THE CATTLE MARKETS FOR JUNE. The following is a summary of the reports for the four weeks NUMBER AT MARKET. May 29.........1037 Shotes. Fat Hogs. 2073 300 1942 400 3021 400 1400 500 2593 700 2200 1400 ...1481 3109 June 12........1134 them, to bring all (what the Yankees call) the sur-. roundings of that season before you. Many little things come up again, which you know quite well ending June 19, 1862: you never would have thought of again, but for your glance at those words, and still which you feel you would be sorry to have forgotten. There must be a richness about the life of a person who keeps a diary, unknown to other men. And a million more little links and ties must bind him to the members of his family circle, and to all among whom he lives. Life, to him, looking back, is not a bare line, stringing together his personal identity; it is surrounded, intertwined, entangled with thousands and thousands of slight incidents, which give it beauty, kindliness, reality. Some folks' life is like an oak walking-stick, straight and varnished; useful, but hard and bare. Other men's life (and such may yours and mine, kindly reader, ever be,) is like that oak when it was not a stick, but a branch, and waved, leaf-enveloped, and with lots of little twigs growing out of it, upon the summer tree, and yet more precious than the power of the diary to call up again a host of little circumstances and facts, is its power to bring back the indescribable, but keenly-felt atmosphere of those departed days. The old time comes over you. It is not merely a collection, an aggregate of facts, that comes back; it is something far more excellent than that-it is the soul of days long ago; it is the clear Auld lang-syne itself! The perfume of hawthorn hedges is there; the breath of breezes that fanned our gray hair when it made sunny curls, often smoothed down by the hands that are gone; the sunshine on the grass where these old fingers made daisy-chains; and snatches of music, compared with which anything you hear at the opera, is extremely poor. Therefore, keep gradually declined in prices. The quality of old sheep was your diary, my friend.-London Magazine. THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT-A Boy's ANSWER.-An old schoolmaster said one day to a minister, who had come to examine the school, "I believe the children know the Catechism word for word." But do they understand it? that is the question," said the minister. The schoolmaster only bowed respectfully, and the examination began. A little boy had repeated the fifth commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother," and he was desired to explain it. Instead of trying to do so, the little boy, with his face covered with_blushes, said, almost in a whisper, "Yesterday I showed some strange gentlemen over the mountain. The sharp stones cut my feet, and the gentlemen saw they were bleeding, and they gave me some money to buy me shoes. I gave it to my mother, for she had no shoes either, and I thought I could go barefooted better than she could." REMARKS.Of the whole number of cattle above reported, 3212 were from the West, mostly from Illinois, while only 1580 were from the North. Of the 11,396 sheep, 1776 were from the West, and 9620 from the North. From which it appears that during these four weeks the Western farmers have furnished the great cattle market of New England with about two-thirds of all the beeves on sale, and something like one-sixth of the whole number of sheep. The average quality of beeves has been good. Up to June 12, there was but little change in the price of beef, although a gradual improvement might have been perceptible, but at that time there was an advance of full 14ct in prices, and something probably in the allowance for shrinkage, so that the market for that week may be considered as the best for the season, perhaps for the year. A larger supply the next week brought prices back again, so that at the close of the four weeks they are very nearly the same as at the beginning. The sheep market has been very quiet during the last month, the supply being just about equal to the demand. Lambs have DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. BOSTON, AUGUST, 1862. VOL. XIV. NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN, PROPRIETORS. CALENDAR FOR AUGUST. AUGUST! Reign, thou Fire-Month! What canst thou do? Neither shalt thou destroy the earth, whom frost and ice could not destroy. The vines droop, the trees stagger, the broadpalmed leaves give thee their moisture, and hang down. But every night the dew pities them. Yet, there are that look thee in the eye, fierce Sun, all day long, and wink not. This is the rejoicing month for joyful insects. If our unselfish-eye would behold it, it is the most populous and the happiest month. The herds plash in the sedge; fish seek the deeper pools; forest fowl lead out their young; the air is resonant of insect orchestras, each one carrying his part in Nature's grand harmony. August, thou art the ripeness of the year! Thou art the glowing centre of the circle!