1877.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
227 
contract to make money or lose it for the town, hut simply 
to do the business, win or lose; whether the town made 
money or not is quite another question. The agent’s state¬ 
ment, then, would be as follows: 
AGENT IN ACCOUNT WITH TOWN. 
Dr —To cash received on taking office.$32.17 
“ “ from sales. .103.97 
135.14 
Cr.— By paid for liquor.59.91 
“ salary.25.00 
“ balance due town.50.23 135.14 
And the town would find that upon tak¬ 
ing stock they had lost $S.ll as below. 
On hand upon commencing business.—Cash.... 32.17 
Liquor. 57.54 89.71 
Loss to town. $8.11 
Hoping that I have not taken up too much of your time in 
giving such a long answer to a simple question in book¬ 
keeping, in haste, I am etc., etc. 
If you want a more exhaustive (not to say exhausting) 
statement, you can study the following: 
Dr. stock account. Cr. 
To loss..$ 8.11 By cash.$32.17 
Balance. 81.60 “ mdse. 57.54 
$89.71 $89.71 
Dr. CASH account. Cr. 
To cash on hand... $ 32.17 By mdse.$ 59.91 
“ received... 102.97 Expenses. 25.00 
Balance. 50.23 
$135.14 $135.14 
Dr. MERCHANDISE ACCOUNT. Cr. 
To liquor on hand..$ 57.51 By cash.$102 97 
“ cash. 59.91 “ liquor remaining 
Balance. 16,89 on hand. 31.37 
$134.34 $134.34 
Dr. EXPENSE account. Cr. 
To salary.$25.00 By loss.$25.00 
Cash.. . 
Dr. PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT. Cr. 
To expenses.$25.00 By mdse.$16.89 
Balance. . 8.11 
$25.00 $25.00 
By a “ glance ” over these live accounts, the transaction 
may be kept as “ plain as a pike-staff.” 
Tours, etc., 150 Macon st., Brooklyn. 
Besides the before mentioned names, the account has been 
correctly rendered by T. M. H., G. \\ 7 . Y„ G. P. B„ Fred. 
M.N., J. W. C., G. H. N„ Lucius E. B., G. E. Bunwell, 
Mrs. Theodore D. G., J.A.L., J. H. C., J.M.B., F.W. F„ 
G. H. Warner. A. F. S., Macon Street, Warren L.F., Ed. 
H. S„ Frank P. D., Mount Vernon, and Mrs. J. G. T. 
April 18th, 1877. 
Send communications intended for Aunt Sue, to Box 111, 
P. O., Brooklyn, N. Y., and not to 245 Broadway. 
kaleidoscope. But as you have no tube to put your big 
mirrors into, you must hang a cover, such as a shawl, all 
along the open space, represented by the book, from one 
end of the piano to the other. Having done this, I think 
you will understand, from the description given last 
month, how to operate it... All the letters do not come 
from youngsters, for I sometimes find in those from older 
persons things that will interest you. For instance, a 
gentleman in Maryland sends specimens of 
AN INSECT THAT BUILDS A STONE HOUSE. 
A box came with some specimens, and a letter asking 
what they were. I wrote and told him about them, but I 
give you, what I could not send him, an engraving of one 
of them. The box was full of little tubes of the size and 
shape of that in figure 2. Each tube was made up of little 
bits of stone, small pebbles, which were put together, 
and as nicely fitted as the stones in a well built wall; 
they were fastened together by a cement that water would 
not dissolve. Each of these tubes was built by an insect, 
to serve as its house; or, as it is carried about by the 
creature, it is more like a great 
coat. As soon as they came, I put 
the tubes into water, but the in¬ 
sects were all dead, so I have to 
borrow the picture of the builder 
of this pretty mason work, fig. 3, 
from Mr. Packard’s book. I have 
told you so many times, that I 
hope you remember it, that the 
different states of an insect are 
1st, the egg—2nd, the larva, which 
comes from the egg; we know 
some kinds of larvaas caterpillars, 
and others as grubs and maggots; 
it is in the larva state that the 
insect feeds most, and makes its 
growth ; after a while it goes to 
Fig. 2. Fig. 3. rest, and becomes 3rd, the pupa, 
or chrysalis, one kind of which 
is a cocoon, and sooner or later there comes from 
this, 4th, the perfect insect, usually the winged form, 
such as we see in the butterfly, the beetles, and all other 
winged insects, including the house-fly and mosquito. 
Now I hope you will recollect this about insects, as I 
shall not repeat this again—at least not this year. Well, 
the fellow who builds this mason work, is 
THE LARVA OP A CADDIS-FLY, 
Tlte Doctor’s Correspondence. 
That is right I—When boys or girls do not understand, 
let them ask. When one knows all about a thing him¬ 
self, he may in telling others about it, forget some little 
point, or fail to describe it so as to be clearly understood. 
Here is Master Charles M. E., of New York City, who 
would like to try the 
PIANO KALEIDOSCOPE, 
which I described last month, only he does not quite un¬ 
derstand how it is done. Well, Charlie, let me try again, 
Fig. 1. —PIANO KALEIDOSCOPE. 
and this time see if an engraving will not help. Let 
figure 1 represent your piano, as you stand looking to¬ 
wards the end. When you open the piano, the part that 
lifts is in two pieces, one of which goes straight down in 
front, and is hinged to the piece which is directly over 
the keys, and that again, is hinged to the larger part of 
the cover, which usually remains shut, and in its place. 
