1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
34r7 
kdys & 
Different Ways oi'Enling'. 
A distinguished physician of our acquaintance who 
has occasion to examine the chests of many people, says 
that lie gets a great deal of amusement in observing the 
different ways in which people put on a shirt. Wo find 
no little amusement in noticing the different ways in 
which people cat. Those of us who have business 
‘‘downtown” in the city, mostly eat at a restaurant 
where dozens and sometimes hundreds are taking their 
noon-day meal. It is curious to sec the different ways in 
which people will go about the same operation. Some 
“ gobble up ” their food as if on a wager to see how soon 
they can dispose of it, and others pick at it as if looking 
for something disagreeable in it—and they find it too, 
sometimes, at restaurants. Some act as if they were the 
only persons at the table, and reach directly across one’s 
THE BOY WHO EATS WITH HIS ELBOWS. 
face for salt or pepper, while others will be careful not 
to intrude upon their neighbors in any manner. You can 
always pick out the gentlemen by the way in which they 
regard the comfort of others. It is bad enough to see 
one wipe his knife on his lips and then put it into the 
$ butter, but the greatest annoyance is the man who “ eats 
with his elboivs.” We mean those chaps who keep their 
elbows working like a fiddler, It is a real discomfort to 
sit next to one of these, as the frequent nudges and 
knocks that one gets front the industrious elbow quite 
destroys the enjoyment of a meal. It is not in restful' 
rants only that we have noticod this uncouth perform¬ 
ance, but in hotels and private families. It is not likely 
that those who annoy others in this way are conscious of 
doing so, but it is the excroiso of a bad habit formed 
when young. We would not like to think that any of our 
young friends eat in this way, but if they find themselves 
doing so, let them try to cut the food and carry it to the 
mouth without spreading out the elbows; they will find 
it quite as easy, and they will not, in this respect at least, 
annoy others at the table. 
Tlie Doctor’s Talks. 
SOMETHING ABOUT INSECTS. 
“ What is this, Uncle ?” said Arthur, as he brought me 
something for inspection. “I found it down on tho to¬ 
mato vines; it is a great green worm, carrying its eggs 
upon its back.”—Many older people have very strange 
notions about insects, because they do not know tha 
changes they go through, and the order in which these 
occur. Most of you have seen the Tomato-worm as it is 
called, though it is iu some places known as Tobacco- 
worm, and in others the Potato-worm, according to the 
plant upon which it is found. Let us run through its 
history and it will serve for that of other insects, though 
TOMATO-WORM AND COCOONS. 
the story would have to be somewhat modified to meet 
all cases. In the first place there is the egg. Secondly, 
when the egg hatches there is produced a larva, or cater¬ 
pillar. A little fellow at first, but a great feeder, and 
soon grows famously. After changing its skin several 
times, it reaches its full size, as large as one’s finger, and 
three inches long. Having done a great deal of mischief 
in eating tho plants, it is ready to rest; so it goes down 
into the ground for its winter’s sleep. When it is fairly 
abed, it would never be taken for the same green worm. 
It is much reduced in size, its skin is hard and brown, 
and it appears to be lifeless when turned up, as it often 
is, by the plow or spade. This is the third stage of the 
insect’s life, and when in this it is called kpupa, or chrys¬ 
alis. Curious changes are going on in this brown pupa; 
for in spring it bursts open its case and outcomes a large 
moth—which some, who do not know the difference, call 
a butterfly. Its great, gray wings have a spread of five 
inches, and it has a very long trunk with which it can 
suck the juices from flowers. This is the fourth or per¬ 
fect state of the insect, and is called the imago. This 
lays eggs, from which proceed another lot of caterpillars, 
and so the changes are repeated. The larva of all in¬ 
sects are not caterpillars, they do not all form the 
pupa in Hie ground, for many spin cocoons in which 
the change takes place; nor are all the perfect insects 
—as you well know—moths, but they all go through 
changes similar to this. First the egg, then the 
larva, after this the pupa, and finally the imago, or perfect 
insect. As the perfect insect alone lays eggs, the cater¬ 
pillar which Arthur brought could not have been “car¬ 
rying its eggs upon its back," as he thought. Yet the 
mistake was a very natural one, as you will see by look¬ 
ing at the drawing I had made of the caterpillar. There 
they were, little white egg-shaped things, just as thick as 
they could stand. What were they ? In order to explain 
it to Arthur I had to make the little talk about insects I 
have given you. All insects do not live on plants; some 
live upon the larger animals, and many make their home 
in their larva state inside Ike bodies of other insects ! This 
Tomato-worm for example, which we consider as an 
enemy to us, on account of the injury it does our plants, 
has its own insect enemies. A minute fly-like insect 
with a sharp probe pushed a great many of its eggs into 
the caterpillar's body when that was quite young; these 
eggs hatched there, and the larvae from them grew as tho 
Tomato-worm grew. They did not kill it outright as you 
might suppose they would have done, but left it enough 
life to enable it to supply them with food. When these 
little larvae were ready to go into the pupa state they 
made their way through the skin of the Tomato-worm, 
spun their little cocoons, in which they became pupas, and 
finally came out as perfect insects. Animals which live 
upon other animals are called parasites ; and the things 
which Arthur thought were the eggs of the Tomato-worm 
were really the cocoons of one of its parasites. Should 
you come across a Tomato-worm in the condition I have 
shown iu the engraving, you can put it under a tumbler 
and you will be very likely to catch some of the perfect 
little insects as they come out of the cocoons. “ But what 
becomes of the Tomato-worm ?” It dies after it has 
nourished its unnatural brood. It has not strength 
enough left to change into a perfect insect. Iu this case 
we must look upon the parasites as beneficial insects. It 
is very gratifying to know that we have such aid in keep¬ 
ing the troublesome insects from multiplying more rap¬ 
idly than they do. When Arthur is old enough I intend 
that he shall study insects, at least enough to learn to 
distinguish between the beneficial and the injurious ones. 
