400 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
be protected by a wire gauze. Such a cellar costs 
but little, is safe, saves the labor of rnoviug the bees 
out in winter or spring for a flight, as they do not 
become uneasy, and often saves honey enough 
in one winter to pay for its construction. Bees in 
such a cellar eat far less than when wintered out¬ 
doors, even if in a chaff hive. Some object to a 
cellar and regard a chaff hive as best fitted to 
prevent “spring dwindling.” This is not wise. 
If the bees are kept in such a cellar until the warm 
days are fully come, in the more Northern States 
as late as April 10th, and then by use of the 
division board, the brood chamber is kept so that 
every frame will be covered with bees, there is 
no trouble with spring dwindling. Such has been 
our practice, and we never had a case of this dis¬ 
ease. Even with chaff hives, bees would do better 
if managed in this way. Some use a double- 
walied house above ground, instead of a cellar. 
The objection to this is the trouble in keeping 
the temperature uniform. If there is not enough 
honey capped in September, and on so few frames 
that these are nearly full, then they should be 
fed either thick honey or syrup. This should 
be fed early, so that the cells will be capped over. 
All this work had better be done before October 5th. 
Ths Hessian Fly. 
There are two broods of the Hessian fly ( Cecido - 
myia destructor ,) one in the spring, and the second in 
autumn. The fall brood appears in August or Sep¬ 
tember, and each female deposits about thirty 
eggs on the leaves of the young winter wheat. The 
eggs hatch in four days, and the larvae or maggots 
make their way down to the base of the leaf, and 
remain between the leaf and stem, where they feed 
upon the juices of the plant, and cause it to turn 
yellow. In about a month after the eggs are laid, 
the “ flax-seed ” state is assumed, in which the lar- 
ViS remains until the warm days of spring, when it 
passes into the pupa, and afterwards emerges as 
the mature fly, at the end of April. The eggs laid 
by these flies soon hatch, and the maggots, after a 
few weeks, go into the little, brown, oval form of 
the “flax-seed ” state, and produce flies in autumn, 
thus completing the cycle in the life of this 
destructive pest of the farmer. 
As a precaution, it is recommended to sow a part 
of the wheat early, and if afflicted by the fly, plow 
and sow the rest late in the season. If the pest is 
not abundant, the crop may be saved by the use of 
additional manure, or by cultivation. Pasturing 
the infested wheat field with sheep in late autumn, 
will destroy many of the eggs and young insects. 
The same good results are obtained by rolling the 
crop. Only the hardy, and more vigorous varieties 
of wheat should be sown in infested localities. 
There are a number of natural enemies of the Hes¬ 
sian fly, such as the Ichneumon parasites, whose 
combined efforts destroy nearly nine-tenths of all 
the flies that are hatched. The burning of stubble 
is therefore not recommended, as it will destroy 
the useful parasites in large numbers, as well as 
the pest upon which they prey. 
Plant Growth Viewed as to Time. 
Plants are arranged in three groups as to their 
period of existence, namely: Annual, biennial, 
perennial; that is, whether they live for one, two, 
or more than two years. The natural beginning of 
a seed-bearing plant is the growth from the seed, 
or germination. The early life of all plants in the 
three groups is very much the same. It is an en¬ 
largement of the embryo, or young plantlet, that 
was formed in the seed before it was separated 
from the mother plant. This first growth is at the 
expense of food that was packed away with the 
embryo, either within or around its thickened seed 
leaves, and both the plant and the food that is to 
nourish its first growth are surrounded by pro¬ 
tective coverings, called the seed coats. Germi¬ 
nation, though a complicated chemico-vital process, 
is in essence the forcing of the young plant from 
its surrounding coverings, and the establishment 
of itself in the soil and the sunshine. This is a 
process that is common to all plants that grow 
from seeds. The beginning of an independent ex¬ 
istence is the formation of a seed, and with the 
seeds the cycle is completed. The aim of every 
plant is the multiplication and perpetuation of its 
kind, and as the seed is the common form in which 
plant units are cast off, it is clear that in the for¬ 
mation of seed we have the end toward which 
vegetation tends. 
In the annual plant the whole round of life is 
completed in a single year ; it germinates, develops 
its system of roots, stems and leaves, produces its 
flowers and perfects its offspring—the seed, all 
within the compass of a single year. With this 
work done the old plant dies. In the biennial the 
method is somewhat different. The first year is 
devoted to the work of accumulating material out 
of which the plant makes its seeds the following 
year. Compared with the annual there is an un¬ 
usual development of roots and foliage, and 
towards the end of summer, a storing up of a large 
amount of concentrated food in some part of the 
plant. Contrast the barley plant with its sliest life 
of a few months, and simple straightforwardness 
in all its processes, with the carrot, turnip or beet, 
which has a large root system and many leaves, 
for the first year, and an accumulation of starch, 
sugar, etc., in the main root, at the end of the sea¬ 
son. No seeds have been formed, and the end of 
the plant’s existence has not been reached. The 
next season the fleshy root sends up a flower stem, 
and the store of organic matter, starch, etc., 
that was made the previous season is used up in 
the formation and perfecting a large number of 
seeds. The original plant loses its life in the 
production of many offspring or seeds. 
