©ORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKEB 
JAN. 2S 
of a Utoralist. 
DAILY RUEAL LIFE. 
From the Diary of a Centleman near Newi 
York City. 
HIBERNATION OF INSECTS. 
Jan. 8.—In gathering a few chrysalids of 
the small white cabbage butterfly (Pterin ra>- 
jhf) {vom the side of my barn to^lay, I could 
not avoid being led into a train of thought 
regarding the hibernation of insects. The 
worms which only a few weeks since were 
feeding upon my cabbages, have, through 
their natural transformations, become small, 
whitish chrysalids, each carefully fastened 
with a silk thread to the side of some board. 
Stick or weed, where they withstand all the 
changes in the weather unharmed. This 
morning the thermometer marked two below 
zero, and my little chrysalids were frozen so 
hurd that they would break as readily as a 
pioce of glass; but the warm sun shining 
upon the side of the barn soon thawed them 
out, and if touched they wriggled about, and 
showed signs of life. At night they will 
again be frozen, and so on until Spring, the 
alternate freezing and thawing neither injur¬ 
ing nor destroying life. 
But in the common acceptation of tin* term 
t his passing the winter in the chrysalis state j 
is not hibernation, and 1 only mention this 
instance to show the wonderful tenacity of 
life hi such minute creatures. We have, 
however, several species of butterflies and 
mollis that hibernate in their perfect, or im¬ 
ago state, passing the long, dreary Winter in 
some crevice of rock, under the loose bark of 
a tree or old log, coming out in the Spring 
unharmed by their long, and apparently un¬ 
comfortable, rest. Every one must have 
found the little lady-birds concealed in | 
mauve nests, in the old and withered grass' 
in winter; also our Nort hern squash beetle, 
(Epiladma noreaUs, Thunk.) hid away in old, 
dry, and half-rotted trees. The common 
squash or stinking bug (Core.ua Matte,) can 
also be found around the bams, and other 
out-buildings, almost any day in winter. If 
we go into the fields during a thaw and turn 
over fist stones or old logs we find many spe 
cies of beetles that must have been somewhat 
chilly if not frozen solid during the coldest 
weather. Most of these insects sought, t heir 
hihamaoula during the warm (lays of Au¬ 
tumn, and as they lay up no food to e«t, it is \ 
quite evident theirs is a long fast. 
The positions in which different insects 
place themselves in their Winter homes is 
also wort hy of study. Many of the Carabuiu- 1 
cling to the under side of stone with their J 
backs downward, and when we suddenly un- * 
cover them in cold weather we find them ly- * 
ing on their backs. Others rest in a natural 
position, with their feet downward, while 
those with long, slender bodies and short, 1 
abortive wing-covers (elytra), like the rove * 
beetles, coil themselves up. Again we flud 
other species congregating together, appar- " 
ently for the sake of company or for mutual 
protection. I have found this to be particu¬ 
larly the case, with various species of the 
Uarpglux and Bi-nchinua , among what are ~ 
termed ground beetles, while the same thing 
occurs among the Tcnebrionida, which are 
found in old, half-decayed wood. Many of 
the eurculios hibernate, and T have frequently c 
found t no corn eurculio (Sphcnopliorua Zta— p 
Walsh) assembled under loose sods and soft., o 
flat stones ; but whether this was merely a 
accidental, or for the sake of company, of v 
course 1 do not pretend to know. During the ^ 
coldest weather the animal function must d 
cease, and these insects neither breathe nor G 
have need of air, consequently their henneti- ^ 
cally sealed prison of snow and ice is not an ^ 
uncomfortable abode. j e 
A few warm days in Winter may awake j* 
them, but they are too wise to leave their re¬ 
treat until the proper season arrives, or, to 
put the thing upon a practical basis, until 
their natural food is to be procured. Those dt 
that feed upon grass and roots will appear a iv 
month before those that feed upon the leaves tr 
of deciduous trees and shrubs. Everything Tl 
natural seems to move along smoothly and ‘ u 
harmoniously, and it is only when man puts 10 
liis oar in that the good old ship runs upon w 
the rocks and is lost among the breakers, car- ' v 
ried there in the fog of theories. 
j have them nearer together. But when the 
fire insurance agent comes around, lie says 
: they are not one foot too far apart to insure 
= safety in case of fire, and the rates are fixed 
accordingly. When 1 built my green-house 
everybody said, “ Why don’t you attach it to 
j your dwelling ? it will be so convenient to 
walk out of the kitchen or dining-room right 
in among the flowers during the cold, dreary 
Winter.” All of which T acknowledged was 
£ true; but experience in such matters had 
taught me that there were objections to such 
j an arrangement which more than counter 
j. J balanced the pleasures and conveniences. 
