THE CULTIVATOR. 
19J 
Flax Culture. 
We have been presented with two specimens of 
flax fibre, one in a greenish unrotted state, and the 
other, termed short-staple, prepared by a new pro¬ 
cess, white, soft and delicate, fitted for the finest fa¬ 
brics. This short staple may be carded, spun and 
wove, by machinery, like cotton. Three tons of stem 
will make one ton of unprepared lint—seven tons of 
stem will make one ton of short-staple lint. This 
new discovery in the process of preparing the lint, 
will give encouragement for an extended culture of 
flax, particularly in districts where it is now raised 
for the seed only, as in Seneca county—as the stems 
will be worth $12 per ton to the grower, exclusive of 
the seed, as soon as they are thrashed. If the anti¬ 
cipations which have been indulged in, of the value 
and importance of this discovery, should be realized, 
flax is likely ere long to become one of the great sta¬ 
ples of our soil. 
Insects—Genus Curculio—Weevil. 
A series of papers is being published in the Edin¬ 
burgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, “On insects 
most injurious to vegetables and animals, and the 
means best calculated to counteract their ravages,” 
by James Duncan. Of the genus Curculio, Mr. Dun¬ 
can informs us, no less than five hundred different spe¬ 
cies have been described as inhabiting Britain.— 
“ Both in tfie larvae and perfect state, they feed ex¬ 
clusively on vegetable substances.” Since the time 
of Linnaius, naturalists have subdivided them into a 
multitude of genera. They are found to be very formi¬ 
dable enemies, both to the farmer and gardener. Some, 
in their larvae state, prey upon the roots of plants; 
some upon the foliage; some upon the blossoms; 
some upon fruit; and some upon ripened seeds, as 
the weevil upon the contents of the granary. This 
last kind, particularly prejudicial to the farmer, is de¬ 
nominated 
“ Calandra granaria. —The extensive devastations of 
this, the grain-weevil, as it is called par excellence, have 
obtained for it a kind of bad eminence among its com¬ 
peers, and caused its habits to be investigated with con¬ 
siderable attention. Several circumstantial accounts 
of it have accordingly been published ; but we cannot, 
for that reason, omit to include a resume of its history 
in a general notice of the insects destructive to vegeta¬ 
ble produce, more especially since the best of these ac¬ 
counts are in a foreign language, and in works not rea¬ 
dily accessible to the general reader. It is the only 
species of the genus Calandra that can properly be con¬ 
sidered a native of this country, and presents the fol¬ 
lowing generic peculiarities:—Antennae scarcely longer 
than the head and rostrum, inserted near the base of 
the latter, nine-jointed,—the elongated radical joint, 
when bent backwards, reaching to the thorax,—six fol¬ 
lowing short,—the remainder forming a narrow, some¬ 
what ovate club, the apex of which is spongy; rostrum 
rather long; thorax elongate, a little narrowed in front; 
elytra scarcely longer than the thorax, and not quite 
covering the abdomen; legs rather short. The species 
in question is nearly two lines in length ; of a brown or 
pitchy colour when mature, but pale on first emerging 
from the pupa; the thorax is nearly as long as the ely¬ 
tra, rather depressed above, and covered with large ob¬ 
long punctures; elytra scarcely so wide as the thorax 
at their base, the surface marked with deep lines faintly 
punctured in the bottom; under side of the body also 
punctured; legs rusty red. 
“ This insect frequents granaries and other reposito¬ 
ries of corn, where the female buries herself in the 
heaps, and deposites her eggs in the grain. For this 
purpose she makes a small hole with her rostrum in the 
skin of the grain in an oblique direction, and, after hav¬ 
ing placed an egg in it, doses the aperture by means of 
a glutinous matter. Never more than one egg is con¬ 
signed to a single grain, as the whole of the substance 
of the interior is insufficient for the support of no more 
than one larva. The latter is hatched in a longer or 
shorter time, according to the temperature, but usually 
after a few days. It is a small vermiform creature, of 
a white colour, and about a line in length, composed of 
nine segments, the body soft, but the head of a harder 
consistency, in order to afford sufficient support to a 
pair of strong jaws, which are the only external organs 
it has either space or apparent inclination to employ. 
