122 
NEW p ublica tions. 
Prof. Sillimau’s Journal. 
We have just received the July number of this al¬ 
ways welcome and truly valuable journal. It contains 
as usual a great variety of papers, interesting to the 
scientific and general reader, and among others a re¬ 
port of the proceedings of the late meeting of the Ame¬ 
rican Geological Association at Philadelphia. It con¬ 
tains, also, an able, but brief, “ Preliminary account of 
the Hessian Fly and its Parasites,” by E. C. Herrick 
of the Yale College Natural History Society. Mr! 
H. has for a number of years been studying the history 
of the Hessian Fly, its habits, changes, &c. and we are 
pleased to learn that the present contribution is only 
preliminary to a more full and extended exposition of the 
subject. Of the first appearance of the insect in this 
country, the origin of its name, and the fact that it ex¬ 
ists in Europe, and has been known for centuries, Mr. 
H. gives many interesting particulars. It has been 
doubted by some European writers whether the Hes¬ 
sian Fly was known in that part of the world, but Mr. 
liana, who has been engaged with Mr. H. in these re¬ 
searches, having visited the Mediterranean, has proved 
that the insect is there, he having found it in the larvee 
and pupa state in wheat plants on the island of Minor¬ 
ca, and from these the perfect insect, the Cecydomyia 
destructor, or true Hessian Fly, was evolved. There is 
no trace of the Hessian Fly in this country previous to 
the Revolution, which renders the common notion of its 
introduction by foreigners not improbable. An impor¬ 
tant part of Mr. Herrick’s paper is that relating to the 
destruction of the fly, effected by parasites, Mr. H. esti¬ 
mating that at least nine-tenths of every generation of 
the fly is destroyed in this way. Mr. Herrick describes 
four species of parasites, one of which attacks the egg, 
and three of them the pupa of the fly. They are all 
minute Hymenopterous insects, and in some instances 
have been mistaken for the Hessian Fly itself. 
There is little doubt that a number of other insects 
besides the fly, deposit their eggs upon wheat, and 
prey on the stem, and the importance of the wheat crop 
to the United States is such, that all attempts made by 
competent observers to elucidate their habits will be re¬ 
ceived by the farmer with thankfulness, since a disco¬ 
very of their habits offers one of the best means of 
counteracting their ravages. 
The Journal is published at New-Haven, Conn., by 
B. L. Hamblin, and conducted by Prof. Silliman andB. 
Silliman, Jr., at six dollars per annum. Agents in New- 
York, Wiley & Putnam, 161 Broadway—in Albany, 
W. C. Little. 
North American Review—Liebig’s Chemistry, &c. 
The July No. of this ably sustained and leading Jour¬ 
nal of American Literature, is before us, with its usual 
complement of well written and interesting articles. 
Among these are reviews of Robinson’s Travels in Pa¬ 
lestine, the Madison Papers, and, which is of particu¬ 
lar interest to agriculturists, a very particular examina¬ 
tion of Liebig’s Chemistry applied to Agriculture. 
There are few works at the present day that have been 
so generally welcomed, and received with such univer¬ 
sal favor as Liebig’s volume, and Dr. Webster has con¬ 
ferred an important favor on American farmers by giv¬ 
ing the public his edition with its valuable notes and 
appendix. Some of our contemporaries, who were dis¬ 
posed to imagine that we, in our notice of the London 
edition of this work, gave Dr. Liebig more credit than 
he was entitled to, will now, that the work is placed 
within their reach, be able to correct the errors into 
which they have fallen in regard to this subject. The 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture has an able and dis¬ 
criminating paper on the volume, in which high praise 
is awarded to Dr. Liebig, although it dissents in some 
instances from his conclusions. 
