THE APHIS.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 303, 14 September 1860, Page 4

THE APHIS.

It would seem by the following extract from the Farm and Garden, that there is every probability that our gardens will again be infested with the aphis. Speaking by this cognomen for the whole tribe, I may first mention that these insects have been observed on turnips (that is, the leaves) since and during the late showers; also on some cabbage plants, and on what else our gardeners can say, though the efforts of these apides have been feeble compared with our products iv the vegetable line now everywhere exhibited, the effects of the present seasonable ■weather. I have been asked if the late drenching rains and cold weather will not kill these pests of the field and garden, but I think from experience it will only keep them a little in check, and on the first approach of warmer days they will again be numerous and in their full vigour. The honeysuckle (English) and some other flowers already have them. The following letter in the same journal states that sulphur is an effective antidote: — "Sir—As you have enquired at different times through your columns for some one to try the effects of sulphur against the aphis, I send you an account of my experience, as it might be of benefit to some. I steeped 12 hours in sulphur, with a little water, early Enfield market

and Shepherd's large early cabbage and'Ariatic cauliflower seed, and sowed on the 2nd January, and shaded them with green boughs till they changed into the third leaf, watering them generally every other night. The insect; was never seen on" them. I planted them out the first rains, and watered them occasionally three or four times a week with liquid manure (fowl and pigeons dung water), say from a gill to half a pint, as strong as I could mix it. I believe guano would answer better. This result is as follows:—-I cut cabbages on the 19th May, and cauliflowers to-day, as fine as I ever saw since the colony has been proclaimed. I sowed again with the same treatment in the middle of February, with the same results. Not an insect has ever shown on either of the seed beds, but by looking close there are a few to be found under the leaves of the large cabbage, but nothing to injure their appearance or quality,.as some of the real white-hearts weigh from 6 lbs. to 91bs.; and I believe the cauliflowers will average 8 lbs. each. They are the pride of the country they grow in, and their equals are not to be found in the colony at this season of the year. lam also of opinion that any one may grow them by the same treatment with proper attendance. I have kept planting in succession up till now, and I think they will be coming in to cut as good, if not better, up to the end of October.

If you think any of these remarks are worth publishing, you are quite at liberty to usethem for the benefit of the public. If you have any doubt as to the truth, no doubt Mr. Hawker will allow me to send you down half-a-dozen if you like to pay the faro from Clare by the mail as we have plenty of th>?m. You are quite welcome to use my name if you think proper.— James Hoake.

A successful experiment has been tried upon the aphis, with a simple solution of carbonate of soda (baking soda) and water. A number of these insects on a leaf were placed by a Mr. Tebbutt under his microscrope of 3000 magnitude, and presented to the eye at about the size of a child's thimble, and something of the shape. A drop of the solution was then let fall amongst them, causing them instantly to turn on their backs with a death kick. Mr. T. says that watering plants with this solution has no injurious effect on them whatever.— Sydney Morning Herald.