With these it erodes the farinaceous substance of the 
grain, continually enlarging its dwelling as it continues 
to increase in size; and by the time that the whole of 
the interior is scooped out, it is prepared to assume a 
different form when food is no longer necessary. The 
pupa into which it now changes is also white, somewhat 
transparent, and lies like the kernel of a nut within its 
shell, the latter being formed by the exterior envelop 
of the grain. When the perfect insect is matured, it 
makes its escape by gnawing a hole in the walls of its 
tenement. 
“ The period when these changes take place, and the 
duration of each successive state, are greatly influenced 
by the temperature. In the south of France, for exam¬ 
ple, the female commences laying in the month of April, 
and the insects continue to propagate till September. 
In this country they increase rapidly only during the 
warmer months of summer. As might naturally be ex¬ 
pected in such circumstances, the geographical distri¬ 
bution of the Calandrce is likewise dependent on tem¬ 
perature ; they occur in profusion in the south of 
France, and similar latitudes in Europe; are likewise 
too abundant in London and the southern districts of 
England, but gradually become less plentiful as we ad¬ 
vance northward. We believe that they seldom occa¬ 
sion any serious damage in Scotland. On an average, 
it may be stated, that from forty to forty-five days 
elapse from the union of the sexes till the evolution of 
the perfect beetle, the greatest proportion of which is 
spent in the larva state. From the number of eggs laid 
by a single female, it has been calculated that her de¬ 
scendants may amount, in a single season, to 23,600 in¬ 
dividuals ; a degree of fecundity which may enable us 
to judge of the evil they are calculated to produce when 
their numbers, in the first instance, are considerable. 
“ Although the larva is of course the principal cause 
of this injury, the perfect insects take likewise a direct 
share in it, by gnawing the grains. It has, indeed, been 
denied by some observers, that they ever do this, ex¬ 
cept when making an opening for the admission of the 
egg ; but it is utterly improbable that they should, for 
such a length of time, frequent places where they can 
have access to no other kind of food, wilhout using the 
grain as such. In this condition, however, probably 
very iittle food suffices, and the injury done consists 
rather in the frequent breaking of the skin of the grain, 
than in the actual quantity of its substance consumed. 
“ The grain into which this insidious foe has been so 
expertly introduced, presents no external appearance 
of being unsound, bu t when immersed in water, it floats 
on the surface, a circumstance which intimates that the 
farina has been destroyed. When this is the case, the 
infected particles should be removed, if possible from 
the heap, and the enclosed beetles killed. But in an 
extensive granary, this is obviously no easy task, and 
the loss arising from the insects will not in many in¬ 
stances, greatly exceed the trouble and expense in¬ 
curred by any means of separation that has yet been 
employed. If the damaged grain, however, be so much 
lighter as the above-mentioned circumstance seems to 
indicate, it appears probable that if the whole were 
passed through a winnowing machine, it would be 
thrown out in the same manner as the chaff and light 
corn are in an ordinary case. If this operation were 
found to answer the purpose, it could be more easily 
carried into effect than any other plan that has been re¬ 
commended. That of exposing the corn to heat, is lia¬ 
ble to this objection, that before the eggs or larva could 
be destroyed, the temperature would require to be so 
high that it would dry the corn too much, and eA r en 
calcine it. 
