18 - 79 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
261 
der crop, to come in after oats, it is very useful, and 
also as one to take the place of hay ; because being 
an annual, and grown as other annual grasses, such 
as oats or barley, it occupies the ground but a short 
time. Where the hay crop is short, and fodder is 
Fig. 1.— ARRANGEMEKT OF POMP. 
likely to be scarce, a few acres of Hungarian Grass 
or Millet may serve a valuable purpose, and allow 
the farmer to carry his animals through the winter. 
Golden or German Millet is another variety which 
has been tested with much success. It has a close 
panicle, broad leaves, and grows very rank and 
high, giving a heavy burden of fodder. It promises 
to be more profitable than either of the before men¬ 
tioned varieties, but will hardly displace them, as 
it matures considerably later, but it will be useful 
to sow for a succession of fodder. 
Raising Water up Hill. 
Frequent inquires are made for methods of rais¬ 
ing water up an incline, from a well or spring at the 
foot, which will save the labor of carrying the water 
to the point where it is needed for use. There have 
been several rough methods invented and used, but 
they are all troublesome and ineffective in practice, 
and every way unsatisfactory, except, perhaps, that 
they are cheap. But cheapness at the outset, is 
often dearness in the end, and the best is always the 
cheapest. The writer is now using in his barn-yard, 
a method that he considers of sufficient value to 
describe ; the water is drawn from a spring at the 
foot of a hill, 25 feet below the leVel of the yard, 
and 125 feet distant from it. The arrangement was 
advised by W. S. Blunt, Esq., the inventor of the 
well named Universal Pump. The arrangement is 
shown in the engravings, which differ only in the 
use of air chambers, by which a steady flow is se¬ 
cured when the pump is at work. A spring or well, 
is dug at the foot of the hill, a pipe is laid in a 
trench deep enough to protect it against freezing, 
and leading to the foot of a well at the top of the hill. 
The well is about 6 feet deep, which is sufficient to 
give room for the plunger and working parts of the 
Fig. 2.—POMP WITH AIR-CHAMBER ABOVE. 
pump, with a drip cock for use in the water, to be 
placed safely out of reach of frost. The pipe is 
connected with the pump by a x joint, and is car¬ 
ried a few inches further, where it ends in an air 
chamber shown in fig. 1. The pipe at the foot dips 
four feet into the spring, so as to provide an 
ample supply of water, and has a check valve at the 
lowest end. In laying the pipe in the trench, it is 
necessary to avoid bends, and grade the trench 
evenly, or if a break occurs in the grade to be sure 
to have no depressions, but a constant ascent, al¬ 
though the inclination may vary in places. It is 
also necessary to screw the joints tightly, and seal 
them with white lead. The spring referred to, is 
covered with a small house as shown in the engrav¬ 
ing ; this is to preserve the cleanliness of the water. 
for his Report to the Department of Agriculture. 
They are of course highly magnified, the real size 
being shown by the hair-lines, which will be seen 
by the side of the larva in figure 1, and above the 
perfect male insect in figure 3. With this brief ac- 
The Clover-Seed Midge. 
Cecidomyia trifolii. 
One of our farmer friends, who lives in Steuben 
Co., N. Y., informed us last summer, that his clo¬ 
ver-seed crop, and that on several neighboring farms, 
was likely to be seriously injured by an insect which, 
if not new, had not been noticed before. When he 
further informed us that Prof. C. V. Riley, to whom 
the U. S. Department of Agriculture was then 
more or less attached, had beeu at his farm making 
observations in the field, we felt sure that the in¬ 
sect was receiving proper attention, and that in due 
time we should know all about it that was to be 
learned. A few weeks ago, during a visit made us 
by Prof. Riley, the subject of this clover-seed pest 
came up, and we learned the results of his inves¬ 
tigations. The following is gleaned in part from 
this conversation with Prof. R., and in part from 
an article which he had published a while ago in the 
“ N. Y. Tribune.” According to this distinguished 
entomologist, this insect—minute as it is—threatens 
to give our farmers much trouble in the future; 
belonging to the very same genus, as the notorious 
Hessian Fly, and the destructive Wheat Midge, it 
is likely to prove equally injurious in its way, with 
those well-known pests. If the 
clover blossoms be examined where 
it prevails, the larva (or maggot) 
will be found within them, in vary¬ 
ing numbers; it is of a bright 
orange-red color, and affects the 
clover in much the same way that 
the Wheat-Midge affects wheat, 
causing the seed to shrivel, and 
become worthless. When these 
orange-colored larvae have made 
their growth, they either crawl or 
drop to the ground, which they 
enter, and bury themselves a short 
distance beneath the surface, or 
they may hide under any rubbish 
at hand. Having gained a hiding 
Fig. L clover place, each forms an oval, tough, 
midge. silken cocoon, with portions of 
Sdeof tiieiwad e of eartl1 adhering to its exterior, the 
same. better to disguise it. Their trans¬ 
formations being completed, the flies begin to issue 
from the cocoons in September, and may be found so 
long as mild weather continues, as well as in the fol¬ 
lowing spring. Mr. J. A. Lintner, of the N. Y. State 
Museum of Natural History, was the first to call 
attention to this insect, at a recent Annual Meeting 
of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society. He there 
briefly referred to the ravages of the insect, and de¬ 
scribed the larva, the perfect insect being then un¬ 
known. According to Prof. Riley, a marked char¬ 
acteristic of the larva, is found in its spiracles, or 
breathing pores, which in this are raised on fleshy 
tubercles; distinguishing characters of the flies 
themselves, are found in the antennae or feelers, 
which in the male have fifteen, and in the female, 
sixteen joints. It is readily distinguished from the 
related Hessian Fly, as that, in all its stages, is 
about twice the size of this, and usually with more 
joints to the antennae. From the Wlieab-Midge, 
the Clover-Midge is readily distinguished in the per¬ 
fect state, the male fly of that having twenty-four, 
and the female only twelve joints to the antennae. 
In the larval state the distinction between the two 
can only be made by the most critical comparisons. 
The illustrations here given are from the ex¬ 
quisite drawings prepared by Prof. Riley himself 
Fig. 2.—clover midge. 
a, female, Biile-view ; 6, head from side ; e, end of ovipositor; 
d, joints of antennas. 
count of the appearance and habits of this new 
trouble, and with the aid of the engravings, the 
farmer will be able to recognize it, and will very 
naturally ask how he is to get rid of it, should it 
appear in his fields. Here Prof. Riley’s advice, 
while no doubt the best possible under the circum¬ 
stances, will not be very encouraging to those who 
depend upon clover-seed as a regular crop. Where 
the Midge appears to any serious extent, the only 
method of checking its spread is, to abandon 
clover-seed as a crop for a number of years, and he 
adds : “ The more thoroughly farmers combine in 
Fig. 3.— CLOVER MIDGE. 
a, male, back view ; b, side-view of head, showing palpi; 
c, genitalia ; d, joints of antennae ; e, tarsus; /, wing scale. 
this course in any given district, the more effectual 
will be the eradication of the evil.” 
Consmnptton of Food.— In feeding animals, 
it should be remembered that there is a certain 
quantity of food required to maintain life and the 
wastes of the system. This is spent without return, 
and upon the amount of this, depends very much 
the amount of profit to be derived from feeding the 
animal. All beyond this, that can be used as food, 
and can be turned into milk, cream, flesh or fat, 
goes to furnish the basis for the feeder^ profit. 
