210 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 10. 
understand that the insects must suffer from such neglect, 
which, however,sis but too common. 
If the prescribed means are employed for drying the 
leaves after unexpected or lasting rain; if the thermometer 
be used to test the temperature; if proper means are re¬ 
sorted to for freshening the air, when it becomes unwhole¬ 
some, and other rules observed, we may confidently hope to 
escape fatal sickness in the establishment.* 
The signs of approaching maturity in a worm are his 
abstinence from food, and his moving restlessly on the 
leaves, with his head elevated as in search of something. 
Looked at against the light, a small substance like the seed 
of a grape may be perceived in his body, and when many 
are seen climbing to the edge of the leaves, we may be sure 
instinct is teaching them to seek another abode. "When 
the rings round the body shrink, and become golden-yellow, 
when the skin is wrinkled, and the body smaller and softer, 
as if made of dough, change is at hand. Though but a 
few of the worms show these indications, yet he who tends 
them must not delay his preparations, for should not the 
worm be allowed to climb into the bush as soon as he wishes 
it, the silk will be injured, and the strength of the worm 
impaired. Bundles of such twigs must be tied together, and 
cleansed from any thing that might injure the silk, and 
placed at distances of a foot apart, on the edge of the hur¬ 
dles, and so arranged as to be most convenient to those who 
tend the worms. The bundles should be longer than the 
space between the hurdles, so that the two ends being fas¬ 
tened down they may form an arch turned inwards, that the 
worms may not fall to the ground as they attempt to climb. 
(To be continued .) 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF 
ENGLAND. 
A Weekly Council was held at the Society’s house, in 
Hanover Square, on Wednesday, the 11th of May. 
Natural and Artificial Grasses. —Professor Way, con¬ 
sulting chemist of the Society, submitted to the inspection 
of the members the tabular results he had obtained, during 
the last three years, from his chemical investigation into 
the relative nutritive value of the natural and artificial 
Grasses. These results were given in two tables, one of 
which contained the twenty analyses of natural Grasses, 
and the other thirteen analyses of artificial Grasses, and 
seven analyses of weeds; showing the proportion of water 
in the fresh plant, and the relation of each plant in its 
dried and undried state to albuminous and fatty matter. 
He gave a detailed statement of the valuable investigations 
undertaken in 1812, at the expense of the Duke of Bedford, 
and carried out by Mr. Sinclair, under suggestions by Sir 
H. Davy, for the purpose of ascertaining the composition 
and qualities of different Grasses, and the reason of their 
superior produce in particular cases. In these experiments 
the test of nutritive value was supposed to consist in the 
amount of soluble extractive matter obtained from equal 
weights of the several specimens of Grass. It is now, how¬ 
ever, known that such extraction will give but a very im¬ 
perfect indication of nutritive value, vegetable food being at 
the present day divided into the nitrogenous class, including 
albuminous and cheesy matter, the leguminous food of 
Peas, Ac., and matter generally of an animal character; and 
the non-nitrogenous class, including starch, gum, sugar, and 
* When the master, or the women, perceive an unpleasant odour in 
the chamber, they think to remedy it by burning aromatic substances, 
and by pouring vinegar on red-hot iron. Such measures increase the 
mischief, consume the vital gas, and render the atmosphere quite unfit 
for respiration. When the above-mentioned remedies fail to purify the air, 
Signor Dandolo proposes to mix, in a strong glass bottle, six ounces of 
! common salt, three ounces of black oxide of manganese, and three 
ounces of water, and well cork it. Another bottle should be ready, con¬ 
taining one pound of sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol, a small glass of 
rosalio, and an iron spoon. Pour one spoonful from the small bottle into 
the large one, and a white vapour will arise, which must be diffused 
through the room, and then the bottle may be re-corked. Some writers 
; propose concentrated oil of vitriol and powdered nitre, as less irritating 
to the lungs, and more quickly pervading the apartment. Some take 
lialf-an-ounce of concentrated sulphuric acid, in a glass vessel, and throw 
into it, from time to time, a pinch of powdered nitre. »This method is 
employed in purifying the air after infectious diseases, shutting all the 
doors and windows, using several vessels if the rooms be large. 
