1881.] 
AMEBIC AE AGRICULTUB1ST. 
I ( j:i 
RIDDLE. 
F rst. A word the great Creator spoke 
When light from night and chaos broke, 
And bade its flowing streams we see 
The joy and pride of Nature be ! 
Second. A creature whose e’er busy feet 
Delight to rove mid nectars sweet, 
And while the fervid sunshine pours, 
With care hoards up its precious stores. 
Third. A substance that the sweet-breath’d kine 
Provide when we may sup or dine, , 
Drawn from the grassy, dewy mead, 
To give us cheer iu time of need. 
Fourth. Transpose, curtail, add s, you’ll find 
What deeply oft concerns mankind ; 
And which professions gladly draw 
From those they serve by right of law. 
Wii. Hennessy. 
TRANSPOSITIONS. 
(Fill the first blank in a sentence with a certain 
word, and transpose that word to fill the following 
blanks in the same sentence. 
Example .—He used to-through the grounds 
with the-who was named-. Wander, war¬ 
den, Andrew'.) 
1. The —r- went and left me iu the-! 
2. I cannot find any-in the mouth of-. 
3. Do-ever roost in-? 
4. He killed the-with his-. 
5. He tried to rake the-up into-. 
0. He found-of the-on top of the -—. 
DOUBLE ACROSTIC. 
1. A celebrated volcano. 
2. A patriarch. 
3. An art of the magicians. 
4. An Egyptian woman. 
5. A city of Edom. 
6. An oriental city. 
The initials name a Persian queen, and the finals 
an Ionian city. Isola. 
ENIGMATICAL BOUQUET. 
1. An animal and an instrument of sound. 
2. An animal and a child’s dress. 
3. An animal and an article of dress. 
4. Part of a lady’s apparel. 
5. A lady and what she undoubtedly possesses. 
C. The whole of one bird and part of another. 
7. What shepherds watch. 
8. The rising sun (not sunflower). Topst. 
Answers to Puzzles in the September Number. 
Historical Acrostic. —“I am monarch of all T 
survey .” 1. Ignatius. 2. Antouius. 3. Malachi. 
4. Manton. 5. Opie. 6. Newell. 7. Appiani. 8. 
Robespierre. 9. Crichton. 10. Hahnemann. 11. 
Olivetan. 12. Fryth. 13. Ago6tiuo. 14. Lycurgus. 
15. Lysias. 16. Isidorus. 17. Stukely. 18. Udiua. 
19. Rogers. 20. Vade. 21. Erskine. 22. Young. 
Numerical Enigmas. —1. The resurrection plant 
grows in California and Mexico. 2. Christmas holi¬ 
days. 
Cross Word.—F rangible. 
Faruiiug' iu Oltl Connecticut. 
BY FOUR BOYS. 
When we came here, there were two buildings 
1 used for barns, that stood a few rods apart, but 
not in the same line. Under one was a dry stone 
wall, in a bad, tumble-dowm condition. The other 
barn was built on a side-hill, the few stones which 
supported it, having been placed on the top of the 
ground, and some logs and short timbers, set on 
end, gave additional support to keep it from sliding 
down hill. We first moved them into line, making 
a building 28 by 62 feet, and then dug out. the 
ground under them, building a good stone wall 
nearly around under the whole out side. The wall 
was well laid iu lime aud cement mortar, we doing 
all the work ourselves. This gives us a room 24 by 
58 feet, for the stable aud cellar. 
We kept our turnips and cabbages in this cellar, 
and took them out in fair condition, but we shall 
build a center wall, and thus make a better cellar. 
The water worked through the ground some, but 
we have put an under-drain a few rods above the 
barn, and now have a nice, dry place, which has 
cost us so little, that we feel well repaid for our 
labor. We moved the barns into line by screws 
aud rollers, aud found it a good job to test our skill 
and knowledge of mechanical powers. 
In harvesting our turnips, we had two to pull, 
one to cut, aud one to empty baskets. We look 
an old table into the lot, and as we pulled them, we 
laid each handful on the table, taking care to swing 
the tops so that the roots would come handy for 
the cutter. In this way we gathered twice as many 
iu a day as we could in the usual way. There was 
no back-aching, as the pullers straightened the 
muscles at every handful, and the cutter, standing 
i up, could work much faster. A little care is need- 
! ed in moving the table to accomodate the pullers. 
We have high times iu catching woodchucks, 
having in the past two years captured over one 
hundred big fellows. When we get one, we fill up 
his hole, aud try to keep others from digging, but 
it requires care and watching, aud a good dog to 
take care of such “ varmints” as the woodchucks. 
1'Iic Doctor's Correspondence. 
Some one, and not a youngster, sends a “ some¬ 
thing ” in a carefully prepared cage, saying only 
that he “caught it iu his store.” When this 
mysterious “something” arrived, and the cage, a 
bored piece of pine', closed by a wire gauze, was 
opened, I found it to contain the not very common 
Fi.—Ignorance and impudence are inseparable 
companions. 
Alphabetical Arithmetic.— 
3091)84072549(27393. 
{Key. Trained Owl). 
Diamond.— 
N 
PEN 
BACON 
MYSTIFY 
PISTACHIO 
GE O RG I C 
PRIOR 
ONE 
E 
Anagrams. — 1. Ascer¬ 
tain. 2. Stimulating. 3. 