. For instance, about once a week during t ile 
» entire Winter we must fumigate our plants 
L with tobacco, in order to kill the green fly 
(aphte) ; and occasionally sulphur or carbolic 
[ soap must be used pretty freely to destroy 
the red spider and mealy bug winch infest 
. plants grown under glass. T f the conservo- 
s tory is attached to a dwelling the fumes of 
these noxious substances are pretty sure to I 
, penetrate to every part, rendering one’s habi¬ 
tation anything but pleasant. A few plants [ 
may be kept in a window or email couserva- 
tory attached to a dwelling and kept clean | 
I without much trouble or annoyance ; but, as I 
a rule, green houses of any considerable ex¬ 
tent should be detached, and If u hundred or 
more feet from the dwelling-house, so much 
the better, to insure safety from lire and an¬ 
noyance of workmen, unpleasant odors and 
dust, 
SEEDLESS APPLES. 
Jan. 10.—I have received from the Rural 
New-Yorker the following note : 
“Daily Rural Life” — Dear Sir: I 
send you this day by mail a seedless apple j 
from the original tree in West Virginia. The 
blossoms are without petals, and apparently 
without pistil. The fruit will speak for itself, 
—P. D. Barnhart, KManning, Pa. 
1 think I saw this variety of apple years 
ago, but am not positive,, although it appears 
I to be the same. It is seedless and almost 
J coreless, the opening or depression iti the cen¬ 
ter of the calyx extending nearly to the cen¬ 
ter of the fruit. There were an abundance 
of pistils in the deformed flowers, for they 
are still adhering to the walls of the cavity 
referred to above ; but the ovaries or seed 
vessels are wanting, consequently the pistils 
were entirely useless, even if they were per¬ 
fect. You say that the blossoms had no pet 
als, and I conclude that there were no sta 
mens, inasmuch as these organs in the apple 
pear and other plants belonging to the Rose 
family, are inserted on this calyx, and in the 
Specimen sent this organ Is also undeveloped, 
there, being five slight protuberances of the 
skin in place of the calyx. 
This variety of apple is certainly unique, 
for in the production of the fruit there is 
neither petals, stamens or perfect calyx, and 
probably the pistils are deformed as well as 
the ovaries, the walls of the calyx-tube en¬ 
larging and becoming a fleshy pulji, or what 
is termed the fruit. I think it would be dif¬ 
ficult to find a fmit produced from a leas 
number of perfect organs. You should send | 
Darwin some cions or specimens of the fruit. < 
•xfarm (Bconomti. 
COLD CHISELS. 
Every farmer should have among his kit 
j of to, ’k «■ good, well-tempered cold chisel. 
In the use of reapers and mowers, wheeled 
horse-rakes, gang-plows and other improved 
machinery, so necessary for economical and 
scientific farming, a, cold chisel is a necessary, 
and almost indispensable tool. A new plow 
share often requires the chipping off of some 
projection before n proper fit can be obtained; 
also in cutting in twain iron, and hundreds of 
little jobs about a farm, require the use of a 
cold chisel to perform the work in a satisfac¬ 
tory and workmanlike manner. 
I am confident, that I speak within the lim¬ 
its when 1 say that not one-half the farmers 
in America have in their possession a cold 
chisel W by is it thus ? Certainly not be¬ 
cause of t he expense. It must then be that 
they are ignorant of its actual value. If that 
be the case, nothing Will set forth t heir value 
more than illustrating and describing the 
most improved forms of the same. 
(SIS / 1 . Figure 1 illustrates 
Fig. 1 , 
a square chisel, five 
inches in length, 
three-quarters of an 
inch square. The 
proper angle for the 
basil is also indica¬ 
ted; it is shown shar¬ 
pened to an angle of 
28 degrees, which is 
in practice found to 
bo the angle best 
suited for miscella¬ 
neous work. 