fatty matter. In the first class, the nutritive substance is 
partly soluble and partly insoluble, the cheesy and legumi¬ 
nous matter being only soluble under certain circumstances; 
in the second class, the nutritive substances are generally 
soluble. It is under these great and contradistinguished 
divisions that the investigation he had undertaken under 
the direction of the chemical committee of the Society had 
been pursued. He offered the results obtained, simply as 
data on which inquiry might proceed, not as exponents of 
any assumed theory on the important question of the con¬ 
version of vegetable food into animal substance, on which 
so many distinguished physiologists and chemists held dif¬ 
ferent opinions, and which, he thought, would receive its 
best solution by cautious induction from incontrovertible 
facts. He referred to the siliceous nature of the stems of 
natural Grasses, and to the opposite character of those of 
the artificial ones. He also cautioned the members against 
too hasty a conclusion of the value of produce from weight 
or bulk, which in many cases resulted from the large pro¬ 
portion of water the plant contained: he advised rather a 
consideration to be made of the per centage of dry solid 
matter obtained, as a surer guide to such relative value. He 
cited and illustrated cases of the deception that might arise 
from such estimation of the value of a crop; and entered 
into a detailed statement of the mode in which the Grasses 
had been collected by Mr. Bravender, and sent to him daily 
in closed tin cases ; leaving the full elucidation of these 
details and his views generally on the subject, to be given in 
a paper he was preparing for the Journal of the Society, to 
be published next month.—Colonel Challoner referred to 
the probable advantage of Professor Way’s double silicates 
for Grass lands, deficient in the siliceous matter required 
for the natural Grasses.—Mr. Lawes favoured the members 
with a statement of those deductions, connected with the 
feeding of animals on nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous food, 
which he had drawn, not from theoretical assumptions, but 
from actual experiments on animals themselves. He 
pointed out the discrepancies arising in the present state of 
our knowledge, from the application of any assumed general 
rule on this subject, to cases of feeding The result did not 
justify him in regarding nitrogen as an indispensable agent 
in these cases : if he made any assumption it would be in 
favour of the non-nitrogenous compounds constituting the 
food of animals, the nitrogenous being thrown away or 
wasted, while the non-nitrogenous were retained; but, 
without assuming the peculiar function of nitrogen in the 
animal economy, the truth in this, as in other cases, might 
lie midway between the extremes, and some relation here¬ 
after be assigned between the two classes of nitrogenous 
and carbonaceous food best adapted for the purpose under 
each given circumstance. He entered into very interesting 
details connected with the striking results obtained by him 
in the course of his experiments on the feeding of animals. 
These will be given to the members in the pages of the 
new number of the Society’s Journal, now in the press.— 
Mr. Daubeny remarked, that the results of Mr. Lawes’s 
observations upon the superiority of non-nitrogenised over 
nitrogenised substances in feeding animals might be ac¬ 
counted for on this simple principle, namely, that the 
growth of an animal, beyond a certain point, depended 
rather upon the increase of fat than upon the increase of 
muscle. The production of the former would be favoured 
most by administering starch, sugar, and gum, and that 
of the latter by the albumen contained in the plant; 
consequently, it must, he thought, be bad economy to 
supply any animal with a larger amount of nitrogenised 
matter than was necessary for making up the waste of muscle. 
He would also venture to make another remark, in order to 
supply what appeared to him an omission in Professor 
Way’s very able and useful communication ; namely, that j 
according to theory, the most profitable time for cutting the 
natural Grasses would be just when the largest accumulation 
of saccharine matter has already taken place. This would 
be just at the time when the flower begins to be developed, 
after which the secretions would undergo a continual dimi¬ 
nution by being applied to the perfecting of the seed, for 
the use of which Nature had originally raised them up. He , 
concluded by observing that these, likewise other theoretical 
suggestions, must of course he tested by practice; but he 
could not sit down without expressing his opinion that the 