• Two Minute Sermons to the Girls.—La-dies—-caged birds of beautiful plumage, but sickly looks—pale pets of the parlour, who vegetate in an unhealthy atmosphere like a potato germinating in a dark cellar, why do you not go out into the open air and warm sunshine, and add lustre to youL' eyes, bloom to your cheeks, and elasticity to your steps, and vigor to your frames? Take morning exercise, let loose your corset strings, and run up the hill for a wager, and down- again for fun ; roam the fields, climb the fences, leap the ditches, wade the brooks, and after a day of exhilarating exercise and unrestrained-liberty, go home with an appetite acquired by healthy enjoyment. The beautiful and blooming young lady—rosecheeked and bright-eyed-~-who can darn a stocking, mend her own frocks, command a regiment of pots and kettles, feed the pigs, milk the cows, and be a lady when required, is the girl that young men are in quest of for a wife. But you pining, screwed-up, wasp-waisted, doll-dressed, consumption mortgaged, musicmurdering, and novel-devouring daughters of fashion and idleness—you are no more fit for matrimony, than a pullet is to look after fourteen chickens. The truth is my dear girls, you want less fashionable restraint and more liberty of action; more kitchen and less parlour, more leg exercise and less sofa; more pudding and less piano, more frankness and less mock modesty. Loosen your waist strings and breathe in the pure atmosphere, and become something as good and beautiful as nature designed.— American Paper. • Pitt's Career.—lt is true Pitt died broken hearted ; but public affairs were never too much for him till he gave up the only chance of health by giving up temperance and prudence in hia personal affairs. His debts worried him, and port wine killed him. The habits of his class and time were against him. Pitt could bear everything till he was harrassed by debt and weakened by the maladies which grew out of excess in wine. The account of Fox must be somewhat different. The wonder is not that he died dropsical at 57, but that he lived so long in reckless habits of wive, play, and debt. In these men scholarship could have no more than than an ameliorating effect. To see its true operation, we must study the fine examples which modern history presents of aged statesmen who have triumphed over care and irritation, and kept their freshness of mind and serenity of mood to (he last. —Miss Martineau in Once a Week. ■

'The. Irish, Butter Trade.-—We, says the Miner, think the practical experience of nearly every one in this district will confirm the following remarks from the Farmers' Journal:— lt has recently been alleged by Messr?. Yeates, Alcocks, and Copeman, of London, that Irish, butter is largely adulterated by the mixture of beef fat and suet, sent from England to certain Irish Ports. The adulteration appears to be practised in the winter months chiefly. It is then that cattle produce the least quantity of butter; but the adulteration practised has made it appear that they yield in winter about one third more than they do in Summer? The Irish farmers are altogether exonerated from blame. Potatoe starch, water and soda are used in the process. . The people of this colony have great reason to be dissatisfied with the quality of butter they are either •compelled to use or dispense with the article altogether. We are not prepared to say that any butter imported into this colony from Ireland is adulterated, but that much of it strongly resembles beef fat both in appearance and taste is but too well known. It is also worthy of remark that the best_ imported butter has always more or less rancidity about it. If butter is genuine, is well washed and'the milk and caseine thoroughly extracted, is properly salted and kept perfectly covered with brine until it is used, there is no danger of its becoming rancid. The conclusion to which we come is thi3, that the butter so largely imported into this colony from; Europe, is either adulterated or mismanaged in its manufacture —or perhaps both. We hope to see more earnest exertions made by farmers and stockholders to supply at least our own wants in this necessary article of consumption^ . Very Evident. —A discerning friend of ours told us a' short,time back, that in his opinion '" there was nothing like humbug in this world." This may or may not be the case. One thing however, is pretty certain ; if there is nothing like it, there is at any rate a great deal of the original article itself; ;

