370 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Nov. 
state, to the old “ British Lustre,” or any of the 
other polishing substances known. 
Duties on Wool. 
Eds. Cultivator —As a wool grower, I feel to 
express a sense ef gratitude to Mr. H. C. Miriam 
of North Tewksbury, Mass., for his very able arti- 
ticle upon foreign and domestic wool, published in 
the September number of your paper. From his 
sentiment, however, that because the Scotch black 
faced laid wool was duty free to the English carpet 
manufacturers, they are enabled to hold in check 
and defeat the prosperity of our domestic carpet 
manufacturers, I must take the liberty of dissent¬ 
ing. If that wool is grown in such immense quan¬ 
tities, and is so very cheap, our manufacturers can 
avail themselves of it as well as those of England. 
If it is objected that the wool for our manufacturers 
has to be transported across the Atlantic, it may be 
answered that it has also to be transported across 
the Atlantic in the cloth before it can affect the 
carpet manufacturer in this country. If it is ob¬ 
jected that a duty of thirty per cent is imposed upon 
the wool in its raw state, it may be answered that 
a duty of thirty per cent is also imposed upon the 
wool when manufactured, and when it shall have 
been converted into cloth, which would place our 
manufacturers on a par with those of England as 
far as the wool is concerned, and would give them 
the advantage of thirty per cent duty imposed upon 
the labor and other ingredients which enter into 
the manufacture of those carpets. 
It was the attempt to discriminate between the 
different kinds of wool to be applied to different ob¬ 
jects, which produced the most mischief to the wool 
growers under the tariff act of 1842. I trust I 
may never see an attempt at such discrimination in 
any future act that Congress may see fit to pass 
upon that subject. Titrius. Hillsdale, Sept. 
7th, 1850. _ 
Meteorology. 
Eds. Cultivator —The following observations 
are the results of some attention to the Meteorology 
of my location for the past twelve months, ending 
the last day of August 1850:— 
The whole amount of rain, 35 9-16 inches; of 
snow, 59g inches. More rain in Oct. (6f inches) 
than any other month; although July and August 
measured, respectively, 5f and 5 11-16 inches. 
The greatest amount of rain at any one time was 
July 17th, (3| inches;) a severe storm of wind and 
rain from E. N. E. More snow in March (25 inches) 
than any other month, and the greatest depth of any 
one snow, was 6f inches. The first nipping frost of 
the season was Oct. 9th, and the last the 22d May. 
It has been observed that the mean annual amount 
of rain in different parts of the world are fairly 
represented in the following list:— 
At Paris, the mean annual amount, 20 inches. 
London li 
25 
11 
Geneva, (Switz.) 11 
30 
(c 
Boston, (U. S.) lt 
36 
u 
New Orleans, cc 
45 
(t 
Havana, (Cuba) 11 
109 
u 
Our summer, that has just passed, has been quite 
different from its predecessor: no u parching 
drought” has prevailed in this section of the coun¬ 
try; no devastating pestilence has “ stalked forth 
at noon-day” in our midst; no frantic excitement 
in regard to golden bauble,” has taken away the 
population ofour towns; on the contrary, we have had 
the continued luxurious growth of June, the salu¬ 
brity of November, and the quiet of April, the 
whole summer. Our county, although reputable 
for its dairy products, at least, has not progressed 
in the ratio of an earlier period. This is owing to 
the facilities of agriculture elsewhere, and the 
peculiarly unfavorable character of our seasons for 
several years past. Do our seasons observe a cycle 
in which they are approaching a character they 
formerly had? Or has physical improvement so far 
progressed that a permanent change is impressed 
on our climate? The history of other countries in¬ 
dicates the latter. It has heen observed that a 
country covered with timber or forests, has a tem¬ 
perature about 10° less than when cultivated. 
Evaporation is supposed to be greater, or rather, 
more moisture is exhaled from a given extent of 
forest, than is evaporated from the same extent 
of water. Evaporation and rain, are also sources 
of cold, and more abundant in countries covered 
with forests. Our seasons, or rather our climate, 
is in a transition stage, without the settled and 
uniform character of older countries, or even the 
less variableness of newer ones. The present sea¬ 
son then, is not a proper criterion of the future; 
nor yet is it without some indication of more fruit¬ 
ful periods. D. T. Brown. Harnptonburgh. N. Y. } 
Sept. 19 th 1850. 
Stumbling Horses. 
It is a general, but very mistaken notion that the 
safety of a roadster depends upon his lifting his 
fore-feet high from the ground, whereas it all de¬ 
pends on the manner in which he places them down 
upon it. The highest goers are often the most un¬ 
safe; and there are thousands of instances of horses 
going very near the ground and never making a 
trip. It is, however, a well established fact, that 
if the form of a horse’s shoulder, and the consequent 
position of the fore leg, enable him to put his foot 
to the ground fiat, with the heel down, his lifting 
the foot high is not at all necessary; whereas, on 
the other hand, if, by any improper position of the 
leg, issuing out of a short, upright, ill-formed 
shoulder, the toe touches the ground first and as it 
were digs into it; no matter how high such a horse 
may lift his leg, in any of his paces he will be liable 
to stumble. Essay on the Horse. 
Destruction o t the Wire Worm. 
The injury done to crops by the wire worm is 
often very great. It attacks the seed grain, after 
it is sown, and by eating out its substance, and by 
boring into the heart of the tender stalk, the growth 
is prevented. It is a hard insect to kill, being pro¬ 
tected by a smooth, tough shell. A writer in the 
Mark-lane Express states that he collected several 
of these worms, and tried the effect of different 
substances applied to them. He says, “ In my 
first experiment, I tested their tenacity for life with 
the most corrosive and powerful poisons. Prepara¬ 
tions of corrosive sublimate and arsenic were used 
in vain. Their immersion in solutions of these 
poisons occasioned them no inconvenience; in fact, 
it appeared to give them more pleasure than pain. 
I then tried the effect of vitriol and aquafortis: these 
liquids certainly destroyed the worm, but only after 
a very considerable time. At length, by accident, 
I was induced to try liquid ammonia. The result 
was marvellous; in an instant these creatures, 