“ The principal object ought to be the destruction of 
the beetles before they have had time to lay their eggs; 
after that operation is accomplished, they spediiy die of 
their own accord. Of the various schemes that have 
been proposed for this purpose, the following is the most 
approA^ed. When the individuals have passed the win¬ 
ter in a torpid state, are beginning to recover their ac¬ 
tivity, and to move about among the grain, a small heap, 
composed of that kind of corn to Avliich they are most 
partial (which is said to be barley,) should be placed 
at a small distance from the principal store. The lat¬ 
ter should then he turned over, and tossed about as 
much as possible, at inten r als, that the weevils may be 
fairly disturbed and put in motion. Naturally A r ery 
fond of quiet, and anxious to escape from such uncere- 
monius treatment, thej r take refuge in the undisturbed 
heap placed as a decoy. When collected there in num¬ 
bers, they are speedily incapacitated for further mis¬ 
chief by having boiling water poured over them in such 
quantities as completely to saturate the heap. Such in¬ 
dividuals as escape to the. walls or elsewhere, may be 
swept together by a broom, and easily disposed of.— 
The corn of the decoy-heap may afterwards be separa¬ 
ted from the dead insects by sifting. Even though this 
plan may appear not to promise much in the recital, it 
is affirmed that, in practice, it has been attended with 
highly favourable results. 
“ As these creatures do not propagate except at a 
pretty high temperature, attempts have been made to 
check their increase by keeping tbatbelow the requisite 
degree. The only means employed for this purpose is 
free A r entilation; but this must necessarily prove ineffi¬ 
cient; for it is obviously impossible, in the summer 
months, thereby to effect such a reduction as is at all 
likely to influence their economy. More might he ex¬ 
pected from mixing the corn with quick lime, sulphur, 
or some other substance Avliich seems fitted to disgust 
them; but this could only be done with grain designed 
to be used as seed; for the taint they are likely to com¬ 
municate, render such applications inexpedient when 
it is to be employed for other purposes.” 
It is our intention hereafter to make further extracts 
from the interesting numbers of Mr. Duncan. 
Suggestions, &c. in Husbandry. 
[Abstracted from foreign publications.'] 
BONE MANURE. 
C. W. Johnston, who has recently published a Avork 
of repute on liquid manures, in an article on bone dust, 
in the Farmers’ Magazine, condemns the practice of 
mixing plaster with it, for turnips, as the latter, he 
says, is not a fertilizer to the turnip crop. The price 
of bone dust in England, is from £4 10s to £5 5s per 
ton (20 to 24 dollars.) Thousands of acres have been 
brought into a productive state, by the use only of this 
fertilizing material. The introduction of the use of 
hone dust into the United States is very recent. But 
two or three crushing mills have yet been erected; and 
the demand for agriculture is likely to keep pace with 
the supply. There are three advantages arising from 
the use of this and other concentrated manures, as pou- 
drette, horn shavings and animal carbon, &c.: they are 
portable—enough for an acre of land can be carried at 
a single load—they act speedily—their effects being im¬ 
mediate—and they promote clean husbandry, being free 
from all seeds that annoy the crop, and of course save 
labor in weeding, where they are applied. Diminutive 
in quantity as they may seem, they have nevertheless 
become, in Europe, auxiliaries to the cattle yard, and 
are becoming so with us, in the improvement of the 
soil. O ur practice is to mix the horn shavings and crush¬ 
ed bones with our recent yard dung, Avhen on the eve 
of applying it, at the rate of a bushel of the one to a 
load of the other. This induces fermentation, and Ave 
think the effect is highly beneficial. 
THE TURNIP FLEA. 
We find in our foreign agricultural journals—many 
communications on the subject of the turnip flea ( Haiti - 
ca ruraosum ). One of these, from Henry Le Keux, is par¬ 
ticularly descriptive of the habits of the insect, and de¬ 
tails a great number of experiments which the writer 
had gone into to prevent its ravages. The result of his 
long continued experiments seems to be, that the best 
and most efficient mode of preventing their depreda¬ 
tions upon the ruta baga, is, as our Dutchess corres¬ 
pondent recommends in regard to the grub—to feed 
them Avith a more attractive food, than the plants which 
Ave would preserve. AndM. Le Keux, therefore, soavs 
the seed of the common white and stone turnip Avith 
his ruta baga. “I have invariably found,” he says, 
“where this has been done, that the former are first 
attacked, and sometimes, and indeed generally, destroy¬ 
ed, before the latter have been touched, which by that 
time have groAvn to such a size as not to be injured by 
them; and in seasons when the fly has not been very 
numerous, the Swede has not had a single puncture 
upon it, while every leaf of the Avhite stone turnip, by 
the side of it, has been pierced full of holes.” M. Le 
K. detected the larvae of this insect in the leaf, between 
the epidermis and lower surface. 
