16th. Salmagundy says Aunt Charity died of a easily destroyed, as they live in or immediately unFrenchman! now I am sadly afraid I shall die of a der the bark; the second year they penetrate one or woodpecker for, of all animated things, they rouse two inches into the wood, and during that time they my curiosity the most. The day is cold, and a light are in reach of the woodpecker or a piece of wire; snow is falling, looking very beautifully, but not the third and last year they become more voracious very tempting to leave a warm fire and my writing and much larger, and penetrate a foot or more into the table to go into the orchard; but all day I have been body of the tree. Their path is always upwards, and attracted to the window by a scarlet-capped, white-as they arrive at maturity bore near the surface, and bosomed, dandified woodpecker, who, by his busi- lie concealed under the bark while in the pupa ness-like air and earnest manner of prying into all state. When its transformation takes place, it the holes and corners about the trunks of the trees, gnaws a hole in the bark and makes its escape; convinces me that there are secrets to be discovered therefore, the first clear warm afternoon, the girls that I am not willing he should keep to himself, how-shall go with me, and with pruning knives and wire ever glad I may be of his assistance in discovering in hand, will share the sport with the woodpeckers; them besides, I am much interested in a bunch of and if I hear of any of the boys killing a wooddried leaves that has dangled on the branch of a plum pecker, I won't say what I will do, but I think I all winter, having more meaning in it than people shall hand them over to a smart rubbing with the suspect, or I am much mistaken. The long-handled oil of hickory! rake shall help me to that secret; so snow and cold to the contrary, notwithstanding, I will go-betterdie of cold than of a woodpecker!

THE GARDEN.

THE month of winds and storms, noisy, boisterous March, has forced himself into notice, like a lunch, rushes home ravenous for his dinner, and is great overgrown school-boy, who, having missed quietly told to wait patiently, for it will not be ready this half hour.

shine, we feel that spring has come indeed; and if In these rapidly lengthening days and warm sunwe do not hurry our preparations for gardening, we shall be caught napping by bright, showery April, all smiles and tears, and birds and flowers, before we are half ready for it. Those beautiful harbin

Well, here I am back again. The day is not as cold as I thought. My thick coat and wadded hood have kept off the light snow, and my gum shoes prevented my feet from suffering, while I fully gratified my curiosity. The bunch of dried leaves proved a screen to a cocoon that I shall be glad to watch, as I suspect it to be the winter home of a large green worm that was feeding on the tree last summer. The woodpecker was in search of the worm that is so destructive to the apple orchards, and had succeeded in destroying many that were sufficiently near the surface for his curious long gers of spring, the modest snowdrop, the crocus, the tongue to reach; but the older ones had gone too its clusters of dark rose-colored flowers, have green and yellow hellebore, and the mezereon, with far for him, and required some contrivance on my bloomed amid alternate storms and calms, and are part to find them; a piece of stout bonnet wire I find very effectual. Some had gone beyond the their earthy beds, to enjoy another ten months no more seen; all but the last have withdrawn to reach of the wire; but I am told that mercurial sleep. It warms my very heart to look out upon ointment filled into the hole will poison them-I the sheltered borders, and see the gay daffodils and will try to-morrow.

1

FIG. 29.

merry-looking purple polyanthuses, nodding to
welcome each other to life and light-and the vio-
lets shedding their fragrance from every sunny
bank. The hearts-ease, which have cheered us all
winter, are so common now, even in the garden
walks, that they would be scarcely worth noticing,
were it not for a sort of individuality in each flower,
a saucy, good-natured confidence, in its quaint way
of looking up at one, as if to say, "I am laughing
at you!" that one cannot choose but gather, and
love them.

most twig of yonder red maple, carolling like any
Here is a merry blackbird too, perched on the top-
mocking bird, and making as much noise as if he
alone was worth attending to in this busy work-a-
day world--but there is no time to listen to music
vegetable treasures.
now, for everything hurries me to look after my
E. S.

