VOL. XXXVII. No. 5 9 
WHOLE No. 1470. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
(Smiomo logical, 
CARRION BEETLES. 
Nature’s means of protecting one portion of 
her children while providing for another portion, 
are illustrated excellently in the workings of 
scavenger insects. The rapid dissolution which 
follows the death of the bodies of animals would 
fill the atmosphere with noxious gases, were 
this dissolution to take place solely under the in¬ 
fluence of the elements. By the intervention of 
insects the dead remains of animals are con¬ 
verted quickly into living tissues, and that part 
of the animal creation whioh would otherwise 
Buffer from a tainted atmosphere is providential¬ 
ly delivered from annoyance and danger. 
The accompanying figure represents some of 
these scavenger iuseots at their beneficeut work 
damage to turnips by eating the young leaves. 
In some regions, where sugar-beets are raised 
in great quantities, the larvre have been found 
on the young plants in broad daylight in such 
quantities aB to make the plants look blank, 
although usually the larvft) remain hidden. 
The third family of beetles whioh are repre¬ 
sented as attacking the mole is that of the His- 
teridae. To thia family belong the beetle near 
the tail of the mole, just below the lowest Silpha, 
and the two similar beetles on the back of the 
mole. These beetles are very compact and hard, 
and, when frightened, draw the head and legs so 
close to the body as to seem destitute of limbB. 
They feed on decaying vegetable or animal mat¬ 
ter, in manure, in fleshy fungi, under bark or in 
ants’ hills. On account of the very small size of 
their months they can only feed upon liquid 
food. Eleven hundred and fifty Bpecies are 
known. 
The fourth family of beetles is that of the 
Soarabseidte, or the Leaf-horn beetles, so called 
because the club of the antenme has the form of 
three or four leaves laid face to face together. 
To this family belong the beetle highest up on 
the neck of the mole, the one just above the 
hind leg and the one on the end of the stick. 
About six thousand five hundred and fifty spe¬ 
cies are known, and these have very uulike 
habits. The ones figured usually food upon and 
lay their eggs in manure, but content themselves 
at times with the flesh of oaroaseB. 
The flies which are figured are different kinds 
of blow-flies, whose maggots consume decaying 
flesh. 
Hornets do not disdain to eat the flesh of 
newly-killed animals, nor butterflies to drink the 
juices of animals, even when they are far gone 
in putrefaction. 
By their united labors the insects make quick 
disposition of wasting organisms and make room 
for the growing ones to develop in their stead. 
$arm drtoitorag. 
ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 
A Letter from J. B. Lawes, of Rotham- 
sted, England. 
Dear Sir :—You ask for some hints upon the 
subject of artificial manures, to aid your farm¬ 
ers who are about to experiment largely with 
them. 
Assuming that these experiments have for 
their object to ascertain whether artificial ma¬ 
nures can be profitably used, I do not think 
there can be much doubt in regard to the sub¬ 
The principal inBeots which are repre¬ 
sented as attacking the mole, belong to 
four families of beetles and one family 
of flies. If we take up these families 
one by one, we may get a clear idea of 
the several parts which they play in the 
order of nature. 
The Short-winged beetles, called Sta- 
phylinid® in the books, are easily recog¬ 
nized by the character which gives them 
their name. Two large ones and one 
smaller one are figured near the middle 
of the body of the mole, others are rep¬ 
resented on the grass and flowers in the 
lower part of the figure. More than 
four thousand species are known. Most 
of them live on the ground iu companies, 
under decaying matters, many of them in 
manure, in carrion, in woody fungi and 
quickly-perishing mushrooms, or under 
tho bark of trees, under stones, or in 
sandy plaoes ; a few live in tho colonies 
of ants and others upon flowerB. 