Ordinarily, in opening the piano to play, these two hinged 
pieces fold together, and lie flat upon the other part of 
the cover. To make the Kaleidoscope, you do not let the 
covers lie down flat, but prop them up with books or 
something else, as shown in the engraving at B. The 
piano cover being highly polished, the underside of the 
movable part A, and the surface of the fixed part, C, act 
exactly like the two mirrors of blackened glass in the 
and is shown in figure 3. You must know that the larva 
of many winged insects pass their lives in the water; the 
well known mosquito does this, and the “ wrigglers ” 
you see in water that stands a while, such as that in a 
rain-water cask, are the larval form of our musical friend 
the mosquito. The larva of the Caddis-fly passes its life in 
the water. It has a pretty hard head and front, but the 
rest of its body is very soft, and as it can not move very 
quickly, it would fare poorly, did it not build a case to 
protect its long and soft body. There are several Caddis- 
flies, and their larvae (plural of larva), do not all build 
stone houses. Some prefer straws, small chips, and twigs, 
for a covering. Some use dead leaves, others build their 
cases of little bits of moss, and one would never 
suspect that there was an insect inside of the little tuft, 
did he not see it travel off; then there is one fellow that 
hunts around for the empty shells of little fresh water 
animals, and builds its case of them. All of these are 
more frequent than the stone-building one, which is put 
down in the books as belonging in Labrador and else¬ 
where far north, and I was surprised at seeing it from so 
far south as Maryland. The insect, when first hatched, is 
very small, but young as it is, it starts its case, and as it 
is not built, as boys’ clothes are cut, “ to allow for grow¬ 
ing,” it has, as it increases, to keep on adding to the case. 
After it has reached its full size, it finds a safe place, 
closes up each end of its case by spinning some bars, and 
remains a while as a pupa; at last it comes out as the 
winged insect, or Caddis-fly. As the perfect insect of 
this stone-mason Caddis is not known, I cannot give you 
its portrait; but the Caddis-flies generally, are much like 
the Dragon-flies, or Darning-needles, though their bodies 
are not so long. You may not find these stone-builders, 
but in most slow streams, if you watch carefully, you can 
find those that build cases of other materials. But before 
leaving the Caddis-fly I must tell you how a lady inEugland 
MADE AN INSECT DO ORNAMENTAL WORK. 
She caught a lot of Caddis-worms, and gently pushed 
them out of their cases into a dish of water. Of course 
the insect set about hunting for material to make a new 
case. The lady supplied it with—what do you suppose ? 
—small glass beads of different colors 1 Being the only 
things they could find, the poor Caddies went to work, 
and in t ime had very gay cases of variously colored beads, 
all nicely cemented together. Very pretty they must 
have been, and I was very sory not to find a single one, 
of several dozen sent me, that was alive, as I much wish¬ 
ed to try the. experiment with the beads. It is not at all 
likely that the Caddis-worm would use beads, no matter 
how plenty they where, if offered to it in the brook, for 
it would know that they would make it all the more 
showy and readily seen by fishes and other animals. All 
their covering are intended to 
HIDE THEM PROM THEIR ENEMIES. 
It is curious to notice the various ways in which insects, 
especially those that move slowly, are disguised, either by 
their color or form, so as to be less noticed by birds. On 
another page is given an account of an insect, very de¬ 
structive to trees in one place, which is called a Walking- 
Stick, or Stick-bug, as it looks so much like a twig that 
it would not be noticed, unless seen in motion. It is a 
Fig. 4.—WALKING LEAF. 
very slow traveler, although so well supplied with legs, 
and no donbt this resemblance to a stick cheats the birds. 
In the East Indies there are several insects called “Walk¬ 
ing-Leaves,” one of which is shown in figure 4. They 
look much like a leaf in form and color, and are evident¬ 
ly thus disguised that they may the better hide from 
their enemies among the leaves_Jenny L. has had a 
present of a Cologne bottle with 
HER NAME ENGRAVED UPON THE GLASS, 
and of course wonders how it is done. Engraving is now 
a very popular style of ornamenting glass, and it is a 
beautiful one. It is not uncommon, for those who can 
afford it, to have their goblets and other glassware orna¬ 
mented with such designs as they may select, and mark¬ 
ed with their own initials, and most of the large stores 
that deal in such articles keep engravers to do this work. 
The usual bright surface of glass, when rubbed with 
something harder than itself, will become dull. It may 
be scratched and made dull by the use of a file or by rub¬ 
bing it with sand; in engraving, the material used is 
emery, a stone much harder than ordinary sand, and for 
some work, diamond dust is used.- The engraver has a 
sort of lathe, as in figure 5, to which he can attach wheels 
of various sizes, and by means of a treadle, worked by 
his foot, this wheel can be made to revolve very rapidly. 
The wheels are from an inch to six inches across, accord¬ 
ing to the work, and are made, usually, of copper of 
different thicknesses. The edge of the wheel, like that 
in the engraving, is smeared with oil and fine emery, the 
oil being used to make the emery stick to the wheel, and 
Fig. 5.—ENGRAVING ON GLASS. 
the wheel is set to going very rapidly. If a goblet, or 
any other thing of glass, is brought against the wheel, its 
surface will be scratched at once, and you can see, that 
by turning the goblet a line can be scratched or engraved 
quite around it. Straight lines are but little used; the 
engraving is usually in most graceful lines, and vines and 
other figures are represented. To understand how these 
are made, fasten a lead pencil so that it can not move, and 
then try to draw or write something by moving a card 
against the pencil. You would find it very difficult at 
first, but could soon get the knack of moving the card, 
so as to ivrite your name. The wheel is like the fixed 
pencil, and the glass, like the card, must be moved in 
order to form the engraving. You can see that it requires 
much practice and skill to engrave on glass nicely, for, 
of course, a mistake or wrong line cannot be rubbed ont. 