-H. W. Beecher. MERICA was long ago some naturalist, as the the NO. 8. SIMON BROWN EDITOR. In many sections of our country, no pantry can be made tight enough to exclude those extremely "little ants" which infest some premises, in such multitudes as to seem a veritable repetition of that other "wonder in Egypt," by which "all the dust of the land became lice." Troublesome, however, as all these may be to the tidy housewife, they are quite insignificant when compared with the myriads which people our fields, and in so many ways prove themselves to be "injurious to vegetation." From what we have read and heard about the insects of Europe, we have always understood that farmers there, much as they complain of their losses by the depredations of various kinds of insects on their crops, suffer much less from this cause than we do here. This fact is very strongly stated by Dr. FITCH, Entomologist of the New York State Agricultural Society. In a recent adWarmed into ex- dress he remarked that "the losses which we susistence by the ex-tain from these pests immeasurably surpass anycessive heat of the thing of the kind to which they are subject in Euseason, a heat that rope. There, if an insect appears in their wheat gives us a pretty fields by which the crop is shorterfed an eighth or fair experience of a tenth from its average yield, whole communities climate of become alarmed, while here so slight a loss would countries much be disregarded and would pass wholly unnoticed." nearer the equator, insects swarm It may, therefore, be assumed as probably true, around us, by day and by night, that there is something in our dry atmosphere, in-doors and out, in earth, air hot summers, loose soils, or some other peculiarity and water, in such countless of our country, which is so favorable to the innumbers that, perhaps, AUGUST, sul- crease and activity of this most numerous branch try, dog-day August, may, with some of the animal kingdom, as to afford some ground propriety, be denominated The Month of justification for the assertion that America is of Insects. Plagues of Egypt! How the land of insects. At any rate, we find multithey do bother. It was by a miracle, we are told, tudes of them cutting off the young shoots of our that "a grievous swarm of flies" once entered the vegetables as they come up in the spring; other royal dwelling of the hard-hearted Pharoah, but multitudes eat the leaves from garden plants and in this our "land of insects," it would be regarded vines, destroy our cherries, currants, plums, apa miracle, indeed, were our houses exempted from ples and pears, utterly ruin whole fields of wheat such annoyance for a single week, in the month of and other grain, or saw away at the solid trunks August. But flies are, by no means, the most and limbs of trees, designed for fencing, fuel, troublesome of this class of our household pests. building purposes, and for our furniture, until -"perforated sore, And drilled in holes, the solid wood is found, FLAX COTTON. We learn that the Rhode Island Agricultural Society has sent to Washington a memorial to be It is, also, we believe, generally supposed that laid before Congress, asking for an appropriation the losses which the farmers of our country sus- to enable the society to prosecute its experiments tain from insect depredations are constantly in- in the manufacture of flax cotton. Those who creasing. This is certainly true of some insects. have given most attention to the subject are confident that the difficulties in the way of manufacThe curculio, for instance, which a few years ago turing flax can be overcome, and that with such confined its operations to plums, has now become facilities as the appropriation they desire would so numerous as to be able to find almost every ap-furnish, some of our ingenious men would very ple on every tree of many large orchards, and to soon accomplish the object which has been so mark them unmistakably "for their heirs and long sought. successors." Some farmers, when they consider how numerous, how minute, and yet how powerful are the foes which assail them, and then remember how little they can do to protect their crops when attacked by insects, are ready to give up all hope, and sit down in despair. This is cowardly. "Dominion over everything that creepeth upon the earth" was given to man in the beginning, and we have no doubt will be retained unto the end. It is possible that we shall be obliged to understand their habits and the history of their lives better than we now do. The study of Natural History may become a necessity to success in the contest with insects in America. And in this study, perhaps unexpectedly, we may find some compensation for our losses, in learning that even insects are but links in the great chain of universal goodness which unites the creatures of our common Father. To show how well the humanizing effect of the study of nature was understood by one remarkable reformer, we give the story of an American entomologist-that Peter the Great, of Russia, conceived the idea that the study of Nature would contribute much towards the civilization and refinement of his barbarian subjects, and, accordingly, he established, at an enormous expense, a large Museum of Natural History at St. Petersburg; and in order to induce his whiskey-loving subjects to go there, he ordered a glass of brandy to be presented to every visitor! May the direct appeal which insects make to our purses, prove at least as efficient, in promoting a more intimate acquaintance with their history and habits, as did the Czar's