14- 
AMERICAN AGE IG ULTUPJST. 
[January, 
species of which infest almost every variety of 
tree and'plant. They suck out the sap, and 
eliminate from it a sweet liquid, Avhicli is ejected 
from two minute vessels called honey tubes, 
for the nourishment of their young. Bees, ants, 
and other insects eat this “honey dew” greedily. 
A full description of these creatures was given 
in the April Agriculturist, page 108, vol. XIX. 
The Senses of the Bee— Curious Struc¬ 
ture of its Wings. 
Two naturalists, J. Samuelson aud Dr. Hicks, 
of England, who have been making microscopic 
investigations of the nature and habits of the 
bee, incline to the opinion that the antennas or 
“ feelers ” of the insect are organs of hearing, 
and perhaps of smell, as well as of touch. 
There is no doubt bees possess these senses, 
though their locality is a matter requiring fur¬ 
ther investigation. 
They report also that they have discovered at 
the roots of the bee’s wings, vesicles with nerves 
attached, that may serve as organs of smell, 
which certainly is a curious place to look for a 
nose ; but the wonders of insect life are not yet 
half revealed. 
A beautiful contrivance attached to the wings 
is worthy of notice. It is necessary to the 
flight of the insect that it should present to the 
air as broad and unbroken a surface of wing as 
possible. To secure this, the front edge of the 
hinder wing is furnished with a row of ex¬ 
quisitely formed hooks, and on the opposite 
edge of the anterior wing is a rib or bar, to 
which the hooks may be attached at the pleas¬ 
ure of the insect ; thus giving it the advantages 
of broad wings, and also enabling it to fold 
them conppactly when not in use. 
Sagacity of Humble Bees.—A writer in a 
foreign journal communicates the fact, that dur¬ 
ing a season of scarcity of out-door llowers, the 
humble bees entered the green and hot-houses, 
in search of food. Coming upon flowers, the 
long tubes of which prevented their extracting 
the honey in the usual manner, they cut through 
the corolla, just above the honey, and thus se¬ 
cured the treasure. This looks like something 
more than instinct ; it was an entirely new way 
of working, exactly fltted to the exotic plants 
upon which they had never before fed, and 
which presented new difficulties to tax their 
ingenuity. 
Forth; American Agriculturist. 
Too Poor to take the Paper. 
“ Will you lend me your Agriculturist ,” asked 
farmer B-, one of my neighbors, the other 
day. “ Of course I will, but why don’t you take 
the paper for yourself, and have the comfort of 
it ? It only costs a dollar.” 
“ Really I am too poor. It is a grand paper, 
and wife and the children all like to read it. 
Am sorry I can’t afford it.” 
How farmer B-has a hundred acres of 
land, and, though not the best manager in the 
world, he might take tiro paper a great deal bet¬ 
ter than not. He had just laid in his Winter 
stock of tobacco, and that cost five dollars; but 
he could not afford the paper. He had just 
been to the circus with his wife, and two oldest 
children, and that cost a dollar, t o say nothing 
of the time lost; but he could not afford the 
paper. The week before, he went to the horse 
race, and lost ten dollars on a bet, to say noth¬ 
ing of the loss of self respect in the gambling 
operation ; but he could not afford the paper. 
He wentfto the general muster last month, and 
that cost him two dollars, beside 'liis time. He 
loses a hundred dollars every year in manure, 
which theipaper would show him how to save. 
But alas ! poor man, he'can not afford it. 
Clovernook. 
For'tke American Agritillturist. 
“Can’t do without the Paper,” 
Said Mrs. Weartherby, as she laid down the 
Hovember number of the Agriculturist , and look¬ 
ed across the table to her husband, who was 
elbow deep in his political paper, reading the 
election returns. “ You don’t think of stopping 
it do you, my dear ?” 
“ So many papers, wife, the garret’s full of 
them now. A man needs an independent for¬ 
tune to supply all the wants. Must have a po¬ 
litical paper, and a religious paper, and Susie 
must have her magazine with the fashion plates. 
Guess that’s about enough.” 
“ But you said when you were setting out the 
new grape vines from Dr. Grant’s, this Fall, 
that you got hints enough on that subject alone 
from the Agriculturist to pay for it.” 
“ Yes, I know, but there’s so many things.” 
“ Well if you can’t pay for it, I can. The 
eggs, you know, have been more than doubled 
tills year. Look at this account of eggs sold. 
Hints all came from the paper. There were 
twenty bushels of onions, where we did not get 
five last year. It was the wood ashes you know. 
Then we have got two cents more a pound for 
the butter, because it was worked dry and pack¬ 
ed in ice. That idea came out of the paper. 
And there is a hundred more just as good, and 
I suppose they will keep coming. I can’t do 
without it.” Clovernook. 
