a suitable place for dusting themselves is provided, and the hen-house thoroughly swept and whitewashed. Lice, on all animals, appear oftener in the spring, when their condition is reduced, and are rarely troublesome when proper precautions are taken for cleanliness and good feeding.. If too a little sulphur is occasionally fed to them, they will rarely be attacked by vermin.

The honey bee, which contributes so much to the health and comfort of man, is subject to a kind of louse which causes much damage, rendering the infested bee unfit to labor in summer, and by causing it to fall to the floor in autumn or winter, where it perishes with cold or hunger. The insect looks like a small spider, and is of the size of a flea, dark brown, and sometimes three or four are found on a bee. The common beetle is infested by a similar parasite, and more have observed them on this insect than on bees. By examining bees as they enter the live, the louse is easily detected, and when seen, is readily scraped off with a feather and killed.

But the most dangerous and troublesome enemy the bee owner has to encounter, is the bee moth, sometimes called honey-comb' moth, (Tinea cerella,) the larva of which lives on the comb, and destroys the bees by its filth and stench. The moth usually deposits its eggs around the base of the hive or in its crevices; and the worm, immediately on issuing from the egg, provides for its safety by spinning a web into a covered way, where it is safe from the attacks of the bees, and from which it issues at night in search of wax, its proper food. Ascending to the combs, where these do not reach the floor of the hive, the worm soon makes a lodgment in the masses, and bids defiance to the bees to dislodge him. Several hundred have been found in a single hive, and when they become numerous, the hive and combs become covered with their webs, and the spaces between the combs, with the thicker pieces and the filth of the worms. The grub attains its size in about three weeks, when it makes for itself a heavy thick web or envelope, in which it passes the pupa state. The moth appears in about fourteen days after the caterpillar enters the pupa state; but as there are two generations in a year, those that enter the pupa state in the fall remain in that condition through the winter. According to the best observers, the moths of the first generation appear early in the spring; those of the second in July.

We have tried, and have seen used, various kinds of hives intended to protect bees from the moth; but none can be considered as certainly safe, and the best method of saving the bees, is to frequently examine

the hive, keep the bottoms and corners clean, carefully trace out and remove with the grub any webs or cells formed, and it will do no injury to frequently sprinkle salt on that part of the board occupied by the base of the hive. Some apiarians have recommended that a light should be placed near a hive, to attract the moth at night; but this will do little good, as the moth that hatches in the hive rarely leaves it until her eggs are deposited. Some have used a shallow vessel, containing some substances, such as oil of spike, spirits of turpentine, &c. offensive to moths. These, covered with muslin, and placed under the hive, are said to be useful in preventing the entrance of moths from without to deposit their eggs in the combs.

The

We have thus gone over the ground assigned for the limits of this paper, and noticed the principal enemies that are injurious to Agriculture, either as preying on plants cultivated by the farmer or gardener, or the animals most useful to man, in their domesticated state. list might have been greatly extended, but those who wish to extend their acquaintance with injurious insects, will find it advisable to consult the pages of Köllar, Harris, &c. &c. If this paper shall be the means of awakening the attention of the cultivators of the soil, and the growers of fruits, to their insect enemies, and offer a guidance to the best methods of relieving themselves from those enemies; if it shall excite attention and inquiry, and promote a more careful habit of observation in all; the highest aim of the writer will be answered.

In connexion with the foregoing Series of Essays, it is proper to add that an Essay "on the Diseases peculiar to the Wheat Crop" was also deemed worthy of a Premium from the State Society. This latter Essay was written by John J. Thomas of Macedon, Wayne county, N. Y.; and will be found in this volume. The opinions of such writers as Gaylord and Thomas, must be of great value to the farmers engaged in raising that great staple product of our State-THE WHEAT.

[Prize Essay of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society.]

ON THE INTRODUCTION AND CULTURE OF NEW AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.

BY JOHN J. THOMAS, of Wayne County.

One of the most essential means of the prosperity and wealth of a civilized nation, consists in its cultivated crops. The transcendant importance of the Agricultural Products of the United States, may be partially estimated from the actual value of the amount of those largely, or generally cultivated throughout the country, a value only to be counted by hundreds of millions. For this vast amount, and furnishing, as they do, the very subsistence of our great population, we are chiefly indebted to the culture of a few plants, scarcely exceeding a dozen in number. The wheat and corn crops, annually, have been estimated at more than a hundred millions each; while others, such as cotton, rice, hay, oats, potatoes, sugar, &c., though of less value, are of the highest importance to the subsistence of the people. Yet all these products, with scarcely an exception, are from exotic plants, introduced and acclimated to the various regions of their culture. The addition of a single plant, which would prove of equal value to either of these, it is obvious, would be of inestimable importance.