This worm is much to be dreaded, and carefully guarded against. It is the larva or young of a Beetle called Sapuda bivottata. The face and lower part of the body is white; the wings and head are marked by two white and three cinnamon brown stripes, from the eyes to the tips of the wing cases; the horns or antennæ are longer than the body, they are from one-half to three-quarters of an inch in HINTS TO LADIES.-Stair carpets should always length. They begin to appear early in June, have a slip of paper put under them at and over the escaping from the tree in the night, which is their edge of every stair, which is the part that first time for flight and motion, concealing themselves wears out, in order to lessen the friction of the during the day among the leaves of the trees on carpet against the boards beneath. The strips which they feed. The eggs, which are of a pale should be within an inch or two as long as the carpet grass-green, are deposited under the loose bark of is wide, and about four or five inches in breadth. the tree, from three to twenty in number. In favor- This simple plan, so easy of execution, will preserve able weather the young worms soon hatch, and a stair carpet half as long again as it would last penetrate the bark. During the first year they are without the strips of paper.

Boys' Department.

BOYS' DEPARTMENT.

USEFUL AMUSEMENTS FOR BOYS.

ON most farms the care of young stock belongs to the women and boys. The boys should make the care of calves their own.

99

fifty chicks, four only exist at this present. Now these calamities happened on this wise. The old fowls, having their wings clipped to prevent roosting on trees, fell a prey one night to sundry unruly dogs, who took advantage of their crippled condition, and the little chicks suffered in various ways from a want of that important requisite, "the master's Calves should never be allowed to suck after the eye." An unsightly heap of brush, in the neighfirst day. When they have filled themselves well borhood of the coops, afforded shelter to that sneakwith the first milk, they should be taken away and ing rascal, "black rat," who cut the throat of every confined in the barn; and until the milk becomes unfortunate chick that came within his domain. good for use, it should be taken from the cow, and One night some frisky young Berkshires escaped fed by hand to the calf. It will soon learn to from their pen, for lack of a few nails driven in drink, if a finger be put in its mouth and its muzzle time, and played such pranks among the coops, that in the milk. At the end of three or four days, it the account of killed and wounded the next mornshould have no more new milk. When the milk ing was quite a serious affair. Neither did the has been skimmed, let it be warmed and given to it. geese entirely escape. Theirs was a case of killing The calf will not be so fat and look so sleek as if with kindness. The man who had charge of the fed with new milk, but will grow in frame as fast, live stock, believing, like many a better educated and be as large in size and bone, as one fed on new one, that "good living," and " plenty of it," was the milk, if it have enough; the reason of this is that great good of earthly existence, dealt out the corn the cream skimmed off the milk only makes fat, and so liberally that by reason of excess of fat, two does not make flesh or bone. Feed the calves well only, out of twenty-four eggs from the two geese, with good sweet skim milk at regular periods, say contained the living principle, and of these one only three times a day, and give them good pasture, and hatched, the other suffering from a lack of patience by fall they will be of good size. Always treat in I wont tell who. Now then, having got them kindly, and make them gentle. This will through the chapter of accidents, let us look to the give you good and kind cows, if the calves be cyphering. I commenced the year with the followheifers; and good and gentle oxen if they be steers.ing stock, viz. :

In the fall either make yourself, or get made, a 1845.

6 turkeys, a 62 1-2 cts

4 geese, a 62 1-2 cts.

small yoke, put it on the steer calves, and accustom Jan. 1. To 44 hens 6 cocks, a 25 cts.
them to it, and commence breaking them. In the
winter, after they have become docile, hitch them
to small sleds and draw little loads of wood. By
spring the steers will be well broken.

ANOTHER POULTRY ACCOUNT. You may remember, boys, that last April, I gave you a copy of my poultry account for 1844. Now if you are so inclined, I will overhaul the account for the past year. But before we go to the figures, I will tell you of sundry mishaps and blunders, which have had some effect on the profits, for by the errors of others you may learn as much as by their success.