toddy. It may at first sight seem strange to some that this matter should be now engaging the attention of the society. But when justly viewed, it is seen to have the most intimate connection with our public affairs. For the want of cotton our mills must soon stop. Many of them have already stopped. How long they will remain idle, unless some new material to take the place of cotton is discovered, no one can say. And when the productiveness of our mills is at an end, the "internal tax" on cotton manufactures becomes nothing. If a substitute for cotton is found, our mills may continue their labors and pour in their quota to the national treasury. New England and the Middle States are of course peculiarly interested in seeing the invention perfected for which the society is laboring. question, one which we have so often presented that we need not enlarge more upon it now, but which every day becomes more and more worthy of consideration. The invention of machinery for spinning flax satisfactorily and cheaply would at once depose and overwhelm King Cotton, whose throne has been so essentially shaken this past year. The effect upon the proud and rebellious temper of the cotton-growing South, upon the fate of slavery, and so upon the prosperity of our country is manifest. These facts explain the sighted members of the Rhode Island Society are persistence with which the intelligent and farendeavoring to complete the experiments requisite for success in the manufacture of flax cotton.Providence Journal. But there is of course a much wider view of the CLEARING A DEBTOR'S PRISON.-The work of clearing the Queen's Bench Prison, London, of its inhabitants is now verging toward a close. Strange to say, it has been a very difficult task. Many of the prisoners sternly refused to be made bankrupts, though, by giving their consent, they could have immediately obtained their release. The most curious case was that of Wm. Miller, who had been in prison since July, 1814-forty-eight years! He had lost all desire to go out, and would sign nothing which would have the effect of making him a ABORTION OR "SLINKING" IN COWS PRODUCED free man. When at last he was absolutely forced BY SMUT ON CORN.-The Belgian Annals of Ve- to acquiesce, he begged to be allowed to remain terinary Medicine states that the Ustilago Madis, in the prison a few days longer; and when his or parasitic mushroom, which occurs on maize or time was up he still lingered fondly within the Indian corn, as ergot does on rye, produces abor- gates to bid the officials farewell, and to shake tion in cows fed with it. In a stable where cows hands over and over again. Until he passed the were given corn with smut on it, eleven abortions outer gates of the Queen's Bench Prison, a few occurred in eight days; when the cause was sus-weeks since, Wm. Miller, who was born nearly pected, and the food changed, there were no abortions. Stock-keepers should make a note of this statement. eighty years ago, never saw a street gas-lamp, nor an omnibus, much less a steamship or a railway. -Railway Exchange. For the New England Farmer. ON THE KEEPING PROPERTIES OF EGGS. MR. BROWN:-Having read occasionally some controversy in the N. E. Farmer concerning the keeping properties of productive eggs, or those containing a germ, compared with unproductive eggs, which are unimpregnated, I wish to communicate a few observations on the subject. Persons who have been accustomed to raising fowls, must have observed that, if there are several eggs left in the nest of a hen, after she has hatched her brood, in frequent instances, some of these remaining eggs, when broken, appear to be fresh and uninjured, while others are entirely rotten, or contain dead chickens. Now those eggs which have not been materially injured by the warmth of the hen's body during the period of incubation, are such as never contained a germ; and those which are rotten, are eggs that contained a germ that had perished. I have always, therefore, made it a practice to examine the eggs in the nest of a setting hen, after she has sat upon them five days, and take away all those in which the process of incubation has not commenced. This is easily determined by holding the eggs against a strong light, which makes apparent the little net work of blood vessels forming within all the productive eggs, and reveals the clear transparency of the unproductive ones. By this means I save all the eggs which are not going to produce chickens, before they have been injured by the warmth of the hen; if I left them a longer time, those eggs which contained a perished germ, would soon become corrupted, though the eggs that never contained a germ would bear this temperature with impunity for several weeks. But as the public is always better satisfied if an individual who makes a doubtful assertion, should establish it by the testimony of some high authority, as well as by his own experience, I have made an abstract of some remarks on this subject, contained in a work "On Domestic Fowls, &c.," by M. De Reaumur, the inventor of the French thermometer. In this abstract I shall use the language of the author, as translated, but shall considerably abridge the sum of his remarks. The multiplication of chickens does not appear, says M. De Reaumur, to be a more important object than the