THE CULTIVATOR. 
93 
after the seed is threshed, is burnt for the ashes, which are considered 
of treble the value of other ashes, used as a manure. As rape is bi¬ 
ennial, it is doubtful whether it would withstand the cold of our win¬ 
ters. It is sometimes sown broad cast, but generally in seed beds, in 
August or September, and in the latter case planted with dibble in Oc¬ 
tober, in the seams of the furrows of fresh ploughed ground, so as to 
have the plants stand one foot apart each way. The crop is cleaned 
in autumn, and again in the spring ; it is pulled rather green, and the 
seed ripens in the stack. 
Madder. —Jas. Eaton, of West Winfield, who cultivates this crop, is 
convinced, from experience, that it is best to let it stand four or five 
years. A single hill, thus left, afforded him eight pounds nine ounces 
of the best ground madder. An acre, he says, will Contain 1,200 hills, 
thus affording, at this rate, 10,000 pounds. Mr. Eaton will take up a 
crop in September, and will furnish seed (offsets,) at $3 per bushel. 
The Borer.—We have received from L. U. Lawrence, of Hudson, a 
specimen bug, in its larvae or caterpillar state, becomes destructive to 
the peach and quince trees, and we suspect the apple, by entering near 
the ground, and perforating the wood. The specimen sent us in the 
Saperda bivittata of Say. Prof. Say, in a letter to the conductor, in 
1825, states that he has 130 species of this family of insects in his ca¬ 
binet. The insect leaves the pupa and becomes perfect in the latter 
part of April, and the eggs are soon after deposited at or beneath the 
surface of the soil. The professor recommends the application of 
bricklayer’s clay around the base of the tree, as a preventive, and states 
that it has been successfully employed by Mr. Shotwell. Lime and 
ashes, we think, by their caustic quality, will equally serve as a pre¬ 
ventive. We are very much in doubt whether the specimen sent us is 
the peach borer, though we recognize it as the apple borer, and a 'Sa¬ 
perda. It may have been caught in a strange garret. 
Ants .—A Salisbury, Ct. correspondent, complains that himself and 
neighbors are very much pestered with large black ants, and also to 
some extent by the small red ones, and requests that some one will 
prescribe a remedy that will prevent the incursions of this army of 
thieves. Ants cohabit in numerous parties, and maintain a sort of re¬ 
public, like bees, and like them to collect arid lay up provisions for 
time of want. The readiest way to' destroy them, is to turn scalding 
water, from the nozzle of a tea-kettle or coffee-pot, into their haunts. 
Or, put four ounces of sublimate into two gallons of water, and with a 
painter’s brush, wash the shelves and walls which they frequent with 
the solution. A mixture of quick-lime and so.ot, strewed upon the 
shelves they visit, is said to keep them off. In the south, we are told, 
they are very troublesome; and that the only effectual mode of pre¬ 
serving provisions from their depredations, is to place the latter upon 
a table, and to set the legs of the table in small vessels of oil, so that 
the ants cannot get access to it. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
ADRIANCE’S PATENT CORN-SHELLER. 
Mr. Buel—S ir—Of all the labor-sav¬ 
ing machines yet offered to the public, 
Green’s Straw Cutter and the Corn 
Sheller stand pre-eminent. 
The Com Sheller is one of the most 
convenient and useful implements that 
the practical farmer has in use. Vari¬ 
ous machines for this purpose have been 
invented, from the handle of the frying- 
pan and fire shovel, up to the machine 
figured above; the most improved and 
best adapted for common use, as it is 
quite simple in its construction, and du¬ 
rable in operation, being made of iron, 
and no way liable to get our of order. 
A man to turn and a boy to feed it, 
will shell from twelve to fifteen bushels 
per hour. On a trial, to ascertain how 
much could be shelled in a certain time, 
two bushels of ears were shelled in 
three minutes. By substituting a pully 
or wheel for the crank, it may be at¬ 
tached to a horse power, and a much larger quantity may be shelled in 
in the same time. It is so light and portable, that it can be moved 
from place to great ease. 
There are various kinds, and some on the same principle of the above, 
differing only in the frames being of wood instead of iron. There are, 
also, double ones, with wooden frames, shelling two ears at the same 
time. 
I have used one to shell my corn, and was much surprised, from the 
rapidity with which it operates, that it does not injure the kernel; and, 
judging from what little experience I have had, the expense of the ma¬ 
chine may be soon saved in measurement, as it completely strips the 
ear of every kernel. Besides, it may be worked in a room in the 
evening, when thrashing with horses or the flail would be entirely out 
of the question. 