Figure 3 repre¬ 
sents n chisel made 
from an old file or 
one of the finest cows was very sick, and a 
kind neighbor proposed the usual (bugs and 
poisons. The owner being ill, and unable to 
I examine the cow, concluded that the trouble 
came from over-eating, and ordered a teacup- 
ful of pulverized charcoal given in water. 
It was mixed, placed in a junk bottle, the 
| head held upwards, and the water with its 
charcoal poured downwards. In five minutes 
improvement was visible, and in a few hours 
t he animal was in the pasture quietly eating 
j grass. 
Another instance of equal success occured 
with a young heifer which became badly 
bloated by eating green apples after a hard 
wind. The bloat was so severe that the sides 
were almost as hard as a barrel. The old 
remedy, saJoratus, w«s tried for the purpose of 
correcting the acidity. But the attempt to 
put. it down always caused coughing, and it 
did little good. Half a teacupful of fresh pow¬ 
dered charcoal was next given. In six hours 
all appearance of bloat had gone, and the 
heifer was well. 
Y e disapprove of quackery, where without 
a precise knowledge of the disease, powerful 
remedies are given at random, indiscrimi¬ 
nately. Die objection of qnaek cry cannot ex¬ 
tend to the use of charcoal for it can do no 
harm; and goes directly to the seat of the 
trouble in most sick animals, and if timely ap¬ 
plied effects a cure .—Live StocJe Journal. 
aiirnir. 
rasp. It differs from Fig. 1 only in being flat, 
generally three-eighths thick by an inch wide. 
Nearly every farmer has old files lying around 
tlie premises which can be put to no better 
use than to be made into cold chisels or 
butcher knives, which your blacksmith will 
do for you for a small compensation. 
If yon desire a fancy chisel, purchase at the 
hardware Store a piece of round or octagonal 
steel, four and a-half inches in length, which 
when drawn, will be of sufficient length. The 
basil of a full sized chisel is shown in Pig. 3. 
0 1 nt onto lo gical. 
INSECTS IN RUSTIC WORK. 
Can you inform your readers what appli¬ 
cation can be made to Red Cedar rustic fen¬ 
ces, etc., which will prevent or stop the ac¬ 
tion of worms under the bark. In the opinion 
of many, of whom 1 am one, the bark adds 
a beauty to the rustic work ; but when warm 
weather comes on, little, pin-like holes appear 
in the bark, dust, begins to drop, and soon the 
wood under the bark is eaten out in irregular 
channels, the bark loosens and the beauty of 
t he woodis gone. I ha ve cut the wood in the 
Winter, «na also in the Spring ; but. the de¬ 
stroying worm soon shows itself, and in one 
season the beauty of any structure Is hope¬ 
lessly destroyed. Can yon mention any ef¬ 
fectual preventive of such operations.—ft. I). 
L., Turrytown, A r . Y. 
Fig. 2. Fig. s. 
I In cold weather always remove the frost 
from the chisel by holding the basil in your 
hand for a moment, and thus avoid the liabil¬ 
ity to chip off or break it at the edge, which 
nevertheless happens when the temper is too 
hard, and is only overcome by re-tempering. 
The cost of a cold chisel varies from 50 cts. to 
$1.95, owing to finish. L, d. s. 
GREEN-HOUSES ATTACHED TO DWELLINGS. 
Jan. 0.—Friends often remark the isolated 
position of the various buildings upon my 
place, no two being within one hundred feet 
of each other. At first sight it does seem as 
though they were unnecessarily scattered, 
and for convenience it would be better to 
The insect to which you refer is no doubt 
the well known Cedar-bark Beetle, (Hyluryua 
dmtot.ua. Say.) which is often very destruct¬ 
ive to the Red Cedar, particularly after the 
trees are cut down and used for rustic work. 
The beetle is quite small, scarcely u tenth of 
an inch long.—but it makes long, .slender bur¬ 
rows, with numerous branches, between the 
wood and bark. If the wood used for rustic 
work is varnished or dropped in boiled oil the 
beetles are not likely to attack it; but the 
coating must be complete or the female beetle 
will find a lodgment for her eggs. Perhaps 
washing the wood with carbolic soap, or even 
common soap occasionally, would prevent 
the attacks of this pest. It would cost but 
little to try' a few experiments and ascertain 
the best and cheapest method of keeping this 
beetle out of rustic work. 
CHARCOAL A GOOD FARM MEDICINE. 
