AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
109 
t.o deposit the egg for the larva of the ensuing 
Spring. If this be so, steeping the seeds in 
brine, before sowing, we should suppose would be 
he proper remedy ; if otherwise, the process will 
not materially effect their germination. They ap¬ 
pear to show a distinct predilection for the white 
onion, in preference to that of any other color. 
This insect it is exceedingly difficult to destroy. 
Strewing the earth with ashes has proved of lit¬ 
tle avail ; powdered charcoal answers a much 
better purpose, and is generally in use in this 
section of country, but it should only be thrown 
over about two-thirds of the bed, so as to leave a 
portion of the plants for them to resort to on be¬ 
ing brought to the perfect state, and driven from 
their original resting place. When they have 
been converted to the larva state and commenced 
their depredations, these plants should be pulled 
up and consumed by fire. 
It has been recommended to prepare the beds 
as early in the Spring as convenient, and suffer 
them to remain eight or ten days for the noxious 
plants to vegetate, then to cover them with straw 
to the dept of ten inches, and burn them over; 
after which plant the seeds for the ensuing crop 
immediately. This process it is stated, has proved 
perfectly successful in driving away the insects 
and insuring good crops, and in addition to this, 
has furnished a capital top-dressing to the soil. 
Onion beds prepared from the hearths upon which 
charcoal has been burned, have likewise been 
mentioned as producing the perfect vegetable, 
entirely free from the attacks of the fly. 
Should the charcoal method here mentioned, be 
universally adopted, we have little doubt but that 
this insect depredator will in a short time become 
greatly reduced in numbers if not entirely destroy¬ 
ed, and afford a much better chance for a more 
healthful crop of the onion plants hereafter.—J.E. 
- - m < - » <8» 
Vermin- 
It is a well-known fact that nearly or quite 
every living creature is subject to vermin of some 
sort. The huge elephant on land and the whale 
in the ocean, have each their parasites, while the 
very insects themselves are not free from the an¬ 
noyance of still more minute creatures, who are 
sheltered beneath their scales, and prey upon their 
fluids. Minute as they usually are, they some¬ 
times become a terrible pest; by their united at¬ 
tacks even sapping the vitality of the strongest 
animals. They appear to be a penalty attached to 
continued violations of the laws of cleanliness and 
proper modes of life, being almost inseparably at¬ 
tendant upon filth and its associate vices. Several 
diseases, as the itch in man, the scab in sheep, 
and the mange in cattle, horses, and dogs, are 
probably the results of the presence of insects 
working in the deeper layers of the skin ; and 
hence their extremely contagious character. 
The accompanying cut shows the appearance 
<af the insect which causes the scab in sheep, 
(.Acarus scabiei), which bears a general resem¬ 
blance to most, insects of this class. Fig. 66 re¬ 
presents the female magnified 366 times, a show's 
the sucker; b, c, and d the feet; e the tail. 
Fig. 68 shows the male insect magnified. In 
fig. 67 the almost imperceptible white spots on 
the dark ground show the natural size of the in¬ 
sect. 
It is somewhat singular, that poor, ill-fed ani¬ 
mals are more subject to such pests than those 
which are generously kept. It may be owing to 
the fact that in such cases there is usually greater 
neglect in other essentials to health ; or it is the 
more probable that an animal in good keeping is 
better able to ward off their attacks. How¬ 
ever this may be, it is well nigh certain that 
want of care as to cleanliness, whether in man 
or in animals, will be followed by the “plague of 
lice.” 
Clean stables with the free use of the card on 
horses and cattle, whitewashed and thoroughly 
purified houses and roosts with plenty of ashes 
and dust for the poultry are the preventives. The 
cure, where they have once obtained a lodgment, 
is not speedy, though we believe the following 
have proved effectual where persevered in. 
For lice on cattle, rubbing the affected parts 
Fig. 66.; 
Fig. 67. 
THE ACARUS WHICH CAUSES SCAB. 
thoroughly with lard, and washing it out the next 
day with soft soap, will usually expel them after 
one or two trials. For mange, powdered sulphur 
should be added to the lard. The scab in sheep 
has been cured, it is said, by first scouring off the 
scabs, and then dipping the sheep in a strong 
decoction of tobacco with a little spirits of 
turpentine well mixed in. For poultry, turpen¬ 
tine and water is recommended, to be ap¬ 
plied to the feathers, but grease in moderate 
quantities is effectual. Too free use of it how¬ 
ever, has killed the chickens as well as the ver¬ 
min. If the roosts are infested, the poles should 
be taken down, and passed slowly through a fire, 
until every nil is thoroughly “ done,” and where 
portable nesting boxes, which are preferable, are 
used, they should be occasionally cleansed, by 
burning in them a little straw or other light mat¬ 
ter. Ashes dusted through the boxes serve a 
very good purpose. The whitewash brush will 
finally rout the intruders. 
