1860 ] 
AMERICAN AGPJGULTURIST. 
Fig. 6.—c, The caterpillar, with worms escaping.— d, Caterpillar opened, showing the worms feeding.—g, Dead 
Caterpillar with cocoons. 
grain of sand would measure several: but how 
can any one feel assured of the proceedings of an 
atom which is barely perceptible to the youngest 
and keenest vision as an elongated dot ! Dr. Har¬ 
ris mentions that there is a similar insect Which 
is often seen emerging from the pupa of the Hes¬ 
sian fly. I have not as yet met with it. In fact 
the wheat plant is so besieged with insects bene¬ 
ficial and injurious, that a long life time could be 
Fig. 5.—Microgaster Oleracea, magnified, 
consumed in daily discoveries, and not exhaust 
them even then. The third insect (fig. 5,) is the 
destroyer of the larva of the white butterfly of the 
cabbage, turnips, etc., the Pontia oleracea of Har¬ 
ris—therefore it can be called with propriety the 
Microgaster oleracea. It corresponds very close¬ 
ly with the M. glomeratus of Spinola, which de¬ 
stroys the caterpillar of the Pontia Brassicae, (Pon¬ 
tia Oleracea,according to Harris,) the cabbage but¬ 
terfly of Europe. This fly is black, except the legs, 
which are yellow. The wings have several ner- 
any more than we would the prick of a pin, and 
is very patient under all these wounds. In time 
these eggs hatch small worms, which feed on the 
fatty portions of the caterpillar, carefully avoid¬ 
ing the vital parts. They have instinct enough to 
know if they touched these parts, the caterpillar 
would die before they had undergone all their 
changes. The rings of the infected caterpillar 
become dark, they are generally a bright green, 
and when the worms are full grown, you can ob¬ 
serve the feeding, by cutting one open as shown 
at d, (fig. 6). When they are ready to spin, they 
eat out of the caterpillar, c, (fig. 6), and proceed 
to spin their cocoons on every part of it, present¬ 
ing the appearance of pretty little canary-yellow 
silken globules. The devoted creature can be 
seen traveling slowly up a wall, a twig, or hiding 
under a paling, where it glues itself fast and dies, 
yielding its body to its triumphant little enemies. 
The cocoons, g, (fig. 6,) become faded with the air 
and light, and are odd looking fabrics stuck over 
the shell of the doomed caterpillar, h, (fig. 7,) 
shows the worm commencing its cocoon, and e, 
Fig. 7.—The worm commencing to spin its cocoon. 
vures—a short thick one near the place of the 
stigma, the palpi six jointed—the ovipositor short 
exteriorly, the antennae filiform. She deposits 
thirty eggs or more between the segments of the 
caterpillar, sinking them very deep, so as to avoid 
their being cast off with its change of skin. The 
catero'.y.ar does not seem to heed this operation 
Fig. 8.— e, A cocoon with its fastenings. 
(fig. 8,) represents a finished cocoon with its fast¬ 
enings. In process of time, the little fly emerges, 
and is soon at work in our behalf. Thus these 
small benefactors continue all the bright Summer 
days, busy performing their mission, which is so 
effectual in this instance, that out of fifteen cat¬ 
erpillars you may, perhaps, obtain two healthy 
specimens, the remainder will contain more or 
less of these parasites. 
Do not these small creatures teach a great 
lesson—assuring us that if we will look around 
and see our lives in a true Christian spirit, we 
will ever find that if evil is near, we have only 
to watch with faith—feeling assured that out of 
it, in time, will proceed the good. 
One or the Mosquitoes—W e have heard 
marvelous stories of these tormentors; as that in 
some sections they carry brickbats under their 
wings to sharpen their bills, etc.—all of which 
were evidently not intended to be credited. The 
following, however, is related in all truth and so¬ 
berness, by a daily paper in this city. A gentle¬ 
man at one of our hotels was awakened by a sen¬ 
sation caused, as he supposed, by bleeding at the 
nose. Upon lighting a lamp, however, he dis¬ 
covered a stream of blood about the size of a large 
knitting needle, spurting out from his cheek, just 
below the left eye. It continued to flow near 
three hours before he could check it. Upon con¬ 
sulting several eminent physicians, they attrib¬ 
uted it to the bite of a mosquito, and said, had 
the flow of blood continued much longer, the 
gentleman must have died. We suggest that a 
police force should instantly be employed to pro¬ 
tect our citizens from such murderous assaults, 
and to instantly shoot every mosquito found at 
large without a muzzle !—American Agriculturist, 
This Live World of Ours. 
Aggasiz and Gould estimate that there are at 
least 250,000 different species of living animals ! 
When we think for a moment of the number of 
individuals belonging to each species, we can 
begin to have a faint idea of the innumerable 
throng of animated creatures that people this 
earth of ours, which is of itself only a minor 
satellite of one of a vast number of solar sys¬ 
tems. We said a “ faint idea,” for who can 
grasp the magnitude of the figures required to 
enumerate the individuals of a single species, say 
of cattle among quadrupeds, or of pigeons among 
birds, or of herrings among fishes, or of house¬ 
flies or mosquitoes among insects—each one ol 
which is a living, breathing, pleasure-seeking ani 
mal !—American Agriculturist. 
$14,000 for Horse Shoes! 
Did any one eve>- estimate the aggregate 
amount of money expended upon some of the 
small items connected with industrial pursuits! 
Take pins for example. Suppose each of 5,000,000 
families in our country to use, on an average, five 
papers of pins in a year—that is, one paper to 
each individual—and count the price of them 
at an average of six cents a paper. The cost 
would amount to one and a half million dollars, 
and the gross number of pins to thirty six hun¬ 
dred millions ! How many matches are used! 
We were led to this thought by glancing over the 
annual report of the Brooklyn City Railroads, 
and noticing that this company expended last 
year fourteen thousand dollars for the single item 
of horse-shoeing. What is the gross amount 
paid in our country for shoeing horses! How 
many of these shoes are put on in the best man¬ 
ner! After considerable experience in this line, 
with various horse-shoers, we have never met 
with but one really first-rate horse-shoer. How 
much is suffered by our noble animal for want of 
proper skill and intelligence in this line. Could 
we get the materials, we should like to publish a 
good book, or even a periodical devoted to this 
single specialty. As it is, we are troubled to 
find good articles for an occasional column in 
the American Agriculturist. 
An Agricultural Exhibition was held at Adelaide, 
South Australia, in March last, at which it was 
estimated 8,000 visitors were present. The show 
of wheat was especially fine; a sample of the 
first prize seed wheat weighed 66} lbs. per bushel 