Perhaps some of the boys and girls who read this would 
like to do the same. This will do for the first lesson.— 
“ Where shall we find the second ? ”—Well, that is a diffi¬ 
culty. It is a great pity that there is no book about in¬ 
sects Suitable for boys and girls. I wish some entomolo¬ 
gist would do for the “ bugs ” what Doct. Gray has done 
for the plants in his “ How Plants Grow.” 
An Old City. 
BY “CARLETON.” 
It may not be the oldest city in the world, but there are 
not many older places than Benares. It is pronounced 
in three sylables with the accent on the second—Ben-ar- 
es. It is in India on the bank of the Ganges. The peo¬ 
ple who live there think that there is no river in tlie 
world like the Ganges. Its waters, they say, are purer 
than those of any other stream—so pure that by bathing 
in it they can wash off, not only the dirt from their bod¬ 
ies, but all sins from their souls. They think that Ben¬ 
ares is a good city, that men who live and die there will be 
a great deal better off here and hereafter, than those who 
live and die anywhere else. It is so ancient that no one 
knows when it was founded, but I have no doubt it was 
a large place when Abraham was living, 3,800 years ago. 
It is a wonderful place. When we read about Greece, 
we seem to go back to the threshold of history; but Ben¬ 
ares had its gorgeous temples and palaces centuries be¬ 
fore the Parthenon, that most beautiful temple of the 
Athenians, was built. When David was a boy tending 
sheep in the pastures around Bethlehem, before he went 
out to fight the great giant Goliath, boys and girls 
were playing in the streets of Benares as they are play¬ 
ing there to-day; and things change so slowly there that 
the manners and customs of the present time are pretty 
much as they were two or even three thousand years ago. 
Tho city is located on the cast bank of tho river. Stand- % 
ing on the western bank you behold a magnificent sight. 
The river is as wide and as deep as the Ohio, and sweeps 
past the town with a steady current. The city extends 
along tho bank a distance of five miles. Moored to the 
shore, anchored in the stream, of floating slowly past, 
are hundreds of boats—the queerest craft imaginable— 
with clumsy hulls, cumbersome rudders, large, square 
sails, carved stems and sterns, with bungling cabooses 
on the decks. Many of the boats are loaded with hay, 
straw, or bundles of bamboo, and as you see them from 
a distance you think that some haystacks from up tho 
river must be drifting down witli the tide. 
Leading up from the water are flights of stone steps 
which are called gh-auls by the Hindoos. Above them 
are temples and palaces, with roofs, turrets, and mina¬ 
rets, some of them covered witli gold—pure gold 1 Think 
of hundreds of minarets and spires gleaming in the sun¬ 
shine—of flags and banners waving above the towers, 
and a great crowd of people with elephants and white 
bulls, in tho streets and on the stone steps, or in the 
river! Monkeys are hopping here and there on the roofs 
of tho houses, and chattering in the trees; and there are 
kites that cry “ caw-caw ,” and a bird that keeps crying— 
“It is coming! It is coming!” 
You see tame elephants bathing in the river ; great, un¬ 
wieldy fellows with ear3 as big as a blacksmith’s leather 
apron—a long trunk, and a long tail. You think of what 
the Irishman said the first time he ever saw an elephant— 
“ Fath he’s a tail at both ends!” You see a boy on the 
back of each animal with an iron spike in his hand. 
When he wants the creature to do any thing, he gives a 
thump on his skull, and utters a cry which the elephant 
understands just as the horse understands your whoa ! 
He knows at once by the inflection of the voice whether 
there is an exclamation or interrogation point after tho 
whoa, and gees or haws accordingly. The elephants like 
to get into the water and they would stay there all day if 
their keepers would let them. The flies cannot bite them 
when they are in swimming. Sometimes they have flno 
frolics with their keepers. They sink down until you 
can see only the tips of their trunks, and then the boys 
have to stand up to keep their heads out of the water. 
Sometimes the elephants playfully shake them off into 
the stream. The boys do not mind it much for they aro 
all good swimmers, and are in no danger of being 
drowned. If they were, the elephants would pick them 
up as tenderly as a mother does her child, and put them 
safely on their backs again. Tlie elephants are sagacious 
animals, and very affectionate. They arc fond of chil¬ 
dren and like to tend babies !_“ Tend, babies /”—Yes. 
The keeper’s wife when she wants her baby looked after 
will bandit over to the great, clumsy animal, and he will 
watch it as carefully as the mother herself. If the littlo 
thing undertakes to creep away ho coils his trunk around 
it, lifts it back, and keeps it between his feet. If it cries, 
he is in great distress. How nice it must be to have an 
elephant in tho family for a nurse ! If they are well used, 
they become very fond of their keepers. They always 
remember a kindness, and never forget an injury. 
(Concluded on next page.) 
No. 38S. Illustrated Rebus—A rather easy one. 
No. 389. Illustrated Rebus.—A very true statement. 
