276 
AMERICA^ AGRICULTURIST* 
tinued on three legs till he had carried his 
master from the fi Id, and then he fell. Abd- 
el-Kader adds that when stallions have 
proved their great qualities it is almosi im¬ 
possible to procure them, so fabulous are the 
prices asked. They are only sold to great 
personages, or extremely rich merchants, 
who pay for them in thirty or forty instal¬ 
ments, sometimes even by an annuity to the 
seller and his descendants.— English Notice 
of an article in the Revue des deux Mondes. 
DESCRIPTION OF INSECTS. 
An insect is composed of three principal 
parts, consisting of the head, the thorax, and 
the abdomen. The first contains the eyes, 
the antennae (or horns, as they are some¬ 
times called), the palpi or feelers, and the 
mouth, or feeding apparatus. The thorax is 
that part lying immediately behind the head, 
and to it are attached the legs and the wings, 
and the elytra, or wing-cases of those insects 
which possess them. In all insects the rudi¬ 
ments of wings may be discovered. The 
abdomen lies behind the thorax, and con¬ 
tains the intestines, the organs of genera¬ 
tion, and some parts of the organs of respi¬ 
ration ; in many cases it is terminated by a 
tail, as in Stellatarum, or the humming-bird 
hawk-moth; in others, as in the ichneumon, 
with an apparatus called an ovipositor, that 
is, an instrument with which it deposits its 
eggs, and in some cases with a weapon of 
defense, which can be darted into an enemy, 
and through it a virulent poison be instilled 
into the wound ; the wasp and bee will im¬ 
mediately occur to my readers as instances 
of this species of insect. The true eyes of 
insects are usually what is termed com¬ 
pound, that is, composed of a number of 
lenses, each of which is capable of perfectly 
reflecting the object looked at; in some 
cases these lenses amount to thousands in 
number. Just imagine this for one moment, 
and see the wonderful mechanism here dis¬ 
played. The eye itself, not the eighth of an 
inch in diameter, and yet that eye to contain 
ten or fifteen thousand lenses, each capable of 
perfectly reflecting an image thrown on it! In 
fact, the insect may be said to possess as 
many distinct eyes as lenses. Even Argus 
himself, “ who boasted of a hundred eyes,’ 
must have hidden his diminished head. But 
this is not all; several insects possess sup¬ 
plemental eyes, if I may so call them. They 
are situate on the forehead, immediately be¬ 
tween the true eyes ; they are three in num¬ 
ber, and are arranged triangularly ; they are 
called ocelli, or stemmata. Insects are en¬ 
abled to look before, behind, on all sides, and 
upwards, at the same time, and from their 
being thus capable of casting retrospective 
glances, we may reasonably indulge the hope 
that the malignant animal we bipeds so 
dread is to them unknown—I mean the back¬ 
biter. 
The antennas vary in form and size in all 
the different orders and species. In some 
the variation is very strongly marked; in 
others it is scarcely perceptible, except on 
very close examination ; some are long, and 
of the same thickness from their base to their 
extreme point; such are called filiform ; 
others are short, and terminated by a knob 
or club, and therefore called capitate; oth¬ 
ers, again, are fringed with teeth like one 
side of a small toothed comb, and these are 
called pectinate. The use of these members 
has iieen much disputed, and I believe the 
question is still an unsettled one. I am, 
iiowever, inclined to believe that they con¬ 
tain the organs of smell, or some distinct 
sense, which may be intermediate between 
smelling and sight. It is quite certain that 
insects possess in a veiy nigh degree the 
sense of smell, they apparently posse s no 
other organ, which can he the separate seat 
of that sense, and 1 have not met with any 
valid objection (I speak deferentially) to the 
theory of the antennae being, in fact, the nose 
of the insect. In the antennae of some in 
sects distinct ocelli, or eye-like appearances 
may be traced with the aid of the microscope 
W hat the use of these ocelli may be, I can 
not now stop to examine, but it opens up a 
very interesting point for the investigation 
of naturalists. Are they eyes, in the proper 
acceptation of the word ? or what purpose 
do they serve ?— Mac, in Poultry Chronicle. 
THE COMIC POULTRY GUIDE 
Poultry keepers may be divided into two 
parts : those who keep|for fancy, and those 
who keep for profit. These may again be 
divided into two : those who keep fowls— 
first, because it is the fashion; and after¬ 
wards, with an object in view : like a young 
man who smokes—first, because every one 
else does ; and afterwards, in order to black 
a pipe. 
The sailor commences housekeeping by 
providing a wife, and then a house ; but as 
this system has its inconveniences, we re¬ 
commend to begin with the house. We 
know that those Avho inhabit the lower 
part of large mansions, always declare that 
pains and money are lavish' d on the upper 
stories at. the expense of the “ offices ;” and 
certain styles are said to be more favorable 
to universal comfort than others. Now 
those of w’hom we treat are indifferent 
whether the exteriors of their dwellings har¬ 
monize with Florentine, Gothic, Hanoverian, 
Roman, Composite, or Elizabethan. 
