PLANT-LICE DESTROYED BY LADYBIRDS.—-WOOL-GROWING. 
331 
The great body of American farmers, though 
recognising perhaps in general terms the impor¬ 
tance of this subject, have very little idea of its 
real extent, only thinking of drains in connexion 
with bogs and swamps; they would be surprised 
to hear that a very large proportion of their culti¬ 
vated fields would be at once doubled in value by 
the introduction of drains. It is considered in this 
couhtry that the increased value of two years’ 
crops, or at the most three, repays the whole out¬ 
lay. Some high authorities contend that all land 
would be benefited by drains. I am hardly pre¬ 
pared to say this ; but am most desirous that our 
farmers should not fall behind those of this coun¬ 
try in their attention to so important a subject. 
John P. Norton. 
Edinburgh August 21, 1844. 
PLANT-LICE DESTROYED BY LADYBIRDS. 
To no man is the study of natural history of 
more practical benefit than to the agriculturist, 
that he may learn what are his real enemies, and 
how to distinguish friends from foes. I once saw 
a gentleman of wealth and intelligence, in the 
south, busily engaged in picking off from his cot¬ 
ton and destroying the ladybirds [coccinelh e). On 
my inquiring the reason, he informed me that the 
cotton was infested with hosts of plant-lice ( aph¬ 
ides ), and that they were produced from these 
beetles. He was confirmed in this opinion by the 
two being always associated together. Wherever 
the lice were, there was the ladybird. He was 
quite astonished when I informed him that the 
aphides constitute the regular and sole food of the 
ladybird, which seeks them out and devours them 
continually, and that he had been promoting the 
breed of a pernicious insect, by blindly destroying 
another race which God had appointed to keep 
them down. Canadian Naturalist. 
WOOL-GROWING. 
There is every evidence that we shall have for 
years to come, a large and profitable demand for 
wool. The establishment of a reasonable protec¬ 
tive tariff for the raw material, as well as the 
manufactured article, will, if persevered in, of 
which we can not allow ourselves to entertain a 
doubt, afford remunerating prices to the wool- 
growers of our country, till we have reached a 
production fully equivalent to the demand. What 
data may be assumed, as furnishing a correct esti¬ 
mate of the proper maximum of supply, would 
probably puzzle the shrewdest writers on political 
economy. We have, as elements properly enter¬ 
ing into this estimate, 
1. The , quantity now raised in the United 
States beyond the coarse Smyrna and South Ameri¬ 
can wools, costing 7 cents and under per lb., at the 
place whence last imported, on which the duty 
now levied is 3 cents per lb., and 5 per cent. duty. 
On all wool costing over 7 cents per lb., the 
duty is 3 cents per lb., and 30 per cent, ad valorem. 
2. The gradual substitution of a better grade 
of wool, (as the supply augments and becomes 
cheaper,) for carpets, blankets, and many of the 
coarser fabrics, which are now made from the 
coarse wool above-mentioned ; as it is an establish¬ 
ed fact, that an equal weight of a fine staple, is 
much more durable than the same quantity of an 
inferior grade. 
3. The supply of the finer sorts of Saxon wool, 
now imporied for the best qualities of broadcloth, 
eassimeres, &c. I am not aware of the quantity 
of this description of wool annually imported under 
our present tariff, but judge it to be considerable, 
from the fact that I was assured last year, by a 
manufacturer, that he had just ordered 50,000 lbs.; 
and a dealer told me that he had imported from 
London (the great wool market not only for Eng¬ 
land, but for the continent of Europe also) a much 
larger amount, for consumption in the eastern 
states, during the last season. 
4. The rapid increase of our own woollen manu¬ 
facturers, (our tariff remaining as it is,) and the 
manufacturing within ourselves, of nearly all the 
finer descriptions now imported, of broadcloths, 
eassimeres, fancy goods, shawls, booking, carpets, 
and rugs of the choicest qualities, (Brussels, Royal 
Wiltons, &c.,) blankets, worsted stuffs, bombazets, 
bombazines, mousselines de laine,. &c., &c.; the 
raw material for which, is in all cases, furnished 
of a foreign growth. 
5. The increasing demand from the increase of 
our population. 
G. A demand augmented beyond the ratio of in¬ 
creasing population, consequent upon the prosperi¬ 
ty of the country and the diffusion of wealth, 
which must inevitably accrue to our country, if we 
have the wisdom to maintain our present pacific 
relations abroad, and our protective policy at home. 
7. The application of woollen fabrics to new 
and unforeseen purposes, as our manufacturers ad¬ 
vance ; such as their use by paper-makers, carriage- 
makers, &c.; and their substitution for leather, 
cotton, silk, furs, &c. 
8. The eventual exportation of wool, and the 
manufactured article to foreign countries. 
That the exportation of wool from the United 
States is not a remote or improbable event, the 
policy of our own and foreign nations continuing 
as they now are, will satisfactorily appear to intel¬ 
ligent minds, on a slight investigation. W e have, 
as peculiar advantages for the production of wool 
in this country, 
1. Millions of acres of unoccupied land, every 
way precisely adapted to this object, a large por¬ 
tion of which, is not suited to any other profitable 
production. Thus we have, in addition to the 
measureless acres of prairie and other fertile, tilla¬ 
ble land in the west and south, the great chain of 
the Allegany and its collateral mountains, reach¬ 
ing through twelve degrees of latitude and as 
many of longitude, throughout nearly their whole 
length and breadth, but especially as they recede 
from the north ; all of which vast piles, and the 
innumerable valleys that everywhere skirt their 
sides, and which are now entirely unused, or occu¬ 
pied only to a very limited extent, are destined 
ere long, to the support of countless flocks. 
2. The adaptation of our soil and climate to the 
growth of a fine staple of wool; and the foregoing, 
together with a dry and rolliug surface of land, 
and innumerable supplies of fresh water, which 
