1881 .] 
AMERICAS' AGRICULTURIST. 
413 
POSITIVES AND COMPARATIVES. 
{Explanation .—Add to the first word a syllable 
having the sound of er. 
Examples: An ani- .r 
mal — more novel: 
Gnu, newer. To yield 
—a tree: Cede, cedar). 
1. A small horse—a 
restrained laugh. 
2. A young animal 
ANAGRAMMATICAL PICTORIAL PROVERB. 
Select the letters that form the name of each of the seven pictures 
represented above; put them all together, and with them, make a 
well-known proverb composed of 23 letters. Aunt Sue. 
—part of a farming instrument. 
3. Part of an animal—one much patronized by 
gentleman. 
4. Useful to a lamp—made of twigs. 
5. Blemish—to waver. 
6. Auger—more willingly. Bessie. 
TRANSITIONS. 
(Change- only one letter at a time, without alter¬ 
ing its position— e. g. : Change east to west in three 
moves : East, vast, vest, west. 
1. Change root to tree in four moves. 
2. Change vest to coat in four moves. 
3. Change seas to land in five moves. 
4. Change barn to lane in three moves. 
5. Change room to snow in six moves. 
6. Change moon to star in five moves. 
7. Change mean to good in five moves. 
8. Change silk to cord in seven moves. 
Julia E. Green. 
cross puzzle. 
1 
* 
* 
3 * * * 
4 * * * 
* 
2 
* 
* 
-* * 
* * 
* 
* 
1. A 6acred mountain. 
2. Inhumanity. 3. To 
weaken. 4. Honor. 
P. T. 
numerical enigmas. 
1. My whole, composed of 16 letters, is a proverb : 
My 3, 16, 10, 13, 2, is a constellation. 
My 4, 9, 7, 8, 15, is a mechanical power. 
My 11, 12, 3, 1, 6, is part of a wheel. 
My 11, 5, 13, 3, 12, is a vessel. 
My 14, 13, 7, 6, 2, was a mythological deity. 
Isola. 
diamond. 
1. Part of a circle. 2. A fish. 3. A form. 4. 
Native place. 5. What you are. 6. A large chest. 
7. Part of a Yankee. Centrals, horizontal, and per¬ 
pendicular, form what most people admire. M. M. 
Illustrated Rebus No. 488. —The advice 
here given is worthy of study by old and young. 
Answers to Puzzles in the August Number. 
Prefix Puzzle. —AD — to vice (“Intemper¬ 
ance”), vent, dress, minister, duce (“deuce”), 
verb (CRY), mit, O, and verse: and make advice, 
advent, address, administer, adduce, adverb, admit, 
ado, and adverse. 
Illustrated Transpositions. — Mast — mats. 
Nails—snail. Poles, slope. Stage—gates. Horse 
—shore. Tacks—stack. Melons—lemons. 
Concealed Places. —1. Lima. 2. Venice. 3. 
Cairo. 4. Rome. 5. Athens. 
6. China. 7. Troy. 8. Thebes. 
Cube Puzzle. —Wisdom, Ma¬ 
rion, Heaven, wealth, humble, 
emerge ; wish, hate, none. 
Triple Hidden Acrostic.— 
Hebrew, Arabic, German. 
Pi. —The arms of wit ought 
always to be feathered with 
smiles : when they fail in that 
they become sarcasm and like 
two-edged swords. 
Cross Word. —Defalcation. 
Numerical Enigmas. —1. The 
pain of imaginary evil is not 
imagined, nor are the pleasures 
of the imagination imaginary. 
2. A soft answer tumeth away 
wrath. 
Metagkam. —Hosier: in which 
may be found—1—ore, 2—ire, 
3—he, 4—she, 5, 6—his, hers, 7, 
8—hose, shoe, 9—hoe, 10—rose, 
11—horse, 12—shore, 13—shire, 
and 14—sire. 
The Doctor’s Correspoiadence. 
As usual in summer, the letters from my young 
friends are, almost entirely, about insects. It is 
very natural that this should be so, as there is noth¬ 
ing concerning which less is knowu, than about our 
most common insects. These appear in such a 
manner as to attract our attention merely as objects 
of curiosity, or they may come upon the plants in 
our fields and gardens in such numbers, as to make 
it necessary for something to be done to check 
their ravages. I am always glad when a boy or 
girl asks me about an insect, for two reasons : I am 
glad that it shows a desire on their part to know 
something of the common things about them, and 
secondly, it often leads me to study up and learn 
about the insect myself. You must not think that 
“ The Doctor ” knows about everything ; in a tol¬ 
erably long experience, the most that I can claim is 
a fair knowledge of the means of finding out about 
the things I do not know. The men who knew the 
most about the greatest variety of things, of any 
persons I ever met, were Prof. Charles Pickering, 
and Prof. Louis Agassiz, yet, I have had both of 
these say to me, “I don’t know.” So when the 
most learned of the world can say “ I don’t know,” 
you and I need never feel ashamed to say the same. 