We have only room here to give the opinion of the 
American reviewer on the character of the volume : 
“We regard the work of Liebig, as a work of extraordinary 
philosophical acumen, and conferring upon him the highest ho¬ 
nor. The more it is examined, the deeper will be the interest it 
will create, and the stronger the admiration of the ability with 
which it is written. It is a work not to be read, but studied; 
and if further inquiries and experiments should demonstrate, as 
seems to us from many facts within our knowledge in the highest 
degree probable, the soundness of his views, his work, not merely 
as a matter of the most interesting philosophical inquiry, but 
of the highest practical utility, will be invaluable.” 
Experiments made at the Boston Conservatory the 
present season, corroborate in nearly every particular, 
Prof. Liebig’s views of the nature of carbon, ammonia, 
&c. in promoting the growth of plants ; thus affording 
new proof of the value of the chemical sciences when 
applied to an elucidation of the laws that govern the 
nutrition of vegetables. 
The N. A. R. has reached its 112th number ; is pub¬ 
lished in quarterly numbers of about 275 pages each, at 
$5 per annum, and is sent by mail to any part of the 
United States. Munroe&. Co. 134, Washington-street, 
Boston, are the publishers. Subscriptions received by 
Wiley & Putnam, 161 Broadway, and by W. C. Little, 
Albany. — 
New-England Farmer. 
This sterling and always valuable agricultural period¬ 
ical, has just entered upon its 20th year; being, with the 
exception of the Am. Farmer at Baltimore, the oldest 
of the American agricultural journals. Under the su¬ 
pervision of its present able editor, the Rev. Allen Put¬ 
nam, the Farmer is sure to lose none of the high cha¬ 
racter it has long and deservedly sustained, as the lead¬ 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
ing agricultural journal of New-England. A complete 
copy of the New-England Farmer, is the best history 
of American agriculture, (particularly in the northern 
slates,) for the last twenty years, any where extant. If 
any proof were needed of the deep hold which agricul¬ 
tural improvement has taken on the public mind, and 
the rapid advance which the demand for agricultural 
intelligence is making, we have only to look back for a 
few years and compare the American Farmer and New- 
England Farmer, struggling for a doubtful existence, 
with the liberal patronage and extensive circulation, 
which not only these, but a multitude of other papers 
devoted to the same great object, are now receiving in 
this country. Success, we say, to the agricultural press 
and the cause of agriculture. 
District School Journal. 
This excellent publication, one so much needed, and 
one so essential to the prosperity of our magnificent and 
extended common school system, has, we are pleased to 
perceive, been removed to this city, and the first num¬ 
ber of the second volume has just been issued in an en¬ 
larged form, on fine paper, and from the same press 
with the Cultivator and Northern Light, a sufficient 
guarantee for the excellence of its execution. By a law 
passed at the last session of the Legislature, the Super¬ 
intendent of Common Schools is authorized to subscribe, 
in behalf of the State, for a copy of this Journal for each 
school district in the State, or to the amount of $2,800, 
to be paid from the U. S. Deposite Fund ; and it is 
to be hoped that the town clerks will immediately com¬ 
ply with their duties in this respect, that the Journal 
may be forwarded to the several districts as soon as 
practicable. The name of the clerk of the district, or 
where this is not known to the town clerk, the name of 
one of the trustees may be sent; and the name of the 
post-office to which the paper for each district is to be 
sent, should be particularly specified to prevent mis¬ 
takes. The District School Journal will be the medium 
of communication between the Superintendent and the 
officers of Common Schools, will contain a record of his 
decisions on any questions that may arise, explanations 
of the several acts relating to schools, and important 
papers and suggestions relative to the best management, 
teaching, &c. of common schools. Under the more im¬ 
mediate supervision of the indefatigable Superintendent 
and its able editor, F. Dwight, Esq. the Journal cannot 
fail to be one of the most useful aids to the great cause 
of education, in the country. To the officers of our dis¬ 
trict schools, and in particular to every teacher, it is in¬ 
dispensable. The present number contains the new act 
relating to common schools, passed May, 1841 ; expla¬ 
nations by the Superintendent; an important decision 
on the duties and responsibilities of Commissioners of 
Common Schools and Trustees, in the receipt and pay¬ 
ment of public money ; appointment of a General De¬ 
puty ; editorial papers ; meeting of supervisors ; teach¬ 
ers of summer schools ; a most valuable paper on the 
“Modes of Instruction in Common Schools,” by “ A.”; 
(this paper we should be happy to transfer to our co¬ 
lumns, and will hereafter endeavor to make room for it 
if possible;) an article on “Drawing, for Schools, 
Lyceums, and Families,” by Josiah Holbrook ; and 
a well written story illustrating the government of chil¬ 
dren. We trust the Common School Journal will re¬ 
ceive, as it deserves, an extensive circulation. Terms, 
50 cents a year. — 
“ The Orchard and Fruit Grower.” 