preservation of eggs, since it is probable that hens contribute more to the actual supply of man's food by the latter, than the former. It is very easy to surmise that if all the eggs consumed in one year were put into the scale of a balance and weighed, and all the chickens, fowls and capons eaten in the same year were weighed likewise, the weight of the eggs would be superior to that of the flesh of the poultry. He thinks, in any case, however, that the preservation of eggs is a subject of great importance. There is a method, he continues, for having eggs preserved a great while without corruption, which ought to obtain public attention. It is very remarkable that there should be, among eggs laid by the same hens, some that remain sound and contract no ill taste whatever, though laid a great while before, and kept in a warm, dry air five or six times longer than what would be necessary to rot any other eggs, placed in the same circumstances. This is an observation which he had oc casion to make a great many times, before he tried methods for causing chickens to be hatched in ovens. After eggs had been warmed for some days together in the hatching ovens, there were some that spread the most offensive smell in the place if they were broken, and were entirely rotten. There were others in the same place, which, when broken, not only had no ill smell, but which were very good to eat. They differed from newlaid eggs only in having some of their moisture evaporated, but the yolk was an entire ball, like that of fresh eggs. In some of the eggs that were corrupt enough to spread the most offensive smell, he found a chicken very well formed; in some of the same eggs he found only the remains of one, and in others he could not perceive the least vestiges of any. In this last case the germ had probably perished at an early date, and had become dissolved; but the uncorrupt eggs never contained a germ. The germ, at least a productive germ, is wanting in the eggs of hens that live without a cock; and those of hens that are not deprived of cocks are not all fruitful. Now, since the eggs that have germs in them are liable to corruption, he was led to think that those which keep sound a longer time, are the unfruitful ones. The experiments necessary to remove all doubt on this point were too plain not to be attempted. He accordingly kept four hens without a cock in a large cage, where they had every thing besides in plenty; they laid eggs there, the first of which were of course productive; but after these had all been laid, by experimenting upon those which were laid afterwards, he found that when placed in the hatching oven, no chicken was enfolded in them, and they did not contract any corruption. Although they were in an air warm to the degree that causes chickens to be hatched, they remained sound there for above thirty days, and sometimes forty or fifty days together. Thirty or forty days in an air of the heat of a hen's body must be equivalent in its action upon the eggs, to a great many months of an air which has only the common temperature of our houses. He concluded, therefore, that eggs destitute of a germ might be kept a long time in an ordinary temperature without being spoiled. He then made further experiments of another character. He deposited some of these eggs laid by hens kept apart from cocks, in one of the coolest places in his house on the ground floor, after having written upon each of them the date when it was laid. On the third day of January, he tried those which had been deposited there on the first of May, the preceding year; and found them in good condition. A great cavity had been made within them by evaporation. They were not in the least corrupt, though the yolk was slightly adhering to the shell. He had these eggs dressed in different ways, and none of those who eat them, had the least suspicion that they were eight months old. In order, then, to have eggs that would keep fresh from spring to the middle, or even the end of winter, we need only to deprive hens of all communication with cocks. People, without knowing this, must have owed to this circumstance the occasional advantage of finding a smaller number of spoiled eggs among those they bought. Hens are not furnished in every farm with as many and as good cocks as would be necessary to render all their eggs fit to be sat on; and the eggs of such fowls, after being kept a long time, would contain a large proportion well preserved. forming parts of, or accompanying his report, which report also shall contain an account of all moneys received and expended by him. He shall also make special reports on particular subjects, whenever required to do so by the President, or either house of Congress, or when he shall think the subject in his charge requires it. He shall reagricultural division of the Patent Office, in the Department of the Interior, including the fixtures and property of the propagating garden. He shall direct and superintend the expenditure of all money appropriated by Congress to the Department, and render accounts thereof, and also of all money heretofore appropriated for Agriculture, and remaining unexpended. And said Commissioner may send and receive, through the mails, free of charge, all communications and other matter pertaining to the business of his department, not