How Skelter Saves Food ; 
Also : Row warm houses and warm clothing save 
fond—A few practical Rint-s from Science to he 
studied during these cold Rays. 
Can it be that this subject is fully understood ? 
We have talked and written a good deal about 
it, and so have others, yet judging from what 
we see wherever we travel through the country, 
the mass of people must still be ignorant, or the 
general practice would be far different. Wfe will 
flatter ourselves, however, that those whose 
practice is wrong, have not been readers of the 
Agriculturist. It is below the truth to say 
that a correct knowledge and practice in the 
matter of protecting and feeding stock, would, 
during the present Winter, save two million dol¬ 
lars worth of fodder in this country. Tiie cold 
Winter is upon us, and (he fodder that may he 
saved, is likely to be needed. Let us state as 
plainly as may be, a few elementary facts that 
all should understand. They are worth studying. 
The food that is consumed by man and beast, 
goes first to supply t he waste or wear of the 
body, and what is loft is stored in the form of 
increase in flesh. All that can be saved from 
waste or wear, is clear gain, or profit, in the form 
of added flesh. 
The body (of man or beast) constantly re¬ 
quires some nutriment from food, to take the 
place of the particles that are daily worn out by 
labor or exercise. The less the exercise, the less 
the food required for this purpose. The more 
quiet and unrestless an animal can be kept, the 
less will be the food required to supply loss 
from wear of the muscles and other organs. 
The greatest amount of waste in the body, 
however, is the consumption of food to keep up 
the natural heat. How is the body kept 
warm? Why,My, just as a house is kept 
warm, by the oxydization of carbonaceous ma¬ 
terials, or in plainer words, by the burning up 
of materials, like wood and coal, which contain 
a large amount of an element called carbon or 
charcoal. Heat a piece of wood away from the 
free access of air, to drive off its water chiefly, 
and you have a bulk of charcoal left nearly 
.equal in size to the original billet of wood. 
Heat hard coal, called “ stone coal,” in the same 
way, and you have a mass of coke left, which is 
like charcoal. Heat potatoes, turnips, corn, 
wheat, oats, liay, straw, bread, meat, or any 
other food, just as you heat wood in the coal 
pit, and you get in every case a mass of char¬ 
coal. Charred meats, bread toasted black, etc., 
are familiar examples, only that in these cases 
the heating is done in the open air, and a part 
of the charcoal is driven off or carried* away by 
the air. We repeat then, that all kinds of ani¬ 
mal and human food, are largely composed of 
carbon or charcoal. It does not appear in its 
black form, until the other materials are driven 
off by heat, but the carbon is none the less there 
because we do not see it with a black coat on. 
Our animals are eating large quantities of this 
carbon in tlieir hay, grain, and roots, and we 
eat it in our bread, meats, and vegetables. 
In the fire place and stove, tiie air (its oxygen) 
unites with the carbtm of the wood or coal, 
forming a condensed heavy gas (carbonic acid) 
which goes up the chimney or stove pipe. This 
condensing of the air with the fuel (or carbon 
in it) gives out heat that was before latent or 
concealed, and our rooms are warmed. 
In the bodies of men or animals, the fuel (food) 
is chopped up by the teeth, and by the gastric 
j nice in the stomach, and the particles are car¬ 
ried all over the body by the blood. We take 
in air through the mouth, just as the stove takes 
it in through its draft. The air goes into the 
lungs, where it mixes with the blood, and is 
carried all over the body. When a particle of 
this air meets a particle of food, it unites with 
it —they burn, just as the food would bum when 
the air came in contact with it in the stove. The 
result is, a little heat is given out. The myriads 
of food and air particles constantly meeting 
within the body together, produce heat enough 
to make up the waste heat constantly escaping 
from the surface.* In cold weather more 
heat is carried off from the body, and we, 
and our animals, must either have more fire 
(more food and more air) to supply the greater 
waste of heat, or we must put on more clothiug, 
or stay in warmer buildings. (The carbonic 
acid, which in the stove is carried up the pipe, is 
in the body thrown into the lungs and out into 
the air. A large number of persons breathing 
in a close room spoil the air the same as if a 
stove pipe opened into it.) 
Practical Deductions .—The above explanations 
are of important application. To keep a house 
warm, we must cither make the outer Avails so 
close or non-conducting as to prevent the escape 
[*We understand the two theories-—one that the food 
is all oxygenized in the lungs and live heat carried through 
the body by (lie blood ; the oilier, that (lie oxygen is car¬ 
ried into the blood an l the food oxygenized at different 
points. Without: designing (o favor either of these theo¬ 
ries, avc have used the latter for illustration, as for our 
purpose either of them amounts to the same tiling prac¬ 
tically.] 
