and weigh 
them carefully." They were weighed; and one, the 
delinquent, was found heavier by one hundred sover- 
eigns than it ought to be. " Let her go," says the 
telegraph. The West India folks were debited with one 
hundred pounds more, and the error was corrected 
by the help of lightning, without looking into the 
boxes, or delaying the sailing of the vessel an hour. 