But that should not be the end of it; the fact that 
we “ do not know,” should set us at once to finding 
out_I have received from Master “ G. G.,” speci¬ 
mens of what he 
Incorrectly called “ .Locusts.” 
The name, Locust, should be given to that kind 
of grasshopper which has proved so destructive in 
the far west. The insect he sends is properly the 
Harvest-Fly, or Cicada, which is in some localities 
called the “Jar-bug,” from the peculiar jarring 
sound it makes. Figure 1 shows its portrait; it is 
two inches or somewhat less in length, with a re¬ 
markably square head, and its beautifully trans¬ 
parent wings are marked with green. This insect 
is closely related to the 
17-Year Cicada, or 17-Year “Locust,” 
but that can always be known by the reddish mark¬ 
ings on its wings, and its red eyes ; besides, it 
comes at rare intervals, in myriads, while the Har¬ 
vest-Fly we have every year. This appears in mid¬ 
summer, and at about the same date for a given 
locality in each year. At first a single one or two 
will be heard in the trees; others will soon * join 
him, and in a few days there will be a sufficient 
number to swell the chorus, and make it known 
that the “dog days” have fairly come. “But 
where do they come from ? ” you will ask. Like 
other insects, they have their larval state, (corres¬ 
ponding to the caterpillar state in butterflies, etc.); 
then they form a pupa ; and finally appear as the 
perfect insect, or Harvest-Fly. The early life of 
these insects is passed in the ground, where they 
live upon the roots of plants. The related 17-year, 
and 13-year Cicadas, are so called from the length 
of time they live in the underground state. * How 
long the Harvest-Flies pass in this underground 
life, I do not know. This is one of the commonest 
insects, yet, as is often the case with other very 
common insects, those who write books have very 
little to say about their habits. I have hunted 
through at least a dozen books on insects, without 
being able to learn this simple but important fact. 
Whether they pass one year or several, when full- 
grown they change to the pupa state, and are ready 
to come to the surface. In most insects the pupa 
is quiet, as if in a sleep, and is in a cocoon or 
Fig. 1. — the harvest-fly (reduced). 
other covering, showing but few signs of life, until 
the time comes for it to break out from its confine¬ 
ment, and come forth in a new form. The pupa of 
the Harvest-Fly is very different; it moves about, 
makes an opening to the surface of the ground, and 
finding a convenient place, breaks away from its old 
covering, and appears as a perfect insect. Our 
young friend, “F. H. P.,” having seen the insect 
in the act of escaping from its pupa state, gives an 
amusing account of the way in which it 
Takes off its Underground Clothing. 
lie writes: “ Place, on the trunk of an old apple 
tree, about six feet from the ground ; time, 6.30 
P.M., July 9th, 1881. The insect having fixed itself 
firmly by its claws to the bark of the tree, began to 
‘ hump ’ itself. At 6.35 its waistcoat began to rip 
on the top of the back; by continued ‘humping’ 
this rip soon became a tear, with the top of his 
chest well exposed at 6.45; more ‘humps,’head 
begins to bow down; more ‘humping,’ the eyes 
appear, insect evidently astonished 
at his first view of the world, rests 
a while ; more struggles, and the 
head appears ; he then leaned back 
awhile, until his folded-up wings 
appeared; at 7 o’clock all was out 
but the tail-end, which seemed to 
be held fast by the old shell; at 
7.15 he leaned forward, and hold- 
old trUr ■”!? hard to the old shell, drew out 
his hinder parts; his wings by 
this time are unfolded and dried, and he climbs the 
tree to take a look at the world above ground.” 
The Old Shell ot the Insect 
is shown in figure 2. The pupa, apparently aware 
that the struggle will be a hard one, takes cure to 
fix its claws firmly in the bark of a tree, so that it 
will hold fast while he escapes, and these shells 
are often so securely fixed, that it is difficult to 
get them off without breaking them. When the 
insect gets used to its new life, it begins its song,, 
or I should say, he begins, as 
Only the Males make a Noise, 
and what a noise it is for so small a creature to give 
out! You will wonder how it is made. It is not 
done with the mouth, nor is it, like the Katydid, 
made with the wings, but the insect is provided 
with a kettle-drum arrangement which cannot be 
seen without lifting the upper ring of the abdo¬ 
men, or body part of the insect. Here is an almost 
transparent membrane, so stretched as to form a 
kind of tamborine, or drum-head, underneath 
which are arranged muscles, which the insect can,, 
at will, set in motion, and cause this drum-head to 
vibrate and make the rattling sound so well known. 
The insect lays its eggs in the twigs of trees, which, 
in due time, are hatched, and the young fall to the 
ground, which they enter and begin their lives as 
larvae. The question is often asked, 
Do the Harvest-Flies Sting ? 
They have no sting proper, such as wasps and 
