quite abundant throughout the United Stat es, 
but being so inconspicuous in color and of 
sluggish habit, they usually pass unobserved. 
CATERPILLAR FROM GEORGIA. 
Oct. 4.—“Daily Rural Life.”—I read 
your contributions in the Rural New-York¬ 
er with pleasure, and having to-day discov¬ 
ered, in my neighbor's yard, a worm of cu¬ 
rious appearance, and I lior my neighbors not 
remembering ever to have seen his like be¬ 
fore, T take the liberty of sending him to you 
in alcohol, that you may toll us the name. 
Under the white" streak on his back could be. 
seen, when crawling, a black sLreak of simi¬ 
lar size ; his snout, too, could be projected 
forward to some distance, giving him the 
appearance, as some said, bt a “ young ele¬ 
phant.” Hoping that 1 don’t trouble you, I 
am yours, truly. — M., Columbus, Ga. 
The large, smooth, greenish caterpillar, 
with seven oblique greenish stripes on the 
sides, a transverse, yellow band between the 
third and fourth segments, and on each side 
of the third segment au ocelJated or eye-like 
spot, with two blue pupils, is the larva of a 
butterfly known as Papilio turnus. The 
caterpillars usually feed upon the wild cher¬ 
ry ; also on the apple, and pi*obably upon the. 
leaves of other trees. It is found throughout 
the United States, generally, and if you or 
your neighbors have never seen one of these 
caterpillars before, it was for the lack of ob¬ 
servation. 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
BREEDING TURKEYS FOR PROFIT 
From the Diary of a Gentleman near New 
York City. 
PREPARING THE GARDEN FOR WINTER. 
Oct. 1.—Although we have had, as yet, no 
severe frosts to kill vegetation, still it is time 
for one, and thero is no safety in delaying 
work that should be done before cold weath¬ 
er. 1 have had all my young evergreens which 
stand in nursery rows, also hardy blackber¬ 
ries, raspberries and similar small fruits hoed, 
and the soil plowed up to their stems. 1 
think this banking up quite an important 
operation at this season, for it. prevents, in a 
measure, the water settling in about the 
stems, where it freezes into a cake of ice in 
winter, frequently injuring the bark of the 
stems, if it does not penetrate deeper. If a 
nice, smooth, clean furrow is left in the cen¬ 
ter of the space between the rows, a large 
proportion of the surplus water which falls 
in autumn and winter will be carried off in¬ 
stead of remaining and forming ice. Even 
so slight, a protection ns that afforded by the 
earth thrown against the plants with the 
plow, will often show its good effect the fol¬ 
lowing season. 
The. mulch which I intend to use for cover¬ 
ing my strawberries is piled up in a conven¬ 
ient place ready for use as soon as the weather 
is cold enough to require it. Strawberry 
plants should not be covered too early, for if 
warm rains occur after it is put on, the leaves 
will be injured and the flower buds push into 
growth. I usually wait until the ground 
freezes quite hard, say an inch or more in 
down, and well fed ; the cows 87 in number, 
the same ; and even the punkahs, worked by 
steam power, were continually fanning the 
poor beasts to keep them cool and drive the 
flies off ; but the poor 'fowls, and especially 
the turkeys, had not where to lay their 
heads. Definitely, the poor creatures in vari¬ 
ably roosted Upon the iron hurdles near the 
back of the steam engine-room, and the 
owner said, in reply to some questions as to 
bow many he had reared, “Oh, drat the 
things ! They are no use to any one ; I wish 
the foxes had the lot.” The common-sense 
way to have turned the turkeys to a good 
account would be first to make a proper 
roosting and set of laying compart ments in a 
large, perfectly dry, and airy building ; and 
on the premises alluded to a good cart-shed 
abutted on to the engine-room, which could 
have been converted, at a small cost, into a 
most excellent house, and, from its contiguity 
to the warm room in question, it would have 
been most invaluable for such a purpose, 
while the carts could have been far better 
provided for a way from the warmth. If the 
soil is tolerably dry and the farm well 
drained, turkeys may be raised with consid¬ 
erable profit. The hens lay freely, and if 
properly atte nded to they lay early, which is 
one of the great secrets towards success, as 
the hens soon become broody and ready to 
take their nest of eggs. They are most ex¬ 
emplary sitters, and when once broody they 
may be kept on sitting for four months on 
any kind of eggs, and if they are made to 
take proper exercise to find their food and 
water twice a day, they do not lake any 
harm from the continuous sitting ; on the 
contrary, nearly always come off in better 
condition at the end of the time thou when 
first set to hatch, '1 he young are not more 
difficult to rear than other poultry. They 
must not bo allowed to become saturated 
with rain too often while young (neither 
should any other poultry.) and they must 
have an unlimited supply of fresh varied 