The “ Carrion beetles” which are by 
the best rights entitled to monopolize 
their name, are called Silphid® by the 
naturalists, and like other booties here 
represented, have the tips of their six 
feet developed into five joints. The an- 
teiuue, those wonderful organs of touch, 
taste, smell, hearing and perhaps social 
intercourse, are usually eleven-jointed 
and thickened gradually towards the tip, 
but sometimes they end in an abrupt 
knob. The hip-joints of the front and 
middle legs of theSilphid® are conical, 
projecting freely from their sockets, and 
the rings of the holly are six in number 
and freely movable; by these characters 
the Silphid® are distinguished from all 
the rest of tho five-toed beetles which 
have clubbed antenn®. They are all 
found about tho carcases of animals, 
either eating them or laying their eggs 
upon them, and have a bad odor. If 
choice food is lacking, they eat decaying 
vegetable matter, each other, or other 
living insects. They have a very acute 
sense of smell, and are attracted from 
great distances by the odor of decaying 
bodies. Four hundred and sixty Bpecies 
are known in the world, and a large pro¬ 
portion of these occur in North America. 
The two prinotpal genera of this family 
are oalled Noorophorus, or the burying 
beetles, and Silpha or the special “ Car¬ 
rion beetles.” In the figure the lowest 
insect at the left hand is a Necrophorns ; 
the one next to the right of the left hand, 
a fly; the similar one nearly above it, and 
the other similar one higher up in the 
same direction are Silphas. So also is 
the larger one, resting on the ground 
near the Necrophorus. 
The larv® of the Silphas feed upon 
carcases as they lie, but are sometimes 
so numerous that their usual food doeB 
not occur iu sufficient quantities; then 
hey have been knowo to do considerable 
stances whioh should be empl oyed. I 
am often told that the experiments car- 
ried on here have hut little value beyond 
thej boundaries of the farm. I see no 
reason for such restrictions. An En¬ 
glish pig fattens perfectly well upon 
maize grown iu the States, and your 
home-grown pigs would doubtless fatten 
upon English-grown barley. Why ? Be¬ 
cause both contain the same chemical in¬ 
gredients, although in slightly different 
proportion. The food of a cereal orop 
cannot differ, in whatever part of the 
world it may be grown. Until experi¬ 
ments prove I am in error, I shall cer¬ 
tainly assume that the soils in the United 
States are more likely to be benefited 
by nitrogen in some active form, snch as 
nitrate of soda, salts of ammonia, than 
by any other substance, and after that 
by phosphoric acid in some soluble 
form. 
l’he United States is essentially a 
grain-producing country, and the sta¬ 
tistics show that cereal crops occupy 77 
acres out of every 100. For reasons 
which I have explained in several pa¬ 
pers, land under constant grain crops 
is exhausted more rapidly of its nitro¬ 
gen than of mineral constituents, such 
as potash and phosphorio acid. While, 
therefore, I should be disposed to say 
that experiments should be tried with 
nitrogen in some active form, alone, and 
in combination with soluble phosphate of 
lime, and that iu all probability one or 
both these manures will supply all the 
requirements of the crops, I do not pre¬ 
tend to give any opinion in regard to 
the profit which would be derived front 
the use of these manures, as I know 
nothing in regard to the cost of them, 
or the value of the products grown. 1 
will, however, point out how this ques¬ 
tion of the profit attending the nse of 
artificial manures should be considered. 
Our cereal crops (straw and grain togeth - 
or), as we harvest them, contain about 
one per cent, of nitrogen, and as nitro¬ 
gen is by far the most costly element 
in purchased manures, the profit or losi 
from its use will depend more than any¬ 
thing else upon the amount whiph can ba 
recovered in the crop. To give a plain 
illustration of my meaning, I will taku 
the case of an application of 100 lbs, of 
sulphate of ammonia to an acre of maize. 
Maize is bo low in nitrogen, compare I 
with the other cereal crops, that proba¬ 
bly 100 lbs. of the total orop would con¬ 
tain less than one per cent, of nitro¬ 
gen; but calling it one per cent., 10) 
lbs. of sulphate of ammonia ought tn 
iuorease the orop by 2,000 lbs., as sul¬ 
phate of ammonia onght to contain 2(± 
lbs. of nitrogen. On an average of sea¬ 
sons the increase obtained will oortaiulj 
be Iobs than this. 
In my experiments where grain wop* 