Specimen. 4. Residence. 
5. Observable. 0. Im- 
:perishable. 7. Mascu¬ 
line. 8. Meritricious. 9. 
Collieries. 10. Misde¬ 
meanor. 
Mole-Cricket. 
This insect is so rare, and its appearance is so 
peculiar, that, when found, it is sure to excite aston¬ 
ishment. The engraving, fig. 1, shows it of the 
real size, about an inch aud a quarter long ; it is of 
a light yellowish-brown color, and has very short 
wings. The most striking thing about the Mole- 
Cricket is its fore-paws, which are wonderfully 
large aud strong, and well adapted to its mode of 
life, which is to burrow under ground. Its scien¬ 
tific name is Gryllotalpa, from Gryllus, a cricket, aud 
Talpa, a mole. Our species (Gryllotalpa borealis) is 
much smaller than that of Europe ( G. vulyaris), 
which in moist grounds is 
injurious to vegetation. 
There is. in the West Indian 
cane-fields, a Mole-cricket 
which is troublesome, as it 
feeds upon the roots of the 
sugar-cane. Ours has never, 
so far as I have beard, been 
sufficiently numerous to be 
troublesome ; should it be¬ 
come so, it will be easy to 
poison it, as they do with 
theirs in Europe_A few 
days ago a gentleman left 
at the office the most 
SOME CONCEALED IMPLEMENTS THAT ARE USED FOR FARM WORK. 
Wonderful Caterpillar 
I ever saw. That eminent 
naturalist, Prof. Riley, hap¬ 
pened iu soon after, and 
at once recognized it as 
one of the very rare luminous larval, or cater¬ 
pillars, about which little is known. The creature 
was in a bottle with a few partly dried leaves. Prof. 
Riley said that it was likely to live on animal food, 
so I took it home and put it in a large jar, with a 
lot of damp moss from the beuch in the greenhouse, 
and also provided it with a box of earth in which 
were earth-worms. I do not know if it has fed 
upon anything, and I doubt if I can keep it alive. 
But you will wonder what is strange about this 
caterpillar, that I should take such pains with it. 
Iu the dark it is one of the most beautiful creatures 
I ever saw. At the lower margin of each of its 
rings, just near its feet, is a very bright, light spot, 
and beneath each ring, on the back, is a band of 
light, as if it were illuminated within, and the light 
shone through the skin. Anything more beautiful 
in the way of insect “fire-works,” is not easy to 
imagine. As seen in full light, the caterpillar is 
about three inches long, flattish, and of a yellowish 
flesh color. But little is positively known con¬ 
cerning it, though Prof. Riley thinks that it is, 
probably, in its perfect state, one of the “ Click,” 
or “ Snap ” Beetles. Should any of you be for¬ 
tunate enough to meet with one of these luminous 
caterpillars—thus far they have been found in damp 
cellars—I hope that you will not send them to me, 
but try and provide for their wants in such a man¬ 
ner, that you can ascertain what their perfect state 
may be, and then I shall be most glad to have the 
perfect insect. A week later. This most wonderful 
caterpillar was placed in an enormous glass jar, 
holding at least five gallons. It was provided with 
u box of earth in which were angle-worms, and 
with moss in which were various insects. Besides 
leaves of various kinds, including those of the 
Plantain, upon which the one who brought it, said 
it would feed ; also slices of fruit of various kinds, 
but I eau not discover that it ate anything. In the 
day time it is perfectly dormant, but iu the evening 
it slowly moves about and shines, though witk 
greatly diminished lustre. I fear that I shall not 
be able to bring it to the perfect state, aud thus find 
out what it really is. 
One of my correspondents in Allegheny Co., Pa., 
signs herself “ Only a Girl.” Had her letter been 
written by “ only a man,” it could hardly have been 
more to the point, and she need not be so modest 
about it. She sends some insects, says that they 
are very destructive to fruits and flowers ; are not 
known out of her immediate neighborhood ; wishes 
to know if they are coimsnou elsewhere, aud asks 
for a remedy. This is all done in such a clear aud 
straightforward manner, that I for once break my 
rule, not to notice letters that do not give the real 
name, on the supposition that when she sees this, 
she will supply the omission, aud give her proper 
name. When I say that the insects she sends, are 
The Common Rose-Bugs, 
it will remind gardeners and fruit growers, over a 
wide extent of country, of one of their worst pests. 
As it happens that there are places 
where it is not known, l give it in figure 
2 ; the color is of a yellowish-drab, aud 
they appear in great numbers in June, 
not only on roses, but on almost every¬ 
thing else. They are very destructive 
to grape vines, eatiug the blossoms at 
a great rate, and injure other fruits. Fig. 2. 
The female enters the ground to deposit her 
eggs ; the larvae, or grubs, live on fine roots : at 
the approach of cold weather they go down deep in 
the soil, where they remain dormant all winter. In 
spring they make a little earthen cell, in which they 
undergo their changes, aud come to the surface as 
perfect beetles. They last in this state 30 or 40 
days, during which they do a vast deal of mischief, 
and prepare for another brood. Thus far no appli¬ 
cation has been found to destroy the Rose-Bugs. 