green food, specially lettuce, dandelion leaves, 
dock, young nettles, and onion tops; and 
they must be entirely fed on soft food for 
some weeks, very gradually introducing 
whole grain, in small portions for the first 
few months; even when six months old they 
should not have an entire meal of hard grain, 
as their powers for grinding their food are 
very limited at first, and it is those persons 
who force on with the unground grain at too 
early an age, to save themselves a little 
trouble, that complain of the delicacy of 
turkeys. Look at the beautiful barley and 
maize meal, and the fine and coarse food the 
farmers lavish on their pigs, the same would 
rear turkeys well; and. by the time the com 
is being carried the young birds will be ready 
to subsist almost wholly upon what they 
glean from the fields; a small boy or girl 
should be trained to know them, and quietly 
drive them to the fields required to be cleared, 
and should remain among them to protect 
and watch them, and to drive them back to 
their properly sheltered quarters for the 
night. With this kind of management tur¬ 
keys may be bred in large numbers on a 
mixed farm, with profit. , 
The eye can be cultivated to see 
as well as the hand or fingers to perform any 
operation dexterously. Then, again, we learn 
to see certain tilings and not others. For 
instance, an Entomologist who makes butter¬ 
flies a specialty, will have no difficulty in 
finding specimens In abundance; but he is 
very likely to pass by the largest and most 
conspicuous beetle, and not see it. On the 
other hand, a coleopterist will see a beetle 
not bigger than the head of a pin, but at the 
same time be as blind as a bat, when butter¬ 
flies as big as Ids hand fly about him. Not 
long since I asked one of our eminent coleop- 
terists, who lias 00,000 beetles in his cabinet, 
if he ever collected butterflies when out 
beetle hunting ; his reply was quite charac¬ 
teristic, for he said, “Why, no ; for I never 
see any.” Tin’s merely shows that we must 
become interested in any subject before w« 
can expect to make auy considerable pro¬ 
gress. The more a man practices looking for 
certain objec ts, the more likely is he to llnd 
them. Because we fail to see objects that 
others do, should not be considered as proof 
of their non-existence, but more as an evi¬ 
dence of our lack of education In that di¬ 
rection. 
MOUNTING AND PRESERVING SPIDERS 
Please tell me how to prepare and mount 
spiders, and what work on Nat ural History 
will be of use In studying their habits and 
species.— Mrs. N. Orr, llohokus, N. J. 
If one desires to keep spiders so that they 
can be minutely studied, then it is best to 
preserve them in alcohol; but to form a cabi¬ 
net they must be mounted upon ordinary in¬ 
sect pins. The legs may either be stretched 
out in a natural form, being fastened t o sheet 
cork luitil dry and fixed in shape, or merely 
allowed to hang down under the body. The 
specimens look better and more natural 
when snread out; but they will require fur 
more room in the cabinet, and there is also 
more danger of breaking when taken 
out for examination. Spiders are difficult 
subjects to preserve in a natural form, be¬ 
cause they shrink when dried, as well as 
become very brittle ; but by care they may 
be mounted and preserved for years. We 
have no American work treating at, length 
of our native spiders. Stavelky’s British 
Spiders is an excellent work, but treats only 
of European, or more particularly of the 
British species. 
COLD GREEN-H0U8ES, 
I have seen many references, this year, to 
a “ Cold Greenhouse.” Will you tell ixs what 
a “ Cold Greenhouse is f ’—A Subscriber. 
A “Cold Green-house” 
The curious-looking insect, about three- 
eighths of an inch long, with a gray spot on 
each side, and a horu-like projection upon its 
back, is one of our common species of Tree- 
lioppers (Membracis punctata, Farr). Wu 
do not know the use of the queer hump or 
horn upon its back ; it probably serves the 
same purpose as a lady’s bustle, slightly or¬ 
namental. These Tree-hoppers deposit their 
eggs upon the branches of trees, and the lar¬ 
vae of some of the species are known to live 
in the twigs of certain plants ; others are sup¬ 
posed to undergo their various transforma¬ 
tions under ground. There are many native 
species ; but the habits of only a few of 
them have been carefully studied, or their 
true history known. There is room here for 
investigation if any one is disposed to study 
this very interesting family of insects. 
is one in which 
very little or no lire is kept during the win¬ 
ter. Of course, in a Northern climate, it is 
not expected that plants can be kept growing 
in such a place, and none but half-hardy or 
hardy plants are stored in these houses. Per¬ 
haps “cold pits” are a more appropriate 
name lor such structures, as they are usually 
placed mainly under ground and the roof 
made of glass. In very cold weather the 
glass is covered with straw mats, which are 
removed in warm days when the sun shines. 
