1878.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
307 
interested in the experiment may finish them for their 
own amusement. You may make a magic square con¬ 
taining 9,801 small squares, and fill them by the foregoing 
plan if you choose (?), and it will come out all right. 
Betting.— I have received a letter from a young lady in 
Whitehall, Warrenton, Va., about crackers, who writes: 
“ in the May Number of the American Agriculturist I 
see that “ Bettine ” did not succeed in making crackers 
by the recipe in the March Number, and as I know a very 
o-ood one 1 send it. ^ * * * To one pint ot sifted 
flour add one tablespoonful of butter, and one of lard, 
with either sugar' or salt to 
taste (we think salt the best, 
but some people prefer sweet 
things, so you can use sugar 
if you like); mix with milk-warm 
water, until the dough is rather 
stifter than bread-dough; then 
beat it until bladders rise, then 
roll out very thin, and cut into 
any shape you like, and bake in 
a quick oven. The only trouble 
is about the beating; if too much 
is given, it makes the crackers 
heavy, and if not enough, they 
taste like dry paste ; but about ten 
minutes is generally right. I hope 
‘Bettine’ will succeed, for it is 
provoking to fail in any cooking.— 
Yours truly, Florence Miller.” 
“ Mollie ” says she lias “ a lot 
of jet beads, and would like to 
know how to make a bead-hang¬ 
ing-basket, or anything else that 
would be pretty.” She wants to 
know, also, what kind of ornaments are made.with fish- 
scales, and how they are made. Who will tell her. how ? 
Jennie R. W. wishes I would tell her how to solve 
diamond puzzles. I know of no better way than to give 
you a very easy one, and tell you the answer. 1. A con¬ 
sonant (sometimes a vowel). 2. A troublesome animal. 
3. Something that every one drinks in some form. 4. A 
common beverage (much liked by old ladies). 5. A con¬ 
sonant. The central letters, horizontal and perpendicu¬ 
lar, name a beverage.—Now you see there are 5 items, 
60 the central words must have 5 letters. Take your 
slate and mark some little dots on it thus, 
to show how many words and letters are . . . 
required. The first item must be W or Y,. 
but as you are not sure; you leave that and . . . 
try the next; that must be “rat.” So put 
R A T in the place of'the first line of three (horizontal) 
dots. Now you have on your slate: 
You think the third item may be “water,” RAT 
but you are not sure; so skip that., and go . . , . . 
on to the fourth item. You feel sure . . . 
that that is “ tea,” so you write it down. 
. Now you are quite sure that the central 
RAT perpendicular letters should be “ water,” 
.so you put it down. All you W 
TEA have to do now, is to fill the RAT 
. horizontal line ill the center . . T . . 
with the missing letters, and you have your T E A 
diamond complete. It is a very easy, simple R 
diamond; but it is very complete, because the perpen¬ 
dicular words are all the same as the horizontal. 
One of our Largest Insects. 
Several letters from boys and girls concerning one 
of our largest caterpillars will be here answered in “a 
lnmp.” We can not always reply to such inquiries as 
soon as they are received, as our engravings are planned 
well beforehand, and it does but little good to talk about 
an insect, unless we can give a picture of it, so that all 
hands may know the particular insect we are describing. 
Last year, “M. T. A.,” of Washtenaw Co., Micb., wished 
to know about a “ horrible horned creature,” that was 
found upon the hickory trees in her neighborhood. We 
do not wonder that she called the caterpillar, for such it 
is, by such a hard name, for we know of no other among 
our insects, that looks so formidable as this. Its por¬ 
trait, when full-grown, is given in figure 1, though it is 
sometimes nearly an inch longer than the engraving. A 
young girl is not to be blamed for calling it a “ horrible 
horned creature,” for it really looks as if it meant mis¬ 
chief, though it is quite harmless. This caterpillar is a 
great feeder, arid lives mostly on walnut and hickory 
trees, though it will cat the persimmon and others, and 
when feeding, as with other large caterpillars, its crunch¬ 
ing and tearing of the leaves may be distinctly heard. 
When full-grown, it is of a green color, with a pale-blue 
band on each ring; the head and legs are orange-colored, 
as are the long spines, though their tips are black. Prob¬ 
ably it is provided with these savage-looking horns, to 
frighten away the birds, but it can neither sting or 
prick, and may be safely handled. When it lias com¬ 
pleted its growth, the caterpillar goes- into the ground 
and forms a chrysalis like figure 2 ; it remains in this 
state until the next season, when it comes out in June 
as a large and beautiful moth, like that in figure 3. This 
is known as the “Regal Moth”, (the larva being the 
Fig.’ 2.— CHRYSALIS OF FIGURE 1. 