Dr.

$12 50

3 75

2 50 $18 75

Feb. 25. To cash for 15 hens, a 25 cts. 3 75

Jan. 30.
Aug. 14.
Nov. 14. "

1845.

To balance (profit),

22 geese, a 50 "

11 00

6 young ducks,

1 00

แ

66 5 common do.

1 25

$76 20

44 25

120 45

Cr. $40 15

Dec. 31. By 3660 eggs used or sold, a 1 1-10 c.
25 chickens do. do. a 25 c.

3 turkeys do. do. a 62 & $1,00,
do. do. a 37 1-2 c.

16 bush. hen manure, a 12§ c.

103 fowls, a 25 c
7 ducks, a 37 1-2 c.
4 turkeys, a 75 c.
4 geese,

First, then, not having a proper yard enclosed, I had to keep the fowls during the summer shut up in their house (21 ft. by 12) until afternoon, as I was planting immediately around the building. This confinement, and limiting their food entirely to corn, when they should have had a variety, such as oats, buckwheat, a little wheat, and some Dec. 31. By stock on hand, víz.: butcher's offal, or scraps of meat, induced a distemper among them, by which some dozen or more were carried off; and causing a great falling off in the eggs. Then again all the broods of early chickens were completely destroyed by a certain little animal, which it is not polite to name, and which we must therefore spell, viz., l-o-u-s-e. I soon found that a few drops of sweet oil, or a little fresh lard, well rubbed on the back of the head, and on the wings of the chicks, immediately on taking them from the nest, was a perfect remedy-so much for Dame Partlett's family.

The Gobbler's family was even more unfortunate, for of the four turkeys that survived the winter, three were killed during the summer, and of about

do.

3.00 $34 38

$120 45

The result, you see, although not quite equal to 1844, is not to be despised. The geese are not the least profitable part of the stock. They are the large white Bremen variety, weighing, dressed, from 10 to 15 lbs. They are confined in a lane which gives access to the different fields, and in which there is a large artificial pond, with a good supply of water, even in the driest seasons. L. Rahway, N. J., Jan., 1846

The paper is to be published entire by the Society This is no small feather in Mr. Norton's chemical cap, and does honor to the American name.

To Prevent the Return of the Disease in Potatoes.-The board of Trade in Holland has published the following rules to be observed as a preventive of the potato disease-1. To leave the potatoes in the ground until very dry weather occurs. Experiments having shown that their decay is accelerated by being taken up, it is advisable to leave them in the ground at first, in order to get dried, and afterwards to lay them out over the field. This would have the double advantage of rendering the vegetable more wholesome, and of preserving it. 2. The following applies especially to those potatoes to be used as seed for next year: It is necessary to beware of planting those plants which have been attacked by the disease. They must be carefully chosen from those whose stalks have not been attacked, and placed in a situation free from the slightest damp. As the disease has been less severe in gravelly than in clayey soils, the tubers should be chosen from those gravelly soils where the disease has not penetrated. 3. The withered leaves of diseased potatoes, which are of no value, should be immediately burnt; the same should be done with the rotten potatoes, which cannot be of any use. Nothing should remain of them. 4. It is necessary to avoid as much as possible planting potatoes in the same spots where they have been planted this year, for it is most probable that seeds of the fungi have remained in these places, and there would be great risk of the ensuing crop being similarly attacked. 5. If, notwithstanding every effort, the disease should again break out next year, the moment the first symptoms of it are perceived, the first leaves that turn yellow should be taken off and burnt, with lime water, or still better, with diluted sulphuric or the entire field should be watered towards evening acid so as to destroy the seeds of the cryptogamous fungi; sulphuric acid, moreover, prevents rotting, and the plants themselves. when prepared as above direced, can do no injury to

and herds continue to increase. We had on the last Increase of Stock in New South Wales.-Our flocks day of 1844 nine thousand horses, one hundred and forty-two thousand head of cattle, and five hundred and fifty thousand sheep, more than we had on the last day of 1843.-Simmond's Colonial Magazine.