In the third class is included all of our trees and 
shrubs, and a vast number of herbs that are known 
by the general term of perennials. They grow on 
from year to year, and in most cases have no defi¬ 
nite time in which to complete the cycle. The 
first year of the young tree, maple or oak, is ma¬ 
terially different from that of the annual oats or 
biennial beet; its time for getting ready for the 
production of seed is lengthened out through 
several years. After the time for the bearing of 
offspring has come, centuries many pass before 
death ensues, in each year of which, if conditions 
are favorable, seeds may be formed. The process 
may be so slow that more than a single season is 
required for the growth and perfection of a seed. 
Exports and Imports—A Bad Showing. 
Last year we presented some interesting figures 
showing that for a year previous to August 1, 1881, 
we had sent abroad from this country products 
amounting to $921,784,193, while we had imported 
only $753,240,125 worth, leaving a balance in our 
favor of $168 544,068. These figures include gold 
and silver, which are as much our products as are 
wheat, corn, cotton, petroleum, etc. But by the 
figures just received from the Bureau of Statistics, 
we learn that the total Exports for the twelve 
months prior to August 18S2, amount to only $767,- 
111,964, while the Imports amount to $799,959,736 
—an increase of $46,719,611 over the previous year, 
and leaving a balance of trade against us of $32,- 
847,772. This change has of course been largely 
due to the drouth of 1831, and the diminished 
amount of grain exported, but partly to the more 
active demand for foreign manufactures, on account 
of the prosperous condition of the country. The 
bad picture is that we are so largely importing and 
consuming foreign manufactures and luxuries— 
importing more than we are paying for with our 
own products. Last year we received $91,168,600 
more gold and silver than we sent abroad. The 
present year (12 months to Aug. 1,) we sent abroad 
$6,945,089 more than we received from other 
countries. The present good crops will change the 
balance of trade if the favorable crops abroad do 
not prevent the free export of our breadstuffs, 
cotton, etc., except at unremunerative figures. 
tickets by dealers at home, there is apparently 
no protection from foreign invasion. Some of 
those formerly engaged in lotteries here, have 
merely moved across the border, where they make; 
free use of the mails in spite of our postal laws. A 
distinguished railroad official writes us with some 
just indignation that one of the circulars of 
“The Royal New Brunswick Distribution” 
was sent to his residence. This iuclosed a sample 
ticket, with instructions for the ordering of more. 
To show how far-reaching are the promoters of 
these schemes, and how these foreign nuisances 
pervade every corner of the land, a friend in a small 
town in Oregon sends a circular and a bunch of 
tickets of a lottery for the aid of a church at Inchi- 
core, a small place near Dublin, Ireland ! The story 
is, that a church was begun, money gave out; 
hence an appeal to friends in America, who are 
tempted by the chance of drawing a great variety 
of articles, from a “Valuable Clock” down to a 
“Large Loaf of Best Sugar,” to buy tickets. We- 
would suggest to the person who has come all the 
way from Stradbally to manage the lottery in 
America, that every time he posts a circular like 
the one before us, he violates a United States law. 
An Institution for Feeble-Minded Children, 
at Englewood, Cook Co., Ill., has just been officially 
declared to be a fraud, the Post-office Department 
having stopped the delivery of money-orders or 
registered letters to that “ institution.” 
“Ozone” Turns Ul> Again. 
The Cincinnati fraud of selling colored sulphur- 
under the name of “ Ozone ” was first exposed by 
us in February last. One would have supposed 
that every paper in the land would take up the mat¬ 
ter with the hope of protecting its readers from this 
attractive but miserable swindle. Instead of this, 
some journals still advertise it. Were the claims 
made for the stuff well founded, it would be of 
great value to every housekeeper, especially those 
of moderate means. As it is, the great majority of 
those who have bought the stuff from motives of 
economy are the very ones who can least afford to- 
lose their money. In a circular dated June 1, the 
“ Preserving Company ” say, as an excuse for not 
answering letters of inquiry: “ It has been all that 
we could accomplish to properly attend to entering 
the orders for goods and getting off our shipments. ” 
A large share of those who write, asking us to ex¬ 
pose this or that fraud, conclude by saying: “Don’t 
publish my name.” Not of this kind is the writer 
of the last letter we have had on the “Ozone”' 
matter, who says: 
“You May Use My Name and Address in Full.”' 
Mr. Newton Best, Eberly’s Mills, Cumberland 
Co., Pa., who writes as above, took the agency of 
the stuff for two counties. The “ conditions ” of 
the “ agency grant,” are, that the agent shall pur¬ 
chase “ one hundred packages of the said Ozone, 
for each county covered by the grant,” and pajr 
$100 for them, after which he can go on and make 
The stuff, paying a royalty of ten cents a pound, for 
each pound he manufactures, and settle up 
once a week. This is sharp. If the agent were 
told at the start, that he were to engage in putting 
up sulphur with a raise label, he would, if honest, 
have nothing to do with it, but the Company get. 
$100 out of him, before he has the secret. Mr. 
Best writes, that after purchasing his first (and last) 
lot of packages, he tried to preserve rhubarb, ap¬ 
ples, cabbage, beef, sausage, etc., etc., and every 
one spoiled, that “ it did not preserve a single arti- 