Royal Horned Caterpillar), and is one of the most 
beautiful of all our moths. Its general color is orange- 
red, the light spots ou the fore-wings being yellow, and 
there are markings of dark-red and olive color. The 
name given by entomologists is Citheronia regalis. The 
insect is never very abundant, but is found here and 
there all over the country ; the first specimen of the moth 
we ever saw, though we had known the caterpillar, flew 
into a window of the building when we had our office, 
many years ago, on Park Row. It had probably per¬ 
fected itself in City Hall Park, which was directly oppo¬ 
site. If any of you come across this savage-looking cater¬ 
pillar, do not be afraid of it, even if it does shake itself 
from side to side ; that is the way it protects itself from 
its enemies—by frightening them. If you wish to raise 
the perfect insect, provide a box of earth, in which stick 
leafy stems of the tree on which you find the caterpillar, 
keeping the earth fairly moist, but not too wet. Give 
them fresh leaves as needed, and when full grown the 
caterpillars will usually go into the earth provided for 
them; then you may put the box away in the cellar, and 
leave it until next June, when the moth will probably ap¬ 
pear. After severe cold weather is over, it will be well 
to remove the box to the open air, and cover it with a 
piece of mosquito netting, or some such material, so 
that when the moths come out, they may not escape. 
About Great iJlen.—Bryant. 
When I was a youngster, I had an excellent old friend, 
an Englishman, who was very fond of pictures, and who 
had many in the house I loved to visit. Among all his 
pictures, there were but two portraits—Washington and 
Wellington (perhaps he would have reversed the order of 
naming them). I once mentioned this peculiarity, the 
absence of other portraits, when he said that in his 
opinion these were the only two men who had ever lived 
whose portraits he cared to keep, and he added: “ G-, 
I will never hang upon my walls the' portrait of any living 
man.”—How many times have I thought of this ! A man 
so long as he lives is capable of doing something which 
may make us wish to turn his portrait to the wall. When 
he is dead, his account is closed, and we may then de¬ 
cide whether we wish to keep him in memory by having 
his portrait constantly before us. It may be a safe rule, 
that of my English friend, not to hang up the portraits of 
the living, but fortunately there are exceptions to this. 
There have been, and there are men—and women, too— 
whose portraits we may cherish, for the good that they 
have done, arc doing, and are likely to do. We hear of 
great men, read what they have said, done, or written, 
and naturally wish to know what kind of men they are— 
how they look. This is a very natural desire, and a very 
proper one. I wonder how many school boys there are 
who have not spoken from their “ speakers,” or school 
girls who have not read from their “ readers ” that noble 
poem, beginning: 
“ To him who in the love of nature holds 
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
A various language ; ” 
and ending with: 
“ By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one that draws the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.” 
All of you know that this, and other familiar poems, 
is by Bryant, and naturally would like to know how 
Bryant looked, and what sort of a man was he, who could 
write poems that are familiar to young and old. 
Nearly 25 years ago, when I first came to live in New 
York, my residence was in 
22d Street. My business 
was far down-town, but 
unless it was very stormy, 
I, for the sake of the exor¬ 
cise, always walked down 
and up. Almost every 
spring morning I fell in 
with an old gentleman, 
with a long gray beard, 
flowing gray hair, and a 
countenance so strongly 
marked that I knew he 
must be “somebody.” 
We were both bound 
down-town—and many a 
walking race we had. I 
was fresh from a prairie 
life, and a lively walker, 
but this old gentleman 
was more than a match 
for me, and often, though 
not always, out - walked 
me. All this happened without a word ever passing 
between us, but when we met, which was very often, 
there was a silent understanding that we were on a walk¬ 
ing-match, and this continued until hot weather set in, 
when the old gentleman disappeared. That fall there 
was an exhibition of the New York Horticultural Society 
at which an address was to be given by William Cullen 
Bryant. I had a good lady friend who was, like myself,. 
Fig. 1.—THE ROYAL HORNED CATERPILLAR. 
Fig. 1.—THE ROYAL MOTH (PERFECT INSECT OF FIGURE 1). 