We get up some very beautiful books in this country, 
and the art is evidently making rapid progress among 
us ; still in matters of taste the Londoners, from their 
long experience and ample means, must be considered 
altogether ahead of us. Here is this volume, of which 
the title is given above, with its fine paper, splendid 
binding, gilt edges, and beautiful illustrations, more 
resembling an ‘ annual,’ than a book devoted to the cul¬ 
ture of trees and fruits. 
Mr. McIntosh has given the public a work, which 
will be acceptable to every fruit grower, containing as 
it does, full accounts of all the most valuable cultivated 
fruits, lists of their varieties, extensive and useful, and 
illustrations of quite a number of fruits, ‘ ‘ colored to the 
life.” The directions for grafting, budding, &c. are 
ample, and the various diseases of fruit trees, as they 
occur in England, are carefully noticed, and proper re¬ 
medies pointed out. It is somewhat remarkable, that 
among the varieties of fruits, will be found some mark¬ 
ed as first rate, and considered of undoubted value, 
which, in this country, are not ranked higher than se¬ 
cond or third rate fruits. The apple, pear, and parti¬ 
cularly the peach, furnish examples of this, a result, 
probably, owing to the difference of climate in the two 
countries. It is also singular, that in the list of dis¬ 
eases of the plum and cherry, there is nothing to be 
found resembling the black blight, or black excrescence 
which is proving fatal to so many of these valuable 
fruits in this country. Particular mention is made of 
the American blight or cottony aphis, (Aphis lanigera,) 
the origin of which has usually been attributed to this 
country, but which Salisbury thinks can be satisfacto¬ 
rily traced to France. It is one of the most injurious 
insects in the British fruit gardens or orchards, but it 
can scarcely be said to have an existence in our or¬ 
chards, or in the country, it is so rarely met with. 
We have never seen any fruit colored in imitation of 
nature so successfully performed as in the volume be¬ 
fore us. The colored plates, embrace the apple, se¬ 
veral varieties, apricots, nectarines, cherries, currants, 
figs, gooseberries, pears, peaches, plums, raspberry, 
strawberry, grape, &c. We hope the time is not dis¬ 
tant when the public taste will authorise American pub¬ 
lishers to undertake the production of volumes similarly 
illustrated, as correct drawings, faithfully colored, are 
to the fruit grower what maps are to the student in 
geography. _ 
The English New Farmers’ Journal. 
An agricultural journal, with the foregoing title, has 
lately been commenced in London, in connection with 
the “Society for the Protection of Agriculture,” and 
the numbers display considerable talent as well as much 
zeal in the cause to which it is devoted. The favora¬ 
ble auspices under which it has commenced, and the 
array of practical men engaged in its support, will 
doubtless give it permanency and extensive usefulness. 
The New Farmers’ Journal is a warm, not to say vio¬ 
lent, advocate of the present Corn Law system in Great 
Britain, and vehemently deprecates the changes con¬ 
templated by the ministry. We think, however, the 
advocates of existing abuses, and such to a certain ex¬ 
tent the Corn Law system certainly is, will find it diffi¬ 
cult for any considerable time, to stem the current of 
public opinion, and that, should the present ministry be 
overthrown in the struggle, their successors, to be secure 
oftheir seats, must make such concessions and alterations 
as the mass of the nation demand. Those in this coun¬ 
try who take an interest in those topics, upon which 
one of the fiercest struggles for power which has ever 
occurred in Great Britain, is now turning, will find in 
the New Farmers’ Journal the best record of the pro¬ 
gress and the probable results so far as the question of 
bread or the Corn Laws is concerned. The Journal is 
a large sheet of eight pages, and gives a general synop¬ 
sis of interesting European news, independent of its ag¬ 
ricultural articles. 
