Southern planter : devoted to agriculture, horticulture, and the ...

442 THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER.
Amid al! the wonders of nature which
we have had occasion to explain, there is
none inore startling than that which reveals
to our knowledge the fact that a flint
stone consists of the mineralised bodies of
animals, just as coal consists of masses of
mineralised vegetabh^ matter. The animals
are believed to have been infusojial
animalculae, coated with silicia shells, as
the wheat straw of ' to-dny is clothed with
a glassy covering of silica. Tlie skeletons
of animalculag which compose flint may be
brought under microscopic examination.
Geologists have some difficulty in determining
their opinions respecting the rela-
tion which these animalculce bear to the
flint stones in which they are found.
Whether the animalculje, in dense masses,
form the flint ; or whether the flint merely
supplies a sepulchre to tlie countless millions
of creatures that, ages ago, enjoyed
each a separate and conscious existence,
is a problem that may never be solved.
And what a problem ! The
buried plant
being disentombed, after having lain for
ages in the bowels of the earth, gives us
light and w^armth ; and the animalcules,
after a sleep of ages, dissolves into the
sap of a plant, and wTaps tiie coat it wore
probably " in the beginning, when God
created the heavens and the earth, and
when the earth first brought forth living
creatures," around the slender stalk of
waving corn ! T/ie Reason Why.
Moths in Carpets.
An "Experienced Housekeeper" writes
the New York Tribune, concerning these
pests, as follows: Camphor will not stop
the ravages of moths after they have commenced
eating. Then they pay no regard
to the presence of cimphor, cedar or tobacco
— in fact, t rather think they enjoy
the latter, if anything else than humanity
can. Nor will the dreaded and inconvenient
taking up and beating always insure
success, for I tried it faithfully, and while
nailing it down, found several of the worms
" alive and kicking" that had remained
under the pile unharmed. I conquered
them wholly in this way: I took a coarse
crash towel and wrung it out of clean wa-
ter and spread it smoothly on the carpet,
then ironed it dry with a good hot iron,
repeating the operation on all suspected
places, and those least used. It does not
injure ihe pile or color of the carpet, in
the least, as it is not
necessary to press
hard, heat and steam being the _^ ,
aiid they do the work efl^ectually on worms
and eggs. Then the camphor will doubtless
prevent future depredations of the
miller. Maine Farmer.
Draught of Plowing at Different Depths.
It has been laid down in the books that
the draught of a plow increases rapidly
when the furrow is deepened, or, in mathematical
terms, according to the squares of
the depth ; that is to say, that if the draught
at four inches deep be 252 lbs., at seven
inches it w^ill befis 49 to 16, or 756 lbs.
But the experiments of Pusey have proved
that this is erroneous. He found that in
plowing a funow nine inches wide and^re,
inches deep, the draught was 322 pounds.;
at the same width and in the same soil,
six inches deep, it was 308 lbs. ; at seven
inches, 350 lbs. ; at eight, 420 lbs. ; atmwe,.
434 lbs. It will be seen that the rate of
increase is much less than has been gene*
rally supposed ; and the facts above indicated
furnish an additional argument in
favor of deep plowing, and one seldom alluded
to b}^ agricultural writers. Maine
Farmer.
From the Country Gentleman.
Economy off Feeding Roots.
Although we are almost continually,
hearing the praises of root crops from numerous
writers of the agricultural press,
such encomiums being echoed through the
country on account of their great yield,
as compared with other farm crops ; and
although this great aggregate yield per
acre, their succulency, and other accredi-
ted qualities, are not to be denied ; still
writers on this subject have not, in many
instances, proved themselves true theorists—theory
being alwnys a consistent
ideal of the best practice—but rather copyists
of a popular idea not> really well
understood, except by practical men who
have had perce})tion and judgment suffi-
cient to enable them to deduce correct
principles from experience of their own,
or that coming under their own observation.
This class of the best friends of agriculture,
together with correct judges
from observation, know w^ell that there are
many things to be considered, as affecting