276 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Sept. 
“cummins,” or sprouts, are also considerably used as 
cattle food in this vicinity, and we have no doubt they 
are valuable, as Prof. Johnston has shown. 
INSECT BEPELLER. 
J. S. Stoddard, of Palmyra, N. Y., has lately adopted 
a very cheap, simple, and effectual contrivance for pre¬ 
venting- all insects from ascending the trunks of fruit 
trees. It would doubtless be of great value for the 
canker worm, and it may possibly be of use for protec¬ 
tion against the curculio. His trees having been much 
injured, as he believes, by ants, he has entirely exclu¬ 
ded them. 
The earth round each tree, is in the first place slight¬ 
ly embanked, and made otherwise quite smooth and 
level, and then a thin and smooth 
bed of gravel is made to encircle 
the trunk, on which is placed a 
coat of common lime-mortar. 
This is smoothed with a trowel, so 
as to leave a circular trough on 
its upper surface, for the recep¬ 
tion of a mixture of tar and whale 
oil. The width of the trough 
may be three or four inches, and 
half an inch deep. The circular 
bed of mortar approaches within 
an inch or two of the bark of the 
tree, and does not touch it. A 
small lake of this adhesive mix¬ 
ture thus encircles the tree, and 
through which no insect can 
pass. The troughs will last one 
season through, but the frost of winter breaks them up. 
The quantity of mortar, however, required, is quite 
small, and being a cheap material, and applied in a few 
minutes, the cost is very trifling. 
The troughs were first filled with unmixed tar; but a 
Fig. 74. 
crust forming during cool nights, on which the insects 
could walk, the addition of one quarter whale oil was 
found to obviate the difficulty, while the mixture was 
not at all affected by the rain. 
The above figures represent the contrivance: Fig. 73, 
being a perspective view, and fig. 74, a cross section, 
on a larger scale, where a is the the trunk of the tree, 
b, b, the soil or gravel on which the bed of mortar rests, 
c, c, the mortar bed, and d, d, the circular lake of tar 
and oil. 
THE WHEAT MaDGE. 
The insect here called “the weevil,” though impro¬ 
perly so, which in the larva state does so much damage 
to our wheat, is known in England under the name of 
the “ Wheat Midge.” It frequently occasions great da¬ 
mage there; the crops being sometimes lessened from 
this cause to the amount of from forty to fifty per cent. 
No very effectual means of preventing- the ravages of 
this insect seem to be known either in Europe or this 
country. They prevail in great numbers in some sea¬ 
sons, and in others are greatly diminished. The causes 
of this variation are supposed to be certain states and 
conditions of the atmosphere. Burning weeds to the 
windward of fields infested with them, has sometimes, it 
is said, proved of advantage. But the greatest destruc¬ 
tion of the insect is doubtless effected by means wholly 
independent of human aid. In this country, according 
to Dr. Fitch, (see his Essay on the Wheat Fly,) the com¬ 
mon Yellow Bird devours immense numbers of the larvae; 
they are also devoured by several kinds of .carnivorous 
bees, and killed by ichneumon flies. 
In a lecture on insects destructive to crops, lately deliv¬ 
ered before the London Farmer’s Club, by Mr. Baker, 
a report of which we find in the Farmers' Magazine , 
some very interesting facts are given in relation to the 
destruction of the Wheat Midge by the ichneumon flies. 
Of the iatter, he states, there are about five hundred spe¬ 
cies, several of which are destructive to the Wheat 
Midge and caterpillar. I have,” says Mr. B., « fre¬ 
quently observed these small black flies, or ‘nidgets,’ 
as we call them in Essex, at their work of destruction. 
They will insert themselves between the wheat and the 
chaff, and immediately attack the Wheat Midge. They 
are very voracious, and will strike maggotafter maggot 
in rapid succession, as fast as they can pass from one to 
another. In passing up a field one day, on my way to 
market, I saw a number of these black flies on an ear of 
com which I plucked, and upon exmination of it, by- 
opening the chaff, I found they attacked the Wheat 
Midge most voraciously. I carried it to market, and 
examined it again when I got there; but their voracity 
continued just the same. In striking the maggot, they 
insert an egg in its body; and the maggot then gets into a 
place of concealment and dies, just as sheep seek con¬ 
cealment when suffering in a similar way. The little 
insect, which becomes the ichneumon, subsequently 
emerges from the dead insect: it is first formed into a 
chrysalis, and becomes a fly the following summer. I 
had a number of these insects, which I had intended to 
bring with me, but they escaped my memory. They 
attack caterpillars by hundreds, and seem so determined 
in their endeavors to effect their object, that the more 
you attempt to frighten them away, the more bold they 
become. It is to this class of flies that we are so much 
indebted for ridding us of the pest—the Wheat Midge.” 
DISEASE IN HORSES. 
Friend Tucker —According to promise, when at 
your office the other day, I proceed to give a description 
of a disease that many horses were troubled with the 
past winter in this and the adjoining counties. As a 
general thing, it did not prove fatal, but produced abor¬ 
tion in mares in every case of which I have had any 
knowledge. I shall give the particulars of those cases 
only that occurred in my own stable, seven in number, 
five being mares in foal by a fine English blood horse. 
Symptoms : Stiffness in all the legs, moving only with 
difficulty ; running of the eyes, with an inclination to 
keep them closed, and but little appetite; one and some¬ 
times both hindlegs swollen and quite sore to the touch 
of the hand, with a rapid falling off in flesh. 
These symptoms continued four or five days, when the 
animals would again resume their former condition. 
Three of the above mentioned mares worked steadily 
in the team; two of these did not lose their foals until 
four weeks or so after their recovery, when they had 
regained their flesh aud spirits. The last of the three 
lost hers immediately after beginning to recover; the 
other two in foal were driven occasionally. One of these 
lost hers like the last of the three above mentioned; the 
other kept hers two or three weeks. One young mare, 
driven part of the time, but which was not with foal, 
exhibited symptoms like the others. The seventh and 
last, a colt, two years old past, lay upon his side nearly 
the whole of the time, four or five days. He occupied 
a stable where there were three other colts and a mare 
with foal, none of which were affected. I thought it 
was evident that they took it from each other, and were 
taken about two weeks after being exposed; but the 
case of the colt in the second stable would not warrant 
that conclusion. I also purchased a working mare about 
that time, and put her in the first stable, where the six 
first mentioned cases occurred, and she was not affected; 
she being the only one in that stable that escaped. 
These cases occurred from first of 2nd mo. (February) 
to first of 4th mo. (April). 
The horse spoken of, by which these mares were with 
foal, was purchased late last season by myself and one of 
my neighbors. He died suddenly last first month (Ja¬ 
nuary), while I was a few days from home. He was 