In proportion to the fewness of cultivated products is, perhaps, the chance of obtaining anything which may supersede those already in our possession. But, when it is recollected that in all countries nearly all vegetable products of value are introduced, not native; and that of the fifty-thousand species which modern botany has described or brought into notice, very few indeed have been subjected to that culture and set of experiments necessary to develope fully their properties, and adaptation to the purposes of Agriculture; the infancy of this department of the art must be at once apparent. The native country and original qualities of some of our most common cultivated plants are unknown; but the reverse is true of others; and the changes which the meliorating effects of culture have had upon them, show the possibility of improvement in future. All our finest varieties of the apple appear to have originated from the austere English crab. The peach is said to be, in its native locality in the mountains of Hindostan, bitter, unpalatable, and poisonous. The best varieties of the turnip are derived from a plant, scarcely distinguishable by the casual observer, either in its stem or root, from the field mustard. The Indian corn, although believed to be a native of tropical countries, flourishes and pro

duces far more abundant crops in northern climates than in its native locality.

In introducing new plants for culture, there are three sources whence they may be derived, each requiring, in some degree, a different treatment. 1. The first consists of those plants already cultivated for agricultural purposes in other countries. 2. The second comprises those growing in a wild state, in foreign countries, and which have never been brought into cultivation. 3. The third includes our own native plants growing in a wild state.

In all attempts at the introduction of new plants, direct experiment must be the basis and the great leading test of success. But there are, at the same time, many important principles, which, if known, would not only greatly facilitate this work, but would save much unnecessary labor, and teach us to avoid efforts which from their very nature could never promise success. These principles it becomes an important part of the present essay to suggest.

The territorial limits of vegetation are familiar to every one at all conversant with vegetable geography. Plants found native in one country, are generally wholly wanting in others, where the separation is by seas, sandy deserts, or lofty chains of mountains. Even similar climates do not always produce similar plants. Many parts of North-America, which greatly resemble, in climate, certain portions of Europe, contain plants wholly different from the latter. Scarcely a single plant is found common to Africa and South-America. In transplanting vegetable productions from one country to another, especially where there is more or less variation in climate or soil, the principles of the changes wrought in them by such transfer of locality, become important subjects for consideration.

Effects of temperature -Every one is familiar with the effects of the changes of heat and cold on plants, and with the fact that those from hot countries cannot endure the severity of our winters. Some of the finest tropical fruits, when removed to the hot-houses of northern countries, are destroyed, or greatly injured, when exposed even to the open air. of summer. The reverse is also the case: the varieties of wheat and barley cultivated in Europe, will not grow within the tropics. This power, possessed in different degrees by different plants, is strikingly exemplified in the case of the Stellaria media, the seeds of which vegetate but few degrees above freezing; and the Poa annua and P. pratensis continue to grow slowly through most of our winters. On the other hand, the potato, the cucumber, and the dahlia, are destroyed by the first degree of frost.

Cultivation often effects great changes in the hardiness of plants. Hence many may be cultivated in countries much colder than their original climate; but this acclimation usually requires a long series of years of gradual exposure. The rice plant, according to J. Banks, is grown in Germany, from seeds raised there; but seeds from India, its native country, will not vegetate. Hence, in introducing plants from warmer countries abroad, it becomes an object of the highest importance to procure them from the most northern latitudes where they are to be found. The Morus multicaulis reached this country from different parts of the East, where it had been acclimated. The first variety was brought from the Philipine islands, within the tropics, and, as a consequence, it was always greatly injured by our winters. The other sort, sown from seeds procured in China, has resisted our severest cold. According to Biship Heber, the Olive flourishes in the Crimea ; although, as he remarks, "all the countries belonging to the Euxine sea are still subject to an annual severity of winter, of which the in"habitants of Britain can hardly form an idea. The whole sea of Azoph is annually frozen in November, and is seldom navigable ear"lier than April."* Would not the introduction of such an acclimated olive be an acquisition in the United States? "Some plants," says Hum"boldt, "which constitute the object of gardening and of agriculture, "have, time out of mind, accompanied man from one end of the globe to "the other. In Europe, the vine followed the Greeks; the wheat, the "Romans; and the cotton, the Arabs. In America, the Tulteques "carried with them the maize; and the potato and quinoa are found "wherever have migrated the ancient Condinamarca." But these changes have been the result of ages: how important an object it hence becomes for us to avail ourselves, at once, of all the advantages which such slow processes in acclimation have effected!

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Climates of nearly the same latitude, and of similar temperature, are often found to produce very considerable changes in the quality of vegetable products, even where they flourish well in every other respect. Some of the best apples of Russia are scarcely worth cultivating in England and France; while some of the finest in England, become of little value when brought to America. On the other hand, out of nearly fifty varieties of the peach from this country, but two or three were found, when raised in England, equal to those already cultivated there. Again, the Dantzic wheat, according to Lawson, when introduced in Scotland,