THE NATIONAL PRESS. A new family paper is to be started by Geo. P. Morris, Esq., well known as one of our most beautiful song writers, and the editor of the Mirror. It is to be a Journal for home; a repository for letters; a record of art; and a mirror of passing events. To be published every Saturday, at $2 a year in advance. We presume the brilliant Willis, the fidus Achates of the gallant Brigadier, will be associated in some way with the above journal. Of course it is bound to be fashionable, racy, witty, and all that sort of thing.

THE COMMERCIAL TIMES.-This is a daily and semi-weekly paper recently published in New Orleans. It is neutral in politics, and aims to make itself useful to the commercial and agricultural class. It has a strong corps of editors, and is conducted with ability. Thomas Affleck, Esq., of Washington, Miss., so favorably known as a contributor to this periodical, has the control of the Agricultural Department. The Times is of large sized paper and neatly printed. It has every promise of a good circulation, and our best wishes for its success.

BRITISH MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS.-(Office, 112 Fulton Street, New York.)-Leonard Scott & Co. have been recently issuing their elegant reprints of the January numbers of the best periodicals published in Great Britain, and we would recommend all our readers who may be inclined to subscribe, to lose no time in doing so. The forthcoming numbers will, we have little doubt, be peculiarly valuable to the farmer, as they will in all probability contain the most authentic expositions of the opinions of the leading parties in England on the most absorbing topic of the day-the Corn-Law Question; and this is a matter in which not England alone, but the whole world is interested. Price for the four Reviews and Blackwood's Magazine, when taken together, $10 per annum. Single Reviews $3 per annum-Blackwood, $3. The four Reviews comprising the series are the London Quarterly, the Edinburgh, the Foreign Quarterly, and the Westminster.

LIBRARY OF CHOICE READING.-Forcign Series. Under this title, Wiley & Putnam, 161 Broadway, are issuing a series of classic foreign works, at the low price of 50 cents per volume, which do honor to them as publishers. They have just sent us Two Parts of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, translated by Fairfax, with a Memoir of the author and translator, and a preliminary critique by Leigh Hunt. Of the unhappy Tasso and his immortal poem, the literary world has been enamored for more than two centuries and a half, and as time advances, they gain rather than lose in interest and reputation.

STORIES FROM THE ITALIAN POETS, in Three Parts, by Leigh Hunt, is a summary in prose, of the poems of Dante, Pulci, Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso; with comments throughout, occasional passages versified, and critical notices of the lives and geniuses of the authors, This is a most delightful book, and highly useful to the student of Italian literature. Mr. Hunt seems to have written it con amore, and in his most agreeable style.

LETTERS FROM ITALY, by J. T. Headley, is a charm-says that wild hemp has been found in the State of ing work, and fresh almost as if nothing had been written for the past ten years from the land of clear skies and fine arts. He gives several interesting letters on its agriculture, extracts from which we intend to make hereafter.

Missouri. A farmer from St. Louis county, being in hemp warehouse, accidentally saw some Manilla hemp, made inquiry what it was, and upon being informed, said he had produced something exactly like it from a weed upon his farm, and that he would send THE ILLUSTRATED BOTANY.-Edited by John B. in a sample, which he did, and it proves to be a variNewman, M.D. Published by J. K. Wellman, 118 ety of the Manilla hemp, resembling almost the New Nassau Street. Price $3 a year. This is a monthly Zealand hemp; but it is said to belong to the same publication, the first No. of which contains four beau- genus as the New Zealand, Sisal, and St. Domingo tiful colored engravings, after nature, of various choice hemp, from which all our heavy cordage is made.

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