exceeding in weight thirty-two ounces. Reaumur quotes some experiments of other persons which were attended with similar results. I think, therefore, we have reason to believe that the eggs which are laid by hens kept entirely apart from the male bird, are not liable to corrupt, un-ceive and have charge of all the property of the der ordinary circumstances, before the contents are almost entirely evaporated. Eggs, on the other hand, which contain a germ, will begin to corrupt immediately after the germ has perished; and the germ seldom retains its vitality more than seven or eight weeks, unless some extraordinary attention is paid to the eggs for their preservation. Indeed, I have no doubt that if a series of careful experiments were performed with the two different kinds of eggs, to ascertain their comparative keeping properties, it would prove that the unimpregnated eggs laid in the spring, would be found as good in January as other eggs laid at the same time, would be in September. But this is conjecture: the exact difference between their keeping properties can only be ascertained by further experiment. WILSON FLAGG. UNITED STATES AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. This is the act establishing a National Agricultural Department at Washington. The Commissioner has not yet been appointed: SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of Agriculture shall appoint a chief clerk, with a salary of two thousand dollars, who, in all cases, during the necessary absence of the Commissioner, or when the said principal office shall become vacant, shall perform the duties of Commissioner; and he shall appoint such other employees as Congress may from time to time provide, with salaries corresponding to the salaries of similar officers in other Departments of the Government; and he shall, as Congress may from time to time provide, employ other persons, for such time as their services may be needed, including chemists, botanists, entomologists, and other persons skilled in the natural sciences pertaining to Agriculture. And the said Commissioner, and every other person to be appointed in the said Department, shall before he enter upon the duties of his office or appointment, make oath or affirmation truly and faithfully to execute the trust comted to him. And the said Commissioner and the Chief Clerk shall, before entering upon their duties, severally give bonds to the Treasurer of the United States, the former in the sum of ten thousand dollars, and the latter in the sum of five SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That there thousand dollars, conditional to render a true and shall be appointed by the President, by and with faithful account to him or his successor in office, the advice and consent of the Senate, a "Commis- quarter-yearly accounts of all moneys which shall sioner of Agriculture," who shall be the chief ex-be by them received by virtue of the said office, ecutive officer of the Department of Agriculture, with sureties to be approved as sufficient by the who shall hold his office by a tenure similar to Solicitor of the Treasury; which bonds shall be that of other civil officers appointed by the Presi- filed in the office of the First Comptroller of the dent, and who shall receive for his compensation a Treasury, to be by him put in suit, upon any salary of three thousand dollars per annum. breach of the conditions thereof. Approved May 15, 1862. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby established at the seat of Government of the United States a Department of Agriculture, the general designs and duties of which shall be to acquire and diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with Agriculture, in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and to procure, propagate and distribute among the people, new and valuable seeds and plants. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture to acquire and preserve, in his department, all information concerning Agriculture, which he can obtain by means of books and correspondence, and by practical and scientific experiments (accurate records of which experiments shall be kept in his office,) by the collection of statistics, and by any other appropriate means within his power; to collect, as he may be able, new and valuable seeds and plants; to test, by cultivation, the value of such of them as may require such tests; to propagate such as may be worthy of propagation, and to distribute them among agriculturists. He shall annually make a general report in writing of his acts, to the President and to Congress, in which he may recommend the publications of papers THE WORKMANSHIP OF IVORY. None of our manufacturers have yet reached the consummate skill of the Chinese artists in the workmanship of ivory, chiefly remarkable in their concentric balls, chess pieces and models. Yet the adaptation to useful purposes of this valuable substance is fully understood by those who do not undertake to rival the exquisite minuteness of Eastern art. The manufacturers of surgical instruments are in the habit of rendering ivory flexible for use as tubes, probes, etc., by acting on the well-known fact that, when bones are subjected to the action of hydrochloric acid, the phosphate of lime, which forms one of their component parts, |