346 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
Aunt Sue’s Clints. 
Lillie F.—To make a simple and pretty “ Scratch My 
Back ” (for matches), take a piece of perforated card¬ 
board ; about 80 holes one way, and 65 the other. Work 
it with red, blue, or any colored worsted you choose, like 
figure 1, Figure 2 will show you how many holes to take 
in working the marginal squares. You can get patterns 
for the letters at almost any worsted store. When you 
have finished the squares and the letters, cut the card¬ 
board around the outer points of the squares in the 
next row of holes to those worked with the worsted. 
Now lay this cardboard on the wrong side of a sheet of 
emery paper (or fine sand-paper), and mark it around the 
points with a lead pencil. Cut the paper in the penciled 
line, all around. Fasten the paper on to the cardboard 
with the same colored worsted with which you worked 
it, by one long stitch on the paper side, from point to 
crotch, and a small stitch on the cardboard side, all 
around the edges. Figure 3 will show, by the white lines, 
how to put the stitches on the back. Fasten little worst¬ 
ed tassels to the points, as in figure 1, and attach a twist¬ 
ed worsted cord (with tasseled ends) by which to hang it. 
Alva M. S.—No, “Prussian blue” does not neces¬ 
sarily “ come from Prussia.” Chemically speaking, it is 
a compound of two cyanides of iron, and its composition 
is altogether too complex to be understood, except by 
those who have made considerable progress in chemistry. 
C. S. Campbell —in answer to my question concerning 
his relationship to E. D. Campbell—says, “ I will say, as 
Senator Cameron did, upon being asked if he was related 
to another gentleman of that name— 1 That in all probabil¬ 
ity their forefathers stole cattle together on the Scottish 
highlands, but he was not aware of any nearer relation¬ 
ship.’ ” 
June 1st, 1877. 
Dear Aunt Sue :—I wonder if any of the American 
Agriculturist girls have tried to ornament ginger-jars, I 
have, and have succeeded so well, that I want to tell the 
rest how to do it. It is a very cheap, as well as beautiful 
way of decorating, and they are almost as handsome as 
the Japanese and Chinese wares that are so much sold 
now. Take an old ginger-jar; get some of the French 
pictures that are sold everywhere (you will want three or 
four large ones for center-pieces and small ones to put 
around them); flowers, butterflies, and birds, are the 
prettiest, (place the butterflies and birds as if about to 
alight on the flowers), or if you wish to have your jar 
Japanese or Chinese, get Japanese or Chinese figures and 
animals. Then gild a rim around the top and bottom of 
the jar with the gilt-paint, which can be procured at the 
Japanese stores; do it with a small camel’s-hair-brush, 
and make little dots of gilt all around between the pic¬ 
tures with the end of your brush; do not have them too 
even, or they will look stiff. Some people paste gilt- 
paper around, in place of the paint, but gilt-paint is 
much prettier and wears better. Now varnish your jar 
with the best of coach-varnish, right over the pictures 
and gilt, and set it away to dry, and it is done. If you 
choose, you can paint your jar black before ornamenting, 
some think them much handsomer so. I have made a 
very pretty card-rcceiver by painting black a common 
breakfast-plate with little raised figures on it, and gilding 
the figures, a rim around the edge, and a circle in the 
middle; then pasting on little pictures between the gilt 
figures, and varnishing it. Always use dissolved Gum- 
Arabic for glue, as it does not stain the pictures. The 
tall brown earthen jars, that almost everybody has, are 
very pretty ornamented in the same way for scrap-jars. 
You cannot imagine how pretty they all are, until you 
have seen them, and I presume some of you will like to 
try it. It is iiot difficult work for any one who is neat 
and patient. Fannie L. Clark, 
North Branford, Conn. 
Fannie L. Clark sends a letter, for which we are 
much obliged, giving instructions for decorating jars, 
etc. I know they are quite effective and pretty, and I 
have no doubt but what many of my nieces will at once 
try the experiment. Suitable pictures can be procured 
at the stationers, and if you have no Japanese stores in 
the neighborhood, you can perhaps gel the gilt paint at 
the paint-stores. 
Margaret T.—“Clara Josephine” was delighted with 
the pretty feathers, and says “ta-ta” for them. 
A Little Correction.— “ C. H.,” Elizabeth, N. J., 
calls attention to the fact, that in the May “ Chats ” the 
word “ Carnival ” is said to be from “ caitio, meaning 
flesh.” This is a mistake of the types ; it should have 
been from caro, meaning flesh, that word being declined 
caro, camis , cami, etc. Thanks to “ C. H.,” who pointed 
it out in time, but the direction on his letter being 245 
Broadway, it did not go direct to Box 111, Brooklyn, for 
a long time. 
The Doctor’s Correspondence. 
The letter budget for this month is very small, and I do 
not at all wonder at it. I think it vastly better that the 
boys and girls should be enjoying themselves in the open 
air in these summer days, or in the warm evenings to be 
watching the fire-flies, and listening to the music from 
various insects that fills the air, and enjoying the pleasant 
company of family and friends, than to be in-doors por¬ 
ing over books, or writing. There is a time for all things, 
and with cooler evenings, I have no doubt that numbers 
of my boys and girls will have a plenty to tell me of what 
they have done and seen, and no end of questions to ask 
as to things that they wish to know more about. Mind, 
I don’t say that you are not to write in warm weather, 
only I don’t blame you, if you prefer to do something else. 
DO CATERPILLARS STING? 
