[1861. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
335 
a thing he would not have thought of, three 
years ago, and he will have, at least, two tuns at 
the second cutting, if he does not steal my thun¬ 
der, and feed it off. But if he does that, he will 
T)e sure to state positively, that he knew Ben 
Woodhull, on Long Island, to do the same 
thing as long ago as when he was a hoy. 
Coming back to my horse-pond lot, Mr. 
Spooner had to ask “ what makes that grass so 
much heavier on the back part of the lot? It 
3s almost another story high.” 
“ Well, you see, thereby hangs a tale. Last 
year, as soon as I got through mowing that part 
of the field, say about the tenth of July, I 
spread on a few loads of compost there, and you 
can see just where it stopped. The compost 
was made of pig-pen manure, with muck rather 
fresh dug. I had a good deal of query in 
my own mind about the best time of spreading 
manure on mowing land, and had pretty serious 
doubts about mid-summer, and feared the loss of 
ammonia, etc. This don’t look as if the manure 
lost much of its strength. The rest of the piece 
was top-dressed in March, and it is not near as 
heavy. I am not prepared to say, exactly, that 
I think mid-summer is the best time, for I sup¬ 
pose the grass has not got all the strength of the 
manure put on this Spring, and another season, 
or the aftir feed this year, may make the case 
look different. I have no doubt the manure 
put on last Summer acted as a mulch, shelter¬ 
ing the roots of the herds-grass, which suffer 
extremely, and are often killed by too close cut¬ 
ting. The roots got strong and vigorous during 
the Fall, made a good math for protection dur¬ 
ing the Winter, and started early this Spring. 
As advised at present, I should put manure 
upon any level piece of land , whenever I happened to 
have it. I think it will pay better interest on the 
meadow than in the yard, and accordingly I 
shall clean up this month, and spread every 
spare load I have upon the meadows. Cutting 
a tun of hay to the acre don’t liquidate, when 
you can get three, just as easy, with more ma¬ 
nure. Things are looking up notwithstanding 
the war. Breastworks will be plenty. 
Yours to command, 
Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
Hookertovm, July 15, 1861. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Something Better than Guano. 
Don’t be frightened, dear reader; we have no 
highly improved, excelsior, patent fertilizer to 
puff and to sell. What we speak of, every man 
may have in his garden, viz: the refuse of his 
brush-heap. For several years past, we have 
gathered heaps of small brush, weeds, prunings 
of evergreens, of grape vines, pear, plum, cur¬ 
rant bushes, etc., into an out of sight corner, 
and at occasional intervals, have burned them. 
Piles of quack-grass, dock and Canada thistles, 
have contributed to the richness of the heaps. 
When convenient, we have carried into this 
corner, thick sods, and lumps of heavy clay, 
which, when partly dried in the sun and wind, 
have been laid over the burning heaps. The 
residuum of these frequent fires has furnished 
the material which we style “ better than guano ” 
—not better, perhaps, than guano when managed 
by experienced hands, but safer, and so better 
for popular use. 
Nothing makes potted plants grow so splen¬ 
didly as a handful or two of this article, mixed 
with common soil. If a favorite pear-tree gets 
lagging, it is sure to wake up and keep awake, 
if treated with our specific—the small and yel¬ 
low foliage giving place to large and vividly 
green leaves. And so, for evergreens, grapes, 
melons, and the like, it does wonders. We only 
add that, after each bonfire, the refuse should 
be gathered up in barrels and kept dry. G. 
Manure used on Long Island. 
A writer in the Country Gentleman says, 
“ The amount of manure used in Kings and 
Queens Counties, N. Y., is almost incredible. 
In addition to what we make at home, from the 
best estimate I can make, we must purchase no 
less than two millions of carman loads annually, 
and probably exceed this amount, adding other 
fertilizers to the account. John Johnston of 
Geneva, N. Y., felt sure it would not pay to 
purchase manures at the present prices, but al¬ 
though it does frequently appear so to us, yet 
the facts are to the contrary. He that manures 
the best, but not in excess, succeeds best in farm¬ 
ing, and to do that, manure from the city must 
be bought.” 
We can fully credit the above estimate from 
our own observations. Every day in the year 
long lines of wagons loaded with New-York 
stable manure may be seen crossing the ferries 
to Long Island, there to be manufactured into 
vegetables, grain, and hay for the City market. 
One farmer said, “ we ride manure one half the 
time and garden truck the other half.” In ad¬ 
dition to this, hundreds of sloops and schooners 
are constantly plying back and forth, laden with 
street sweepings and offal, which sell readily for 
cash to cultivators. The best comment on such 
an outlay for manure, is the fact that the farm¬ 
ers and market gardeners of Kings and Queens 
Counties are getting rich farms, great crops, and 
full purses. 
