334 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
What’s the Price?-Will it Pay? 
When traveling on the lower Mississippi a few 
years since, we fell in with a company of* good fel¬ 
lows ’ on board a slow river steamboat, and among 
other modes of passing away the time, a discus¬ 
sion of sectional characteristics was entered into. 
When the Yankee character came up for dissec¬ 
tion, an intelligent Louisianian remarked that: 
“ He could always tell whether a man was from 
New-Engtand, by showing him any article from 
his pocket, or referring to any garment he hap¬ 
pened to have on. If the man was a Yankee, 
about his first remark would be, ‘ What did it 
cost ?’ ” Most of the company agreed at once 
that this was a perfect description. 
In less than two hours after, a plan was start¬ 
ed to hire our captain to “ lay up ” a few hours 
at Baton Rouge, and give the company an 
opportunity to examine the public buildings and 
other objects of interest. Scarcely had the pro¬ 
ject been proposed, when the aforesaid 1 delineator 
of Yankee character asked: “Well, fellows, 
will it Pay 1” In other words he wanted to know 
the cost, and whether the sight seeing would pay 
the expense, or as the cant phrase has it, “ was 
the game worth the powder.” 
We have often thought of this incident since. 
Here was a representative of one class laughing 
at another class for invariably asking respecting 
any article or enterprise, ‘what it costs,’as one of 
the items to be considered in estimating wheth- 
it would pay; while the other class as invariably 
put the second part of the question first, viz. “will 
it pay,” in order to settle the question of cost. 
What is the cost and will it pay are, after all, 
the main questions in any enterprize, and partic¬ 
ularly is this the case with the great mass of 
cultivators of the soil. Moneyed men may try 
every new thing in Agriculture. They can bear 
any losses that befall them, and these will not be 
few. It is well that there are those who will 
undertake a risky experiment, for in this way im¬ 
provements and new discoveries are made. But. 
the majority of farmers are so situated that they 
must look ahead, and learn beforehand, as nearly 
as possible, the result of every operation. They 
must adopt no system which has not been already 
proved to be practical and profitable. The great 
question must be: Will it pay, and pay down 1 
Settle that, then go ahead. 
One may get great crops at great expense, but 
if the labor and cost do not pay a profit, the crops 
are ruinous; it is no real improvement in hus¬ 
bandry, if the increase of expense keeps tally with 
the improvement. What though one enlarges 
his farm, and gets the name of being a great 
land-holder, if the interest, labor and taxes eat 
up the income, he is growing poorer every year. 
He is heaping upon himself a burden of care, of 
slavish toil and of debt. He would be better off 
with less land. 
-- ■ » «» 
Ditch Banks—How to use them. 
The dry part of the season has probably been 
used to drain swamps, and oftentimes the muck 
thrown out is left upon the sides, in long unsight¬ 
ly banks occupying much valuable room, and af¬ 
fording a seed bed for a glorious crop of weeds. 
The land nearest the ditch is most perfectly 
drained, and will bear the heaviest crops. Usual¬ 
ly the first season will start many seeds of weeds 
into a luxuriant growth. This is especially the 
case with muck of the best quality. 
No more profitable fall wolx can be found than 
to clean up these ditch banks, and save tne room 
they occupy. If the muck ia pot needed for im¬ 
mediate use, it can be carted to fields which are 
to be planted next Spring, and dropped in heaps 
of five or six cords each. During the winter 
compost them with stable manure, two parts of 
muck to one of manure. 
If the banks are not all used up in this way, 
draw them to some convenient; spot, and make a 
large heap, the larger the better. The action of 
the elements will keep this constantly improving 
for two or three years'. To hurry up the decom¬ 
position, put on lime or ashes, two bushels to the 
cord. A few thousand cords of ditch bank piled 
up on a farm, will be found to change to solid gold 
in a few years. The days of Alchemy are not 
gone. 
-- — — • — ---- 
“ Ka-ty-did, she-drd.” “ Ka-ty-did’nt.” “ Ka- 
ty-did, yes-she-did.” These are familiar sounds 
to most people, yet comparaftively few persons 
have ever seen the insects, which in such great 
numbers keep up their shrill note** the live-long 
night in the shade trees around our dwellings, and 
in the forests as well. So little is the katy-did 
known, that at the West we have frequently 
heard its notes attributed to some kind of a “ tree- 
toad.” During the day-time these insects con¬ 
ceal themselves among the leaves of the trees, 
which they resemble in color so much as not to 
be seen without close observation. We have 
often noted small trees where they appeared to 
abound at night, and yet failed to discover a sin¬ 
gle insect after a long search the next morning. 