MANGEL AVURZEL. 
Mr. Hillyard, an extensive cultivator of this root, 
gives the folloAving concise obserA r ations in regard to 
the culture, use and preservation of this root, in the 
Farmers’ Magazine. 
“Those who have not a depth of mould free from 
couch, and a good supply of manure, had better not at¬ 
tempt the cultivation of the mange]. It will grow on 
soils Avhere SAvedes will not groAV. For lambing ewes 
in the spring, it is invaluable. Mangel improves by 
keeping. It should be drilled or dibbled about one inch 
deep. Soak the seed till it sprouts —[an excellent pre¬ 
caution.] I dibble in single seeds 3| inches apart, in a 
hole made by a boy pressing down, by a handle about 
four feet, long, a piece of wood sixteen inches long,* and 
about four broad, Avith three pegs in, seven inches 
asunder, to make 3 holes one inch deep, one seed put in 
each hole, (two if the seed does not appear good) and 
rake the holes in. When taken up the latter end of 
October, [this should be done as soon as the tops cease 
to groAv, or the under leaA r es turn yellow,] strip off'eve¬ 
ry leaf, and throAV into furroAvs tAvo rows, Avliich pull 
up by hand, the other with double mould board plough, 
with shell board off. Dig pits two or three feet deep, 
and tAvebce broad; in these the roots are stacked, and 
ridded up to the height of ten or tAvelve feet from the 
surface of the earth. Faggots should be set upright 
about every tA\ r o yards in the centre of the pit, [before 
the roots are put in] and continued to the roof, all 
along Avliich, faggots should lie. By this contrivance 
heat is carried off’, and rotting prevented. Cover up 
with dry straAV or haulm, then cover with mould, allow¬ 
ing a little time for the heat to escape, before complete¬ 
ly covering the stock for winter [or spring] store.” 
An “Essex Farmer” feeds mangel to his horses, and 
finds it an excellent substitute for hay. He feeds his 
horses AA r itli it all through winter, at the rate of half a 
bushel per head, mixed with chaff, and one bushel and 
a half of corn oats per week to each. His horses are 
thus kept in good working order, and he says he saves 30 
per cent, by thus substituting the mangel for hay. 
FEEDING CATTLE—MANURES. 
It is customary at the cattle shows in Britain, for the 
successful competitors for premiums in particular, on 
receiving their award, to address the company present. 
We find in these addresses many suggestions of practi¬ 
cal use, and from practical farmers. At the Suffolk 
shoAv last December, on the chairman suggesting, that 
as it was the expectation as well as Avish, to blend in¬ 
struction with festivity, he hoped that any gentleman 
present Avho could afford information with respect to 
farming operations, Avouid favor the company with. it. 
Mr. Sliiilitto, one of the successful competitors for good 
stock, rose, and after some preliminary remarks, pro¬ 
ceeded as folloAvs. 
“ The first step of importance, in his opinion, was to 
obtain a good sort of animal, an animal that would car- 
*We have used a dibble of this kind. It may he likened to 
an inverted j,; the perpendicular being the handle, and the 
pegs being inserted in the lower side of' the cross or horizon¬ 
tal piece. When the dibble is placed down at the right gauge, 
which may be readily done by placing the last peg of the dib¬ 
ble in the last hole made, the boy presses with his foot, if ne¬ 
cessary, upon the horizontal piece, so as to make the holes 
sufficiently deep. The pegs may be 3.J, instead of 7 inches 
apart, and thus abridge the labor. In well prepared ground 
a boy may dibble at a good pace.— C. Cult. 
