162 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
stroyed the wofm, and 1 witnessed the phenomenon my- 
sei£ 
A circumstance exactly similar to this was related to 
me several years ago by one of my neighbors, a gentle- j 
•man of respectability and standing, but as the cut- worm 
at that time did not annoy me any, 1 did not pay much 
attention to it. 
f am informed by ray overseer that since he showed me 
what I have above stated, that he has discovered two other 
worms filled with living young. 
^ Can it be possible that so many little worms were the 
*larvas produced from eggs deposited in the body of those 
worms by the ichneumon fly, which we know is the 
fiabit of this class of flies, or could they be the offspring of 
the worms themselves. I would like for some of your 
scientific and learned correspondents to investigate this 
matter. 
That those little worms came from the body of the 
large ones is a matter of certainty, and if they were the 
offspring of the worms themselves, it will put at rest 
what we have been led to believe heretofore with regard 
to the manner in which the cut-worm is produced, by the 
different writers®on those subjects. 
If you consider this worthy a place in your columns 
you are at liberty to publish it, and I will at some other 
time give my views with regard to Rust, Rot and the 
Cotton Louse, of all of which 1 have seen a great deal. 
We have had the most unpropitious spring, so far, that 
wc have ever experienced for many years. A number of 
our planters have planted for the third time, and still 
the stands of cotton are very bad. The weather continues 
unfavorable, too, for the growth of vegetation of all kinds, 
being in the midst now of a spell of very cold and wet 
weather for the 1st of May. F. 
Ec&i Feliciana y La. y May, 1857. 
FI^ESH IN VEGETABLES?. 
All vegetables, especially those eaten by animals, con- 
tain a proportion of flesh ; for instance, in every hundred 
parts Oi wheat flour there are ten parts of flesh ; in a 
hundred of Indian corn meal there was twelve parts of 
flesh; and in a hundred of Scotch oat meal there are 
eighteen of flesh. Now, when vegetable food is eaten it 
is to its flesh constituents alone that we are indebted for 
restoring to the body what it has lost by muscular exer- 
tion. “All flesh is grass,” says the inspired writer, and 
science proves that this assertion will bear a literal inter- 
pi’etation. No animal has the power to create from its 
food the flesh ofits own body; all that the stomach can 
do is to dissolve the solid food that is put into it; by-and- 
bye the fleshy portion of the food enters the blood, and 
becomes part of the anin;al (hat has eaten it. The starch 
and sugar of the vegetable are either consumed [burned] 
for the production of warmth, or they are convei ted into 
fat and laid up in store for future fuel when required. 
Grass consists of certain fle-^hy constituents, starch and 
woody fibre. If a cow arrived at maturity, eats grass, 
nearly the whole of its food can be traced to the produc- 
tion of milk ; the starch of the grass goes to form fat [but- 
ter] and the flesh reappears as caseine or cheese. When 
a sheep eats grass the flesh of grass is but slightly modi- 
fied to produce mutton, while the starch is converted into 
fat ['■utt]. Wiien man eats mution or beef, he is merely 
appropriating to his own body the fleshy portion of grass 
so perseverifigly collected by the sheep and oxen. Tfie 
bumans^omaeh, like that of a sheep or ox, has no power 
to eremite flcsli ; all that it can do is to build up its own 
form wiiii the nuiieiials at hand. Iron is oflered to an 
engineer, and he budds a ship, makes a watclispiing, or 
a niaiiner’s comp iss, accoroiug to his wants ; but although 
be alters tlia form and le.'Cture of the tnateiials under his 
band, yet lU composiiiou remain the same, So as regards 
I flesh, although there be one “flesh of men, another 
beasts, another of birds,” yet their ultimate composition 
I the same; all of which can be traced to the grass of the 
I field or a similar source. Flesh, then, is derived from 
vegetables, and not from animals, the latter being merely 
the collectors of it. 
THE LIGHT AT HOME. 
The light at home ! how bright it beams 
When evening shades around us fall ; 
And from the lattice far it gleams, 
To love, and rest and comfort call. 
When wearied with the toils of day, 
And strife for glory, gold or fame, 
How sweet to seek the quiet way, 
Where loving lips will list our name, 
Around the light at home. 
When through the dark and stormy night. 
The wayward wander homeward hies. 
How cheering is that twinkling light, 
Which through the forest gloom he spies ; 
Tis the light at'home; he feels 
That loving hearts will great him there. 
And safely through his bosom steals, 
The joy and love that banish care, 
Around the light at home. 
The light at home ! when e’er at last 
It greets the seaman through the storm, 
He feels no more the chilling blast 
That beats upon his manly form, 
Long years upon the sea have fled. 
Since Mary gave her parting kiss. 
But the sad tears which then she shed 
Will now be paid with rapturous bliss. 
Around the light at home. 
The light at home ! how still and sweet 
It peeps from yonder cottage door — 
The weary laborer to greet — 
When the rough toils of day are o’er. 
Sad is the sou! that does not know 
The blessings that the beams impart, 
The cheerful hopes and joys that flow, 
And lighten up the heaviest heart, 
Around the light at home. 
COVERING MANURES. 
We clip the following front the American Farmer, pub- 
lished at Baltimore. It is reliable and true doctrine: 
It has been said with great probity and truth, that man- 
ure is the farmer’s gold mine and we will add, that manure 
is to the vegetable kingdom what blood is to the animal 
system, the source of life. We, therefore, most earnestly ad- 
vise, nay, conjure every culturist to exert himself by every 
possible means in his power, to accumulate everything 
that may be convertible into manure, and when accumu- 
lated to protect its qualities front deterioration. But few 
ever think how great a loss they sustain, by permitting 
(heir manure to be exposed to the sun, the wind and the 
rains, and as few rtflect that ten loads of manure well 
mken care of, are, intrinsically worth more, and will go 
f.irther as a lernlizer, than twenty loads that may have 
been kept without regard to the preservation of its more 
enriching prop.erties. Many a farmer, through W'ant of 
ittention, suffer^ his dung pile to become exhausted of 
Its princi|»les of volatility . long before liehauis it out to his 
grounds, for use— and many, afier hauling it out, permit 
it to lem.-iin unplowed in for weeks, thus exf>Of<ing it to 
mrther loss— and then, perchance, blames either his land 
or his rnanurts for a fault that should properly attach to 
