1880.] 
AMERICAN AG-RIOULTURIST. 
99 
joints and self-regulating, so that in a gale it turns 
itself edgewise to the wind and stops. A peculiar 
feed grinder, described in the Am. Agriculturist for 
Aug., 1879, is used with this mill. Its peculiarity 
is its light running power, being moved by very 
gentle winds. The Triumph Engine (fig. 10), made 
at Racine, Wis., is a recent invention,-and has no 
vane; this regulates itself in a high wind by means 
of a governing weight, which folds the wheel and 
turns the edges of the sections to the wind when 
the velocity becomes too great to run in safety. 
Each of the above mentioned engines is made 
by respectable and responsible manufacturers. 
Each one has special points of its own, which are 
described at length in the manufacturers pamph¬ 
lets and circulars, and those who need such ma¬ 
chines can use their own judgment as to which 
might suit their fancy or meet their necessities. For 
addresses of manufacturers, see business columns. 
Influence of Parent Upon Offspring. 
Many and different views have been held upon 
the relative influence of parents upon their off¬ 
spring ; but in modern times, the discussions of this 
question date from the publication of a number of 
prize essays, written on the following subject: 
“ Whether the breeds of live-stock connected with 
agriculture, be susceptible of the greatest improve¬ 
ment from the qualities conspicuous in the male, 
or from those conspicuous in the female parent.” 
This was in 1825, and the prizes were given by the 
Highland Agri’l Society of Scotland ; the essays, 
wholly, or in part, appearing in the Transactions of 
this old Society. The claims of one of these writers, 
can be briefly stated in his own words. “ Any hy¬ 
pothesis which would assign a superiority, or set 
limits to the influence of either sex in the product 
of generation, is unsound, and inadmissible.” 
This assertion seems bold, but we will see that 
even with 55 of the best years of thought and in¬ 
vestigation in this direction, the essayist was not 
far from the truth as the matter stands to-day. 
Another writer asserts that the greatest modifying 
influence is possessed by the male, and gives a 
number of cases to prove his point. These instances 
cited by the essayist, admit of a different interpre¬ 
tation. Dr. Miles, in his “ Stock Breeding,” says on 
this point, “the males used being more highly bred 
SMlir/, 
Fig. 7.—THE “I. X. L.” MILL. 
than the females, and therefore likely to be prepo¬ 
tent in the transmission of their qualities, his con¬ 
clusions as to the superior influence of the male, 
are not sustained by the evidence presented.” 
There is an important thought in this quotation. 
The“ more highly bred,” that is, the longer animals 
of like or similar characters are bred together, the 
stronger becomes the power of stamping those 
characters upon the offspring. When an animal 
thus bred, is crossed with one without any strong 
common characters in its ancestry, the former has 
the greater influence—the controlling power over 
the offspring. So far as known, this principle holds 
equally good with females as males, but as, in gen¬ 
eral practice, a blooded male is crossed with grade 
or ‘‘native’ ’ females,and the result is an animal more 
after the sire than the dam, it is quite natural that 
the conclusion of the writer might be obtained. 
The reason why, in the majority of cases, the males 
will be the higher bred, goes without saying, the 
whole question resting on the fact, that a male can 
serve a number of females. Through the purity of 
the blood of the males, must the mass of domestic 
animals be raised to a higher standard, and it is the 
work of the pure-blooded female, to produce these 
males to go out and infuse this higher blood; to 
impress good, strong characters, on the otherwise 
comparatively plastic natures of the low-bred stock, 
or in other words,those that have not been bred at all. 
We must not confound strength of character, as 
we have been using the term character, with the 
vigor and strength of the animal. A male of high 
constitutional development, full of animal life, may 
be very weak as regards its power to impress itself 
upon the offspring, and vice versa. Aside from 
breeding, or the lack of it, there are other, though 
secondary conditions, which determine iu some 
measure, the animal’s prepotency. Thus, the age- 
has an influence. Animals either immature, or in 
old age, do not, in general, control the offspring to 
the degree that is observed when in the full strength 
of middle life. Again, the powers may be lessened 
by over use, to be regained after a period of repose. 
It is hardly necessary to mention that in some of 
these secondary modifying conditions the sexes 
do not share equally, as is especially the case in the 
one last mentioned. Another of the Highland 
essayists dwelt upon the theory that the male con¬ 
trolled the external, and the female the internal 
qualities of the animal. This ingenious idea has 
been the one most discussed in later times; but 
being based on Dure assumption to start with, and 
not upheld by subsequent physiological, or rather 
embryological, study, it, like many others, has the 
Scotch verdict upon it; “ Not Proven.” Dr. Miles, 
whose work, above mentioned, contains all the most 
recent information on this question, says: “In¬ 
stead of a limitation of the influence of each parent 
to a particular set of organs, we find the parent that 
is prepotent in the transmission of its characters, 
has a controlling influence upon the internal as well 
as the external organization of the offspring.” 
Whatever the whole truth of the subject may be, at 
present it must be admitted that there is only one 
known law bearing upon it, and that is, “Like pro¬ 
duces like; ” the action of which results in fixity 
of character, and therefore controlling power. 
Yeast as an Insect Destroyer.— In a re¬ 
cent paper on “ Destruction of Obnoxious In¬ 
sects by Application of the Yeast Fungus,” Dr. 
Hagen, Professor of Entomology in Harvard Uni¬ 
versity, states some facts and experiments, and 
suggests a probable remedy for the injuries caused 
by insects. The statements of Doct. H. are of so 
much interest to the agricultural world, that we 
make an abstract of them. It is a well known fact, 
—and one that especially troubles house-keepers 
late in the fall—that the common house-fly dies of 
a fungus, a white mould, which after death often 
holds the insect to the ceiling, window, etc. This 
fact suggested that other insects might be killed by 
inducing a fungus, or mould, growth within them. 
Yeast is a fungus, very common, easily provided, 
rapid in its growth, and the one it would seem of 
all others to be used for such a purpose. The 
mode of application is to sprinkle the obnoxious in¬ 
sects and their food with diluted yeast. This is the 
theory; but is it a practical one ? All questions 
like this must be settled by thorough experiments, 
and, as far as the present goes, only a few trials 
have been made. Dr. Hagan states that four ex¬ 
periments are on record, three without success, but 
the results of the fourth are more favorable. In 
this case Potato Beetles were selected as the sub¬ 
jects, and after being divided into two parcels, one 
of the groups was sprinkled with a yeast solution 
on three or four successive days—the eighth day 
the sprinkled parcel of bugs began to die. All were 
dead thirteen days after the first sprinkling. Of 
the other parcel, only three had died, and all the 
rest were alive and well a month later. There were 
about 50 in each parcel. Upon examination 'with 
the microscope the fungus was found in abundance 
throughout the interior of the yeast-fed Beetles. 
The author of the paper arrives at the following 
conclusion : “That the application of yeast on in¬ 
sects produces in them a fungus which becomes fa¬ 
tal to the insects.” It is evident that a large num¬ 
ber of, and more extended, experiments are de¬ 
manded before the practical value of this method 
of extermination of injurious insects is known. 
“ The sprinkling of potato plants infested with the 
Potato Beetle and by their larvae is easy, certainly 
as easy as the use of Paris Green, but less costly.... 
The application on greenhouse pests is so easy that 
Fig. 10.— THE TRIUMPH ENGINE. 
I hope the remedy will prove to be a great benefit 
to horticulturists.” The remedy is so simple that 
it deserves at least a wide and general trial, which 
might result in showing this suggestion to be a 
great boon to farmers and cultivators everywhere. 