In this way, heat sufficient to prevent freez¬ 
ing is secured, but not enough to insure 
growth. Cold pits are largely employed by 
our vegetable gardeners, in which to keep 
cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, and similar 
half-hardy plants during winter. Many kinds 
of conservatory plants may also be kept in 
the same manner. Cold graperies are also 
abundant near all of our larger cities. The 
vines in winter are laid down and protected 
with mats of straw or 6oil, and in spring 
taken up and fastened to the rafters or trel¬ 
lises. The varieties of grapes grown in these 
houses are foreign, requiring a warmer and 
more even temperature than they would re¬ 
ceive in the open air. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES, 
Peach and Plum Borer Preventive .— A 
correspondent of the Canadian Farmer says : 
“ To prevent the borer from attacking plum 
or peach trees no application is more effect¬ 
ive than a strong solution of Bitter Aloes 
laid on with a broom to the stems in the 
month of June. The rains during the sum¬ 
mer will always keep a sufficient, Quantity 
about the junction of the tree with the 
ground to deter the insect from depositing 
its eggs. This is my experience, and I also 
cured a Stevens peer tree which was com¬ 
pletely covered with the bark-louse by syr¬ 
inging with, the same decoction,” 
Cabbage Butterfly Netf.— About a year ago 
a gentleman wrote to the Rural New- 
Yorker saying, among other things in ref¬ 
erence to the cabbage worm, that it was 
vain to fight the worm, and recommending 
a net to be put over the cabbage to keep on 
the butterfly. Some of your readers would 
like to know whether this man, or any other, 
k : v been able this season to preserve their 
cabbage by the use of a net. If so, where 
did they get the net, and what was the cost ? 
—Thob. H. Younuhajl 
POULTRY AT THE N. Y. STATE FAIR 
PREMIUMS AWARDED. 
Asia Me—LtglitBrahmas—1. W. A. Fuller, Glen; 2. 
JohnH. Stuyvesant, Poughkeepsie, bark Brahmas— 
1. E. A, Wendell, Albany; 2, W-A. Fuller. Partridge 
or Grouse OocUins—1. J. R.Stuyvesant; 2. W. A. Ful¬ 
ler. White Cochins — 1. E. G. Studley, Cluvernck, 
Black Cochins—2. K. A. Wendell. 
bur.toe/-.—-Colored—1 and 2. Joseph Juliand, Rain- 
bridge. silver Gray—1. O. Howland, Auburn; 8. K. 
A. Wendell. White—land 2. E. A. Wendell. Domi¬ 
niques—1 and 2, O. Howland- 
HiunbuTiiM .—spangled Golden—1. O. Howland; 2. 
W. A. Fuller. Spangled Silver—l and 2. (jeo. H. 
Charles, Jr., Albany. Penciled Golden—1. Wm. E. 
Kemp, NomanuklU. Penciled Silver—2. K. A. Wen¬ 
dell. Black Spanish—1. E. A. Wendell; 2. llowey 
Brimmer. White Leghorns (yellow legs, single 
combs)— 1. O. Howland and W. A. Feller. Plymout h 
Bocks—1. Silas W. Studley, Oattakill Stetson; 2. O. 
Howland. 
FV n. .l.-Creve-Goeurs-l. W. A. Fuller. Houdacs-- 
1. W. A. Fuller; 2. E. G. Studley. White Polish—1. 
O. Howland. Other Polish--!. 6. Howland; 2, E. A. 
Wendell. 
Gurnrs.—Black-Breasted Bed—1. K. A. Wendell; 2. 
W. A. Fuller. Brown-Breasted Bed—1. E. A. Wen¬ 
dell. DuokwLug—1. E. A. Wendell. Irish Gray—1. E. 
A DAMP BASEMENT 
1 have a basement which 1 let for a gro¬ 
cery store. At seasons of the year it is 
damp. The floor is two feet above the 
ground: never any water standing on the 
ground below. If I concrete the bottom 
will it harden ? If so, will it make the base¬ 
ment drier t Or what should you do to make 
the same drier ?— A Reader. 
If you concrete the bottom it will harden ; 
f t least that has been our experience in sim¬ 
ilar cases. It will certainly render the base¬ 
ment sweeter if not drier, provided you lay 
your floor above it on stone foundation, so 
that the dampness shall not reach the wood, 
ir you can secure good drainage, however, 
you had better do it before you cement it. 