The talented auctioneer said, “ As we are 
not selling Chatsworth, or Blenheim, we will 
not dilate on the beauties of those places ; 
we will drop hyberbole, and declare the 
property we have for sale to possess all the 
comforts usually found in a six-roomed 
house.” We will follow his example. Our 
friends require only a southern and western 
aspect, ample ventilation, but not of the va¬ 
ried character in which our Houses of Par¬ 
liament, and some of our courts of law, lux¬ 
uriate ; good wide round perches, within two 
feet of the ground, and a well-gravelled floor. 
Queen Elizabeth had her rooms strewn with 
rushes, and these were replaced every day ; 
but in this case it is only necessary to draw 
a broom slightly over the surface every 
morning, and even the visits of a sanitary 
commission may be contempalted without 
misgiving. 
It is a common error to suppose fowls are 
teetotallers, far from it; they will drink beer, 
and even wine when they can get it. They, 
nevertheless, have a great aversion to 
draughts, and the ventilation should conse¬ 
quently be as high as possible above the 
perches. 
The wants of the animals are various, and 
must be provided fur. They must have two 
apartments: the first will serve only for 
dormitories, and laying, not for feeding; re¬ 
minding one of some first floors at the West 
End, where it is impressed on those who 
look at them, “they must not dine at home.” 
The other is used for sitting, and should any 
hut a pullet suffering from that want intrude 
'herein, she must be informed in the lan¬ 
guage addressed to Mr. Ferguson, that she 
does not lodge there. 
And vve believe nothing gives so good an 
idea of a thing as a familiar comparison, we 
would say the laying and sitting places 
should be on the ground, but be made 
something like the boxes of a coffee-room, 
or those convenient places to be met 
with in a first rate pawnbrokers’. With 
the liens as ‘with visitors to the latter 
place, privacy is desirable ; and neighbors 
should be unable either to look round or 
over, or meddle with, their neighbor’s busi¬ 
ness. 
The house then may be compared to a 
Club: all its members resort to it. They 
are all travelers ; and provided the arrange¬ 
ments are Conservative of their health, 
nothing about them will demand Reform. It 
has another point of similarity : no children 
are allowed in it. There are many reasons 
for this The uncle spoken of in the “Chil¬ 
dren in the Wood,” is not the only one who 
lusts after the provision made for the neph¬ 
ews and nieces. The delicacies provided 
for the chickens would be devoured by the 
old birds. Maternity has its cares and anx¬ 
ieties, as well as its pride and joy, and ladies 
are not always even-tempered. Mrs. Smith 
will box her child’s ears, and call it an ugly, 
disagreeable little plague ; but if Mrs. Jones 
were to say the same, there wrnuld be active 
host ilities between them. They should then 
be kept in the nursery, seeing the common 
room has many and divers occupants. 
As the cares and delights of being a moth¬ 
er will not always extinguish the desire for 
the pleasures of liberty and single life; and 
as there is no way of overcoming temptation 
so effectual as to prevent its gratification ; 
we will close this part by advising that the 
hen and chickens be removed from the other 
fowls, and that the hen be put under a rip.— 
Poultry Chronicle. 
THE OSAGE ORANGE. 
Is it an established fact that this plant is 
to supersede the Whitethorn as a hedge 
plant? When I went to South Wales 12 
months back, I found there some plants 
which had been imported from Philadelphia 
and planted several years ; but they had only 
annually produced a few abortive branches 
and leaves, and had not made half an inch 
of wood in 12 months. It is true they were 
not planted under the most favorable circum¬ 
stances nor had they much attention after¬ 
wards ; but Whitethorn, side by side with 
them, grew as well as it generally grows, 
making from 1 to 3 feet of good strong 
growth every season. In June, last year, I 
had the ground dug round the Osage Orange, 
gave it a good coat of dung, and soaked the 
plants occasionally with manure water. 
This moved the plants a little, but still I 
only got a straggling branch here and there, 
2 or 3 inches long. I have read the pamph¬ 
let on this plant by an American seeds¬ 
man, 15 or 18 months back, and have seen 
the representations of hedges, which are 
certainly first-rate in every respect, but I am 
sorry my own experience does not accord 
with that published in America. I fear our 
summers and autumns are not warm enough 
to ripen this free-growing plant, that is, if it 
ever gr ws freely in this country, and hence 
it will suffer much from the winter's frost; 
but I may be mistaken. The examples 
above specified, however, warrant me in 
doubting this to be a first-rate plant for our 
climate, for if it will not grow in a dripping 
climate like South Wales, or if it will not 
bear comparison with the Whitethorn there, 
I fear it will not be of much value through 
the country generally.—W. P. Ayres, in 
Gardeners' Chronicle. 
[Is not the “ dripping country ” the ex¬ 
planation of its unwillingness to thrive.— 
Ed. G. C.] 
A young thief, who was charged with 
picking pockets, demurred to the indictment, 
because he had never picked them, he always 
took them as they came. 
An editor at the west has such an antipa¬ 
thy against Roman Catholics, that he is going 
to have his paper set up entirely in italics. 
