Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-06-18
CONDENSATION


hours in very weak solution Of sulphae Of copper,
(bue stone, gives security against smut, as many
persons assert
Some farmers believe smH is now a constitutional
disease OF our wheat too tong eltoatsd As same
SOL, and that the procurement Of seed from dis
lance is the surest means for avoiding this great
pest At this time, the white wheat and the latest
sowings Of the red wheat seem not to be affected by
the smut, nor by the minute black insect which con-
santly infests the smut-head perhaps by reason Of
the offensive odor.
But lei me suggest for the observation Of others,
that this insect terminates from egg dsposiediu
each grain-Or, at least, sooner OF later, every
smut-grain has its cuticle and chacoyer perforated
and these insects from the size Of a chigre to that
Of small house ay. occupy, for time, all the
smut heads But, if il be found that this insect is
elsewhere germinaied and is only visitor of the
smut-head which is perforated with It's prObOscis,
then the insect is harmless.
It is curious fact that al The sfrae stems from
he same grain are finally crowned with smut heads,
mauifesting some contamination Of the seed-grain,
which is procurated in oil the stems, causing the
smut, without any blossom. Under the facts last
malculous eggs in the black dust Of every smut
grain which adhering in the assure of sound grains
might cause Interior smut, after Matching and as
cendng with the growing wheat stem into the young
grain By careful microscopic observation the facts
and not ooniectures will direct to sound conclusions
in the premises
The young insect referred is scarcely visible to
the naked eye but soon shows three legs on each
side with two feelers and a bill on its elongated
head, its body being in the shape of chince Soon
after, its wingeoyers hatten, and 1t flies at the in
slant Of disturbance, and is very active and vigor
GUS Last year one tenth Of some crops was smutted
and now one twelfth or fifteenth of the red Haraiag
.rhsat is in the same condition This evening saw
. stems in one bunch all sautted, and about ten
bugs on every head, which had as many as half the
grains perforated. On the heads having very green
smooth skins, no insects appeared, and none at all
upon the adjacent sound wheat.
On the smut heads Isaw several caterpi liars which
had eaten the smut till it was transfused in fungus
small projections, their hairy cutieles On the
sound grains of good wheat the large insect which
feeds on ripe blaekberres was feeding, by thrust
ing It's mandibe into the milky grains, and on dis
turbiug it the offensive odor was emitted which can
be tasted in blackberries that this skmk-bug has
been eating among.
IF smut Of wheat cannot be arrested, the health
Of -four bread eaters will be promoted by all the
mills providing ,rate- cistsrHs with moving riddles for
thoroughly washing and afterwards kiln-drying the
wheat before branding the barrels Now is the
time for observing intelligence to examine and to
Nv Is-Lt H. IL
speeding the smut.
Some of Indian corn have the shUck filed
with fungoid substance having some analogies to
wheat smut The spurred rye is as some assert,
caused by the bite sting of an insect and usually
some spurred grains may be found in every barrel
Of marketable rye. The ingenuity with which
insects prepare the nesting for their germs and for
the nutrition Of the young brood, is worthy Of the
closest attention of all agrioulturists. The seeds
of plants, of shrubs and fruit trees from all sections
Of the world are being introduced into the vast ter
ritory Of our country and doubtless the various in
sect tribes viii, under ou system Of culture I'M
dergo many notifications in habits and character
istics
The recent swarms Of grasshOppers Of the cica-
dean locust family surviving under the forest leaves
amidst the extreme cold Of last winter and as moles
feed on them, these undersoil intuders have multi
piled wonderfully. During the last visitation of the
II year ocusts in this quarter observed, in laying
their eggs in the twigs which were split to receive
them the locust inserted its mandible several times
throughthe twg little way back Of the egg deposit
The effect was to kill the leaves Of the twg in few
days, which causing fermentation, not only aided
in Matching the eggs but enabled the gentle breeze
to break off the twig, thereby conveying the brood
to the ground where the little maggots could find
Il year home Now this twig would net have died
and fallen to the ground without having received
the transverse eatti7g Of the egg laying sagaeious
locust Unlike the grasshOpPe:s, these loeusts eat
nothing during their singing life Of 40 days. On
the wheat now are many minute grasshoppers which,
apparently do no harm, and perhaps are useful in
sucking the herb called I1a5sguartr and destroying
all that weed among the wheat
Last month the young maize was damaged by a
little jumping black bug very like the smut bug
which now has quit the corn and is feeding on the
lambsquarter and other mucilaginous plants It
flies too swift TO be visible In September last on
this farm, was ten acre lot of fine red clover,
across which the army cat norm marched, leaving
three acres untouched at one end, and destroying
every leaf and stem upon seven acres. The seven
acres was therefore planted in corn six weeks since
and the favored three acres of red clover is now Two
feet deep of rich verdure.
Many years since l observed swarms Of white
butterflies called DaiilaTs, which deposited around
twigs, eggs, carefully cemented together about half
s, inch or an inch in bresdth-most tWigs had many
of these belts made around them. In April of the
next year these eggs yielded small caterpillaTs,
occupying all the forrest and when grown to about
an inch long, nearly all the forest leaves were en-
tireIv consumed about the months Of May and June.
About one half of these eaterpiIlars then crawled
down the north side of the green trees, within foot
or two of the ground, serving as food for hogs
from one pint to four piuts being ON the bark and
to each other upon the north side Of trees, causing
greqt stencil in the forests for a week. The remain
inc half being females, descended TO the ground by
a web-line, like that of spiders and reaching the
under side of the weed leaves webbed the leaf in
fold around their bodies which in twenty days
passed the cbrysoHte state into the first named
SIMILAR fly.
In the succeeding year the caterPillars were still
more numerous and very few rs5bsd themselves for
the e6rysos The belt of country occupied by these
caterpilars was bordering the western edge Of the
lower table plain of the Cumberland mountains, and
was six to ten miles in width and sixtylong
I, the month of August 1855. observed myriads