This question is asked almost every summer, and now 
“ W. G. C.,” of New Jersey, sends me specimens of the 
caterpillar “ which stung him.” He was picking a piece 
of “ Wild Indigo,” a rather common plant, when his hand 
suddenly felt as if touched by fire; upon examination, he 
found three greenish caterpillars upon the branch, and 
naturally came to the conclusion that they were the cause 
of the hurt. He was right—they were, and yet they did 
not sting him, in any proper sense of the word, or in any¬ 
thing like the manner in which a wasp or bee would 
sting. The proper sting of an animal or plant (such as 
nettles) is a sharp pointed hollow tube, at the bottom of 
which is a little bag containing a liquid, which, when the 
least drop of it passes into the flesh, causes a poisoning 
of the parts, with great pain and swelling. A prick 
with a needle will cause pain, but this is not a sting, 
so the sharp down of some plants, which consists of very 
minute hairs with barbs on them, will easily enter the 
skin and cause intense burning and itching, but these are 
not true stings. Many suppose that the 
GREAT GREEN TOMATO WORM, 
because it has a horn on its tail-end, must sting, and are 
afraid to remove it from their vines for fear of being hurt. 
This creature, though not handsome, is harmless, and can 
neither sting nor bite. There are very few caterpillars, 
and these not common ones, that have jaws strong 
enough to give even a painful pinch, and these few are in 
no manner poisonous. But to return to the case of our 
New Jersey friend: his caterpillar, shown in figure 1, is 
the larval state of a very pretty moth known as the la 
moth. One of the early entomologists gave this insect 
the fanciful name of Satumia lo, Saturuia being one of 
the names of the goddess Juno, and Io was one of her 
priestesses. I believe that the students of insects have 
other names for this at present, but Io moth is a very 
good common name. The male of this moth, which is 
shown in figure 2, is 
of a deep yellow 
color, with purplish 
brown markings on 
the fore-wings, and 
on each hind-wing, a 
Fig. 1.—io CATERPILLAR. large blue spot, with 
a black border and a 
dash of white in the center. The female is somewhat 
larger, and different in color, the wings being generally 
purplish brown, with gray markings, but it has similar 
spots on the hind-wings. The caterpillars are hatched 
about the end of June, and are found on a great variety 
of plants, including corn and cotton, and the willows, 
poplars, and wild cherries, among trees. The caterpillars 
are of a beautiful pea-green color, and have on each side 
a brown stripe, edged on the lower side with white. On 
each ring of the body are several elevations, and these 
Fig. 2 .—io moth. 
bear clusters of about 30 stiff hairs, which are green and 
more or less brownish or blackish at the tip. It is, on 
the whole, a very pretty caterpillar, 
BUT don’t HANDLE IT, 
as these hairs, or spines, are very sharp and brittle, 
and enter the skin at the least touch, making their 
presence known in the most positive manner. These 
are all the “ stings ” that any caterpillar has, and there 
are several others that are capable of wounding in a simi¬ 
lar manner. Mr. Riley, the celebrated entomologist of 
Missouri, says, that he knows of 15 different caterpillars 
with hairs of this kind. Of course, all hairy caterpillars 
do not wound, but in handling those that you do not 
know, it is well to be cautions, for, though no serious 
trouble follows their pricking, it is far from pleasant for 
a short time... .Here is another Jetter about insects, this 
time from Connecticut, and 
ABOUT A WASP AND A CATERPILLAR. 
A little wasp was seen dragging a large cabbage cater¬ 
pillar, and the writer wishes to know what it was doing 
this for, as the same thing has recently been noticed sev¬ 
eral times before. The box in which the insects were 
sent fared badly in the mail, and as I could only find the 
fragments of the wasp, I can not tell which one it is. 
The wood-boring wasps, the mud-daubers, and others, 
have a curious way of providing food for their young. 
Wasps, like bees, raise their young in cells, though not 
waxen ones. A cell is bored in an old stump, or is built 
up of mud, or other material, and an egg laid in the cell, 
which is then closed up ; the egg hatches, and the grub 
or larva makes its growth within the cell, undergoes its 
changes there, and at length comes out as a perfect wasp. 
But to do all this, the young grub of a wasp must have 
food, aud instead of providing it, as the bees do their 
young, with bee-bread, a delicate vegetable food, which 
is the pollen of flowers, the young wasp is supplied with 
A STORE OF PRESH MEAT, 
which is laid in the cell for its use. Caterpillars, spiders, 
house-flies, and other insects, are put away in the cell 
with the egg. If these were lively, they would be trouble¬ 
some to get into the cell, and after they were there, and 
if they were dead, they would spoil before the grub wasp 
was hatched and ready to cat; so the old wasp stings the 
caterpillar or other insect in such a manner and just 
enough as to keep it quiet, but not so as to kill it, and in 
this stupified condition it is stored away in the cell. 
Wasps have been known to sting and carry off grass¬ 
hoppers and other insects much larger than themselves. 
It is supposed that the poison of the wasp preserves 
from decay the caterpillars, etc., provided for food. At 
all events, it is a very curious way of feeding baby-wasps. 
_The next letter is not about insects, but contains a 
plant from Master George B. G„ who lives in New 
Hampshire. George wishes me “ to name the plant if 
there is a name for it.” It would be a very wonderful 
thing if he, or any other of my young friends, who live 
in the older parts of the country, should find a plant that 
had never been named. I do not say that this is impossi¬ 
ble, but it is nearly as unlikely as the finding of a 
