AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
FOR THE 
ITarm, Gfax-clen, and. Honseliol cl. 
“AGRICULTURE 18 THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.’*-Wi« H n.oT 0 iO 
ORAUGE JUDD, A.M., ) 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. ) 
ESTABLISHED IN 1842. 
( $1.00 PEE ANNUM, IN' ADVANCE, 
I SINGLE NUMBER, 10 CENTS. 
VOLUME XX—No. 8. 
NEW-YORK, AUGUST, 1861. 
NEW SERIES—No. 175. 
[3P Office at 41 Park*Row, (Times Buildings). 
ISP Contents, Terms, &c., on i>p. 252-56. 
Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1861, 
by Orange Judd, in the Clerk’s Office of the District 
Court of the United States for the Southern District of 
New-York. gp^N. B.— Every Journal is invited freely 
to copy any desirable articles, if each article or illustration 
copied, be duly accredited to the American Agriculturist. 
SJmedcan Stquicultimft in ©cvniaii. 
The AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST is published in 
both the English and German Languages. Both Editions 
are of the same size, and contain, as nearly as possible, 
the same Articles and Illustrations. The German Edition 
Is furnished at the same rates as the English, singly or in 
clubs. A club may be part English, and part German. 
August. 
“ Here then each worm, each caterpillar place , 
His son, gay upstart, blushing at his race ; 
Insects of every rank, of every dye, 
That dwell in marshes or in flow’rets lie ; 
Or those that, digging for a secret dome, 
Deep in the budding leaf have fixed their home ; 
The fruit-trees’ foe, or worm more murderous still, 
Whose living foes the human bosom fill; 
The spider too whose webs our walls o’erspread ; 
The fly that builds, or spins the fine drawn thread ; 
Yhose in whose golden web their tomb is wove; 
» nose that in secret, light the torch of love ; 
The fly, whose life throughout the year extends, 
Or given at morning, with the evening ends.” 
“ Delille’s Country Gentleman.” 
The dog star rages, and every living thing 
swelters in the Summer heat. Cattle seek the 
shade, or plunging into the cooling stream, stand 
knee deep in the water, brushing their sides with 
moistened tails. Thus they hold the clouds of 
mosquitoes and flies at bay, and guard themselves 
against their tormentors. Swine roll lazily in 
the mud, coating every bristle with the thick 
aoze, and smothering another race of insects 
quite as terrible to them. Fowls lie leisurely in 
the shade, throwing dust over every feather, and 
shaking it down over every part of the skin. 
Ducks and geese sit upon the river’s brink, in¬ 
dustriously rubbing their oily bills over every 
part of the body, making the feathers proof 
against the eggs of insects, as well as against 
rain. Every animal and plant has its parasite, 
and the parasitic races and all the tribes of in¬ 
sects are now in their prime. Life would be too 
dull in these hot calm Summer days, were it not 
for these minute creatures filling the air with 
the hum of their varied music. 
The meadows are mainly stripped of the bur¬ 
den of grass that covered them a few days ago, 
and you notice the traces of the mower and the 
width of his swath. He has uncovered the 
homes of myriads of insects quite as beautiful, 
quite as full of the wisdom and goodness of the 
Creator, as the grasses and flowers that flourished 
above them. How the air is pierced with the 
shrill note of the locust, and now the song of the 
grasshopper and the chirp of the cricket fall on 
the ear. They swarm in countless multitudes 
among the stubble, and every advancing step 
drives a fugitive host before you. 
We complain of the insects as enemies, and in 
their present number, and our own want of 
skill, they are among the most formidable ob¬ 
stacles with which the husbandman has to con¬ 
tend. The arrangements of Nature have been 
interfered with in the advance of civilization, and 
the harmony once existing between insects and 
other tribes of living things, has been destroyed. 
But even the most destructive of these races has 
its use, and the world could not get on without 
its labors. We need to direct these labors rath¬ 
er than to exterminate the laborers. If man did 
not interfere with the arrangements of Provi¬ 
dence, they would all be kept in harmonious 
balance, and every tribe of living things would 
be seen to accomplish more of good than of evil 
in its labors. Man has disturbed this balance 
in various ways. The trees and shrubs which 
were designed as the food of insects have been 
cleared away in the march of civilization, so 
that not a tenth part of the original pasture 
ground of the insect tribes is left in the older 
States. Forests have been cut down, and swamps 
drained, and the tiny inhabitants that once sung 
and sported in the unbroken wilderness, are 
forced to seek their living in grain fields and 
meadows. At the same time, the natural ene¬ 
mies of the insects, which were designed to keep 
them in check, have been almost exterminated. 
The wild animals that derived a large part of 
their subsistence from insects, have mainly dis¬ 
appeared with the forests. The birds also, 
which-are our best safeguard against their un¬ 
due multiplication, are considered lawful game 
by every vagabond that can carry a gun, and 
by every cat that ought to catch mice and rats. 
We have, too, not only the insects native to 
our forests, but those of other lands introduced 
by commerce. These have come in grain sacks, 
sometimes in straw, or again in seeds, and upon 
plants brought hither for cultivation. Provi¬ 
dence has furnished abundant checks to the 
multiplication of these creatures, and we have 
only to study their habits, to learn how to keep 
them within due bounds. 
As yet, the science of entomology has had but 
few admirers in this country. There are very 
few who have had the time and patience to fol¬ 
low these creatures through their various 
changes, to study the times and methods of their 
reproduction, and the best means of circumvent¬ 
ing them. There is beginning to be felt, how¬ 
ever, a need of this knowledge as indicated in 
the numerous inquiries in our agricultural and 
horticultural journals. Close observers upon 
the farm are learning how to save the cereals 
from their depredations, and pomologists are 
publishing their remedies for the ravages of in¬ 
sects among their fruits. There is great need of 
a wider range of observation, and a larger class 
of students who shall closely investigate the 
habits of these insect tribes. This is a work in 
which our young readers, especially the boys, 
might engage with great profit to themselves, 
and with a fair prospect of usefulness to the 
community. 
A cabinet of specimens is indispensable to the 
prosecution of the study of entomology, and these 
every student might gradually gather for him¬ 
self. If, for instance, we had a few eggs of the 
silk worm, a well grown specimen as he feeds 
upon the leaves of the mulberry, a cocoon upon 
the branch where it was spun, and a pair of 
millers, we should have before us, at a glance, 
a pretty correct view of this insect. Every 
worm, bug, and butterfly, with which we come 
in daily contact, has a similar history worthy 
of our investigation. It would not take a very 
large cabinet to make us familiar with those 
which prey most upon our labors. Specimens 
of insects are much more easily preserved, than 
those of birds and the larger animals; and the 
expense for the material of preserving them, 
would be within the reach of most farmers’ sons. 
The habits of careful observation fostered by 
such a study, would be invaluable to the boy, 
whatever might be his future calling. 
One of the best methods of keeping insects in 
check upon the meadow, and which is appro¬ 
priate to the season, is liberal top-dressing with 
compost or stable manure. As soon after the 
mowing as is convenient, compost is spread at 
the rate of twenty loads or more to the acre. 
Those who adopt this course, give as their rea¬ 
sons, that ammonia is offensive to insects, and 
they are much less liable to deposit their eggs in 
a recently manured meadow than in a clean 
stubble; and that the manure makes stouter 
plants and more of them, so that the traces of 
the eating of worms are seldom seen in rich 
meadows. Facts generally prove the theory. 
Others have great faith in the plow as a do- 