DESCRIPTION. 
To gratify the curiosity of those not familiar 
with the katy-did, we have made accurate sketches 
of a full-grown insect caught near our dwelling 
the last of September. The engraving represents 
the exact size. Its body is about an inch long, 
the entire length from the head to the eadpt of the 
: \Ying-cpver.s being nearly If inches. Tfc®. lower 
figure giyes a side view, with the wings yJ,osed. 
The upper figure shows the hack, with the W.i.ogs 
I spread apart to exhibit the abdomen, The «.olor 
is a light green, the wings and wing-covers'being 
somewhat darker than the body. The thorax 
(that is the “ chest,” or part between the head and. 
the abdomen), is rough, and has the form of at 
saddle, rounded, slightly elevated behind, and’ 
marked by two furrows. The wings are shorter 
than-the wing-covers, the latter being large, con¬ 
cave, and enclosing the body like thr shells of a 
pea-pod. 
The musical organs, found only in the mate, 
are two taborets, attached to the wing-eovere,. 
and lapping over each other, as shown in thee 
upper figure, at a. The smaller side figure, a r 
is a magnified ’representation of the taborets-. 
They consist of two frames, with mid-ribs like 1 
those of a leaf, and a thin, nearly transparent*, 
membrane, stretching over them like a sounding- 
board or parchment. The right taboret, a, laps 
over the left one, J>‘, and each opening and closing 
of the wing-covers rubs the surfaces together, 
and the friction produces the peculiar notes re¬ 
sembling the articulate sounds wfeieh have given 
the insect its name. 
During the. day-time, the katy-dids lie concealed 
in the upper branches of tree» r but at night quit) tlhew 
lurking places, and the. males enliven their sifent 
mates with their noisy babble and tell-tale caiUL 
We suppose all have read the story of Katy kiss¬ 
ing her lover, and the all-night dispute over it 
by the insect watchers in the trees, par* asserting 
that “ Katy-did, she-did,” and the rest as Itowdly 
proclaiming that “ Katy-didn’t.” The stnactura- 
of the taborets, and the hard concave, wing-covers* 
reverberate the sound to such a degree, that on ai 
still night it may he heard nearly half a mile*. 
They were so numerous during September last,, 
in two thick rows of maples along the street in* 
front of our dwelling, that it was sometimes diffi¬ 
cult to converse near them, on account of the 
shrill music they kept up during the entire night. 
We were somewhat surprised on looking for a 
scientific description of this very common insect, 
to find it nowhere pictured; and the only 
mention of it in any book at hand, is n brief 
description by Harris, in his Treatise on Insects. 
He classes it with the or thoptera (straight-winged!)) 
insects, with the specific name, Platyphytlum con - 
cavurn (broad-winged- concave). It is allied to the 
grass-hopper ( grillidc* ). In October, according to 
Harris, “ the female lays her eggs in two contigu¬ 
ous rows on the surface of a twig, the bark of 
which has been previously shaved off or mad® 
rough with her piercer. The eggs are slate-colored,, 
full one-eighth of an inch long, and resemble tiny- 
bivalve shells. There are eight or nine in each* 
row, overlapping each other a little, and fastened 
to the twig with a gummy substance. In hatch¬ 
ing, the egg splits open at one end, and the 
young insect creeps through the open clefts.” 
We hope the above engravings and description 
will make our readers better acquainted with the 
katy-did, and add to the pleasure of listening to 
its evening notes. 
The Farmer’s Library. 
It need not be large nor expensive. It need 
not be purchased all at once. The reading of it 
need not detract one hour from the important la¬ 
bors of the field. But every farmer should by all 
means have a library. He needs one for his own 
benefit. He should have some scientific knowl¬ 
edge of the various operations he is daily pet- 
forming, both for his own enjoyment, and so as 
to he able to give a reason for every thing he 
does on his land, His children should be taught 
the philosophy Oj agriculture more or less thor-- 
oughly. that they rpay be attached to the callings 
and may make improyecaepts in it. 