Sheep ticks are pretty easily disposed of by the 
use of Scotch snuff mixed with lard, and rubbed 
along the back, the wool having been parted, or 
by dusting the hide with the snuff alone. When 
once the premises are cleared from vermin, let 
cleanliness forbid their return. * 
Another Man’s Mistakes about Bees- 
common absurd theory ; and I am still surprised 
that the credulity of man should be so long imposed 
upon, seeing the fact can be so easily ascertained. 
Under these considerations I began to investigate 
the subject in order to ascertain, if possible, 
which were the progenitors or males, and which 
were the females of the numerous colonies ; and 
I have at last come to the satisfactory and uner¬ 
ring conclusion that the bee universally called the 
queen, is the male, and that the drones arc females 
which produce all the young swarms." !! ! 
And this absurd conclusion, in defiance of 
Swammerdam's dissections and Huber’s observa¬ 
tions, and the testimony of careful bee-keepers, 
Fig. 68. and the prevalent judg¬ 
ment of competent men, 
is really bolstered up by 
the writer's observations 
and dissections. We are 
willing to think him 
honest; but he must have 
seen things because he 
wanted to sec them. 
His facts are, that on 
one occasion when he had 
put into a glass hive a 
small late swarm, upon 
introducing four drones, 
one after another, he saw 
the queen, which did not 
touch the second and 
third, take such a position in respect to the first 
and fourth only, as to convince him that the com¬ 
mon impression about its sex was wrong. He 
says “ this I saw plainly, so that there can be no 
mistake ; and it satisfied me that apiarists and 
others are and have been laboring under a mis¬ 
take in calling that bee the queen. It is a male bee, 
and should hereafter take the title of King; and 
the drones are females which lay the eggs." So here 
is a specimen of a hasty conclusion, not warranted 
by what he saw. From that single observation, 
in which he might very easily be mistaken, he 
drew the hasty inference that every body else was 
wrong, and that of course the drones lay the eggs. 
Afterwards, wanting “to prove his theory cor¬ 
rect," he dissected the queen and found some¬ 
thing which he mistook for a demonstration of it; 
then he dissected drones and found eggs in some 
of them, but not in all. We do not doubt that his 
desire to prove himself right and every body else 
wrong, had more to do with his observations, 
than he supposed. 
As for his facts, we will only express our opin¬ 
ion by an old Latin proverb, which says, ‘Let the 
Jew, Appella, believe them; I don’t.’ And by way 
of advice to our readers, we will only ask them 
always to make a distinction between what they 
see, and what they think they see; especially when 
they are writing for the Agriculturist. 
In our Feb. No., (page 37), we had occasion to 
show some of the absurdities of the writer on 
Bees, in the new American Cyclopedia. Let us 
give one more illustration of what we were then 
aiming at. Chancing to take up the Boston Med¬ 
ical and Surgical Journal of 1864, a journal which, 
certainly should not inculcate palpaple scientific 
error, we find a writer who calls himself, “ Apia- 
rius Mcdicus," (an apiarist and physician,) who 
talks of an experience of 15 years in managing 
bees. The object of the article is to propound 
the author’s theory concerning the sex of bees, 
the truth of which he thinks is perfectly clear. 
He says: 
“ I could not make it appear consistent with 
reason and the natural laws ofereation, that such 
a numerous progeny of insects of any race could 
be produced by one female, impregnated by sev¬ 
eral hundred of males or drones according to the 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Beep Plowing—When to Bo It. 
I am a practical advocate of deep plowing, hav¬ 
ing been engaged for several years past in deep¬ 
ening my farm, and having found it more profita¬ 
ble to add to my land in this way than by buying 
more acres. My deed runs down to the center of 
the earth, and I mean to make the most of it, and 
I have found that this also gives me another ad¬ 
vantage, for the deeper I get my farm, the higher 
my grain grows, so I gain in both directions, and 
by this means I reckon I’ve got at least thirty per 
cent, more available space than formerly ; at any 
rate my seventy dollars per acre land would now 
bring me ninety dollars—but I haven’t go-t to the 
bottom nor top of it yet, and I mean to stick to it. 
I have found by experiment that it is best to 