Nearly all sick horses and cows are made 
so in the first place by- eating improper food, 
or too much of it. As soon as the owner finds 
any of his animals sick. It is the common cus¬ 
tom to begin dosing medicine. “We rnusn’t 
leave the animal to die; we must do some¬ 
thing!” and so all manner of hurtful drugs 
and poisons are thrust down the throat—salt¬ 
peter, copperas, turpentine, etc,, quite suf¬ 
ficient to make any well animal sick, or kill a 
sick one. “You didn't give the poor thing 
enough—you should hove given it oftener— 
you can’t expect your beast, to get well if you 
don’t do more for it!” 
Our rule has always been to give nothing 
unless we knew exactly what to do; and in 
the meantime attend to every exterior com¬ 
fort practicable, if the weather is cold, pluce 
it in warm quarters, avoid all exposure, and i 
attend to pure air and strict cleanliness. But 
there is one medicine that can never do harm 
and is commonly beneficial. This is pulver¬ 
ized charcoal. As we have just remarked, 
nearly all sick animals become so by improper 
eating, in the first place. Nine cases out of 
ten the digestion is wrong. Charcoal is the 
most efficient and rapid corrective. It will 
cui e in a majority of cases, if properly ad¬ 
ministered. An example of its use. The 
hired man came in with the intelligence that 
BREEDING PEACEABLE BEES. 
o __ 
t. At the recent mooting of the American 
r Bee Keepers’ Association at Indianapolis it 
was asserted that it had been found that 
- bees that are peaceable and quiet transmit 
3 these characteristics to their progeny. Mrs. 
i* Tupper had found that an improvement in 
, tikis respect might be accomplished by rear- 
. ing queens from those mothers whose workers 
1 were peaceable. In this. a« in all else, qual- 
" ities m-e hereditary, and wc should pay more 
attention to this point. She had one queen 
I from Lombardy whose workers were uni¬ 
formly gentle and good-tempered, and, with- 
j out an exception, one hundred queens reared 
I from her produced workers of unusual docil¬ 
ity. When this disposition can be secured it 
is worth laboring for, and is of more value 
than markings or color. By attention to this 
for generations w® may secure a race easily 
without sacrificing any valuable traits. It 
was generally noted that stings were neces¬ 
sary to protect lioncy from thieves, if only 
bees could be taught to distinguish between 
friends and enemies. 
--■♦ + ♦-- 
OPINIONS OF APIARIAN8. 
Mr. Moon thinks an occasional flight of 
bees as often as once in two or three weeks, 
j ^hiring Winter, absolutely essential to their 
I health when confined in cellar or house. 
Mrs. Tupper thinks the severe losses of 
bees lost Winter, was in part due to the over¬ 
stocking of hives with honey, leaving no 
room for brood. 
Mr. IIosmer thinks old bees cannot be 
Wintered as successfully as young ones ; sel¬ 
dom sets hives away without brood. 
White catnip is a good honey plant. It 
is not thought profitable to raise it for that 
purpose ; nor any other weed, for that 
matter. 
-- 
ROOM FOR THE QUEEN. 
Gen. Adair says that tlie laying of the 
queen may be greatly increased by favorable 
conditions, and that tlie aim of bee-keepers 
should be to give every queen room in prop¬ 
erly constituted hives for all her eggs and 
also abundance of proper food, so that she 
may not be cramped in any way. This 
course followed will give larger colonies, with 
lar greater capacity for honey gathering, for 
‘bees are honey in this business, and Lonev 
is money,” 
--—. 
MEANS USED FOR SETTLING BEES. 
In answer to the question, “Are there 
means by which swarms can be called hack 
and settled f ’ the bee-keepers at Indianapo¬ 
lis replied:—“By throwing sand oil the ad¬ 
vance guard; or the rays of the aim bv the 
use of a looking gloss; or by discharging a 
gun. One gentleman stated that he raffed 
them back by wlusthng. He must have been 
an extraordinary whistler, or his bees were 
exceedingly well trained ! 
SEPARATING TWO SWARMS. 
lo the question, “ When two swarms clus¬ 
ter together how would you separate them 2” 
the bee-keepers reply-—“Hive all together 
m a large box and they will settle in different 
comers. Four swarms together had been 
loved in that way, and in the morning each 
had taken possession of a corner.” 