Growing Plants in Charcoal. 
In the appendix to the first part of Prof. Liebig’s Or¬ 
ganic Chemistry, is an interesting paper on the action 
of charcoal on plants, from “ Buckner’s Repertorium,” 
by E. Lucas. The experiments were performed at Mu¬ 
nich. That plants would vegetate and grow in nearly 
pure charcoal, was discovered by accident, and this dis¬ 
covery was followed by experiments which placed the 
action of this substance in a curious and striking light. 
The first experiment consisted in mixing a certain 
proportion of charcoal dust with the soil, increasing the 
quantity in the successive experiments until pure char¬ 
coal dust was alone used. When two-thirds of the coal 
was used with vegetable mold, several classes of plants, 
such as the Gesneria and Aroideace, were found to 
thrive admirably, and attracted much notice by the great 
beauty of their parts, and their general appearance. 
They quickly surpassed those cultivated in the common 
way, in their thick stems, rich color of their leaves, and 
their beautiful blossoms. “ A Cactus placed in a mix¬ 
ture of equal parts of charcoal and earth throve pro¬ 
gressively, and attained double its former size in the 
course of a few weeks.” It was also found that in all 
those cases in which it was customary to mix sand with 
the mold in which plants were to be set, the substitu¬ 
tion of charcoal dust for the sand, always rendered the 
vegetation stronger and more vigorous. 
Experiments were now made with pure charcoal, 
and the best results were obtained. More than 40 spe¬ 
cies of plants, which are many of them named, were 
grown in this way ; and cuts of plants from different ge¬ 
nera took root and grew well and quickly. “ Pure char¬ 
coal acts excellently as a means of curing unhealthy 
plants. A Dorianthes excelsa, for example, which had 
been drooping three years, was rendered completely 
. healthy in a very short space of time by this means. An 
orange tree which had the very common disease in which 
the leaves become yellow, acquired within four weeks its 
healthy green color, when the upper surface of the 
earth was removed from the pot in which it was con¬ 
tained, and a ring of charcoal of an inch in thickness 
strewed in its place around the periphery of the pot.” 
The charcoal employed, was the dust-like powder 
from fir or pine coal, such as is used by blacksmiths, 
and produced the most effect when it had been exposed 
through the winter to the action of the air. Experi¬ 
ments with animal and other charcoals were made, but 
that from pine proved superior to the rest, on account 
of its fineness and the ease with which it is decomposed. 
Charcoal acts in two ways ; first, by its tendency to pre¬ 
serve all plants and substances from decay ; and second¬ 
ly by the carbonic gas it furnishes during the slow de¬ 
composition it undergoes, and which in five or six years 
converts it into a coaly earth. It thus yields directly 
and constantly one of the most essential elements of 
plants, and gives a beautiful color, and a great luxuri- 
ance to plants cultivated in that manner. Where pure 
charcoal was used, large quantities of water were re- 
quired, as the air having free access dries the roots ra- 
pidly, unless prevented by water plentifully applied. 
That charcoal is of great value as an agent in promo¬ 
ting vegetation, has long been known to every one who 
has witnessed the crops successively grown on those 
places where coal pits have been burned; but a great 
loss is sustained annually by the waste of the immense 
quantities of dust at the forges, furnaces and smith shops 
of the country, where this substance is considered a nui¬ 
sance rather than otherwise. We have seen the best ef 
feet produced by the mixture of coal dust with the soil 
of the garden, and hope more attention will be paid to 
this matter than has hitherto been done. 