-- —' ■ • — —*-• - 
The New Insect in Rye. 
BY DR. ASA FITCH, N. Y. STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
The insects coming lrt,m the rye straw which 
you received from Pennsylvania, and forwarded 
to me the commencement of the present month, 
were new to me, and having completed my ex¬ 
amination of them, I now communicate to you 
the result. 
I will first describe the diseased appearance 
which this and kindred insects produce in the 
straw of the different kinds of grain which they 
attack. Just above one of the lower joints of 
the straw, a swelling or enlargement occurs, 
which is more or less orominent as the number 
of insects nestled within, is greater or less. The 
straw, it will be observed, near the joint, is 
composed of two distinct parts, a central hollow 
stalk, and a sheath surrounding it—this sheath 
commences at the joint, and at its upper end 
separates from the stalk and forms a leaf. 
Now, on parting this sheath at the swollen part, 
the disease is found to be seated, not in it, but 
in the central stalk inside of it. This presents 
an uneven surface, knurly or knotty in its ap¬ 
pearance, with several elevated smooth spots 
like blisters, between which the longitudinal 
veins or tubes which are naturally straight and 
parallel with each other, are seen to be curved, 
crowded together, and variously distorted. On 
cutting into the glossy elevated spots, a small 
cavity is there found, in which lies a soft white 
footless worm, perfectly quiescent and seeming¬ 
ly lifeless. In the straw sent me, these worms 
had completed their growth, and were already 
changed into small black flies, which were 
gnawing out of their cells, leaving a perforation 
like a pin-hole in the straw, wherever one of 
them had made its exit. 
The insects have four clear glassy wings, 
which are destitute of veins, except a short 
coarse rib-vein near their outer edge, and their 
antennae are elbowed or flail-shaped, like those 
of the bee and ant. They pertain to the Order 
Hymenoptera, and the Family Chalcididce. 
Our best authorities in Entomology, inform us 
that the insects belonging to this family are all 
parasites, living upon other insects, and not on 
vegetation. Their habits are the same as those 
of the family of Ichneumon flies, next to which 
they are placed in our books. The fly, with its 
sting, pierces the skin of caterpillars and other 
larvae, inserting an egg therein, from which a 
maggot hatches, which feeds internally on the 
larva, until it kills it. And by thus destroying 
insects which are injurious to us, they are to be 
regarded as friends and not enemies to man. 
But in our American grain fields, we are now 
well assured, some of these Chalcidian insects 
occur as vegetable feeders, themselves injuring 
and destroying the grain, and not as parasites 
destroying other insects nestled in the grain. 
The evidence on this subject is of sufficient in¬ 
terest to be briefly narrated in this place. 
For several seasons, about the year 1830, the 
barley crop, in the North-eastern counties of 
Massachusetts, was greatly injured by a disease 
at the lower joints of the straw, the same as 
that which I have described above. Some ot 
this straw was sent to the late Dr. T. W. Harris, 
from which he obtained a number of these 
Chalcidian insects, which he described under the 
name Eurytoma Hordei, he supposing them to be 
parasites, which had destroyed all the real dep¬ 
redators in that parcel of the straw. 
Some ten years since, public attention became 
directed to an insect called the Joint worm, in 
the wheat of Virginia, devastating this grain to 
such an extent as to wholly destroy the crop in 
some fields. A parcel of the diseased straw was 
sent to Dr. Harris, who divided it, and forward¬ 
ed to me the larger portion. We together bred 
upwards of a hundred and twenty flies from it, 
which were so closely like that in the barley 
above alluded to, that we both concluded they 
were mere varieties of one insect. And now, as 
we obtained no other insect therefrom to which 
the disease could be imputed, our convictions 
became strong that this insect was not a para¬ 
site, but was itself the real culprit. I have since 
received similar straw from Virginia and from 
Maryland, without obtaining any insect save 
this therefrom, and other persons who have also 
bred the Joint worm to its perfect state, have 
had the same result. 
For five years past, the barley crop in Onon¬ 
daga and the neighboring counties of our own 
State, has been much injured by this same mal¬ 
ady in its straw. I have received parcels of the 
affected straw from Hon. George Geddes, L. 
Lincklaen, Esq., of Cazenovia, and others, from 
which a host of these Chalcidian flies, and 
nothing else, have been obtained. All doubts 
that it is these insects which cause this affection 
of the straw are thus dispelled, at least from my 
own mind. 
I had confidently expected this barley straw 
from Central New-York would give me the iden¬ 
tical insect which had infested the Massachusetts 
barley. But on coming to examine the flies it 
yielded, not one of them had the legs black, as 
they are described to be in that species. And 
now that I come to see in such a multitude of 
examples, that the legs of this barley fly, and 