By means of a spiral spring and screw, it maybe graduated for large 
or small sized ears. 
They need only to be known to be used; and a person might as well 
think of eating soup with a fork, as to shell corn the old fashioned way, 
after seeing one of these in operation. 
The above cut represents one of Adriance’s patent iron frame ma¬ 
chines, manufactured at Poughkeepsie, and kept for sale at the Agri¬ 
cultural Repository of Mr. William Thorburn, No. 317 N. Market- 
street, corner of Maiden-Lane, Albany. Price $15. Double ones, with 
wooden frames, $16, delivered at the store. 
Having used one of the above and tested its qualities, I cheerfully 
recommend them to the public. CALEB N. BEMENT. 
Three Hills Farm, August 15, 1836. 
THE GRAIN WEEVIL. 
Mr. J. Buel —I have lately become acquainted with your very use¬ 
ful periodical the Cultivator, and have become one of your patrons. 
I observe in your number for the present month a communication on 
weevils, signed “A Miller and subscriber,” which induces me to throw 
out a few observations or remarks on the subject, which, if worth in¬ 
serting, you will give a place in your paper. In the year 1806 I was 
under the necessity of repairing my dwelling-house ; whilst the me¬ 
chanics were at work, we were obliged to resort to the barn to eat our 
meals. Previous to which the barn was pretty thoroughly cleaned, out, 
the floor was scrubbed, the timbers swept, the poles turned over, the 
ground under the floor and bay scraped out, and all the litter taken out 
that could be got at, which had been accumulating for several years 
previously. During several years prior to this cleaning, my barn had 
been infested with weevil to an alarming extent; after the cleaning, as 
I have mentioned, the weevil were constantly on the move, crawling 
over the table and dishes in every direction. I put my wheat and rye 
harvest in the barn that and every succeeding season since, and have 
not, from that time to this, (which you will observe is thirty years,) 
seen a weevil about my barn, and I am fully convinced that any barn 
or mill may be cleared of weevil by cleaning, but it must be well done. 
Ha.mptonburgh, July 25th, 1836. A. B. W. 
ENEMIES OF THE WHEAT CROP. 
Mr. Buel —Dear Sir—As the section of country in which I live is 
peculiarly a wheat country, and owing to which the farmers here have 
particularly devoted their time and their talents to the cultivation and 
improvement of that crop, as affording the greatest profit from the least 
labor and expense, you may well suppose that a considerable degree of 
anxiety will be felt about every thing that involves the safety and sta¬ 
bility of this important article of agriculture and consumption. 
So far as I have been able to discover, there are three kinds of in¬ 
sects, committing altogether a considerable damage to the wheat crop in 
this neighborhood, whose operations, though known, are as yet with¬ 
out the reach of any adequate remedy. The species which has caused 
the greatest mischief, is the wheat fly, (Cecidomyia Tritici ) whose 
mode of operations, so far as I have been led to observe, differ mate¬ 
rially from that laid down in your paper as characteristic of this in¬ 
sect. Cultivator, vol. 1st, page 124, is the following—“It lays its eggs 
within the glumes of the florets, in clusters varying in number from two 
to ten, or even to fifteen, and the larvae feed upon the grain. They 
are produced from the eggs in the course of eight or ten days; they 
are at first perfectly transparent, and assume a yellow colour a few 
days afterwards; they travel not from one floret to another, and forty- 
seven have been numbered in one. Occasionally there are found in the 
same floret, larvae and a grain which is generally shriveled, as if de¬ 
prived of nourishment; and although the pollen may furnish the larvae 
with food in the first instance, they soon crowd around the lower part 
of the germeri, and they in all probability, subsist on the matter destined 
to form the grain.” Page 158, speaking of the same insect, “ the pro¬ 
geny being hatched in the ear, feed on the grain. They are very small, 
from ten to fourteen being sometimes found in one grain, and are dis¬ 
tinguished by being of a bright orange colour. They do not extend 
beyond the grain in which they are born, but several grains being thus 
consumed on one ear, the damage done is often considerable.”* I have 
examined a number of heads of wheat affected by this insect, some the 
lower part, some the middle, some the top, and some the whole of the 
head being killed; but have in no instance discovered more than one 
larvae in a floret; the grain being in all cases perfectly sound and full 
where the insect was found, and where the grain had began to shrink 
the insect was not found, and the grain remained perfectly sound, there 
being no indications of its having been eaten or stung; the rachis ex¬ 
hibiting the same unaltered sound appearance. This examination was 
* A true description.™ Cond. 