• The Food a Man 'Consumes.—Alexander Soyer's Modern Housewife gives the following cumulation as the probable amount' of food that an epicure of seventy years might have consumed. Supposing his gastronomic performances to commence at ten years, he will make 65,700 breakfasts, dinners, and suppers, to say nothing of luncheons and extra feastings. To supply the epicure's table for sixty years, Soyer calculates he will require 30 oxen, 200 sheep, 100 calves, 200 lambs, 50 pigs; in poultry, 1200 fowls, 300 turkeys, 150 geese, 400 ducklings, 263 pigeons, 1400 partridges, pheasants, and grouse, 600 woodcocks and snipes, 600 wild-ducks, widgeon, and teal, 450 plovers, ruffes, and reeves, 800 quails, ortolans, and dotterels, and a few guillemocs and other foreign birds; also, J 500 hares and rabbits, 40 deer, 120 Guinea fowl, 10 peacocks, and 360 wild-fowls. In the way offish, 120 turbot, 140 salmon, 120 cod, 160 trout, 400 mackerel, 300 whitings, 800 soles and slips, 400 flounders, 400 red mullet, 200 eels, 150 haddocks, 400' herrings, 5000 smelts, and some hundred thousand of those delicious silvery white-bait, beside a few hundred species of fresh water fishes. -In shell-fish, 20 turtle, 30,000 oysters, 1500 lobsters or crabs, 300,000 prawns, shrimps, sardines, and anchovies. In the way of fruit, about 500 pounds of grapes, 360 pounds of pine-apples, 600 peaches, 1400 apricots, 240 melons, and some hundred thousand plums, green-gages, apples, pears, and some millions of cherries, strawberries; raspberries, currants, mulberries, and an abundance of other small fruit, viz.: walnuts, chesnuts, dry figs and plums. la vegetables of all kinds, 5475 pounds weight, and. 2434 pounds ■of butter, 684 pounds of cheese, 21,000 eggs, 800 plovers. Of bread, 4| tons, half-a-ton of salt and pepper, near 2^ toas of sugar. His drink during the came period may be set down as follows: 49 hogsheads of.wine, 13,683 gallons of beer, 584 gallons of spirits, 342 .gallons of liquor, 2394 gallons of coffee, cocoa, tea, &c, 304 gallons of milk, and 2736 gallons of water. This mass of food in-sixty years amounts to no less than 33| tons weight of meat, farinaceous food and vegetables, &c.; out of which are' named in detail the probable delicacies that would be selected by au epicure through1 life. But observe that the first tea years of his life are not counted, at the beginning of'which he lived upon pap, bread and milk, &c, also a little meat, the expense of which is added to. the age from then to twenty, as no one can really be called an epicure before that age; it will thus make the expenses more equal as regards the calculation. The following is the list of, his. daily meals: —Breakfast.—Three-quarters of a pint of coffee, four ounces of bread, one ounce of butter, two eggs, or four ounces of meat, or four ounces of fish. Lunch.—-Two ounces of bread, two ounces of meat, or poultry or game, two ounces of vegetables, and a half-pint of beer, or a glass of wine. Dinner.—Half a pint of soup, a quarter of a pound of fish, half a pound of meat, a quarter of a pound of poultry, a quarter of a pound of savoury dishes or game, two ounces of vegetables, two ounces of bread, two ounces of pastry or roasts, half an ounce of cheese, a quarter of a pound of fruit, one pint of wine, one glass of liquor, one cup of coffee or tea: at night one glass of spirits and water. An Aboriginal Witness.—An aboriginal named Campbell was arraigned at the Ballaarat Circuit Court on Wednesday, for murdering his lubra in December last. Another aboriginal named Charlie was placed iv the witness box, when the following colloquy took place between him and the judge:—Hi3 Honor: Do you know the nature of an oath? Witness: Yes. His Honor: If you don't tell the truth, what will happen ? Witness: If I don't tell the truth, I go to the bad place, and if I do, I go to the good place. His Honor: What religion are you of ? Witness : Oh, Richardson's,, sir. (Laughter.) His Honor : You mean you go to Richardson's? Witness: Yes. His Honor: Do you say your prayers ? Witness: No, we don't say any prayers. His Honor: Can you read ? Witness : I only know the Bible. His Honor: Well, what are you come here to-day for ? Witness: Only to be tried, sir. (Laughter.) His Honor: Yes ; but you haven't to be tried for anything, have you? Witness: I only found the body, sir. His Honor : Well, then, What are you here to do ? Witness : To try old Campbell. (Roars of laughter.) His Honor: If you don't speak the truth, what will be doae to you ? Witnes: I'll go to a bad! place. His Honor: Yes; but how else will you be punished ? Witness: Oh, the devil will have me. (Laughter.) His Honor: But, besides that, don't you know that you may be sent to prison for a great many -years? Witness: Yes, I know that, sir. ~ His Honor; If the prisoner is found guilty on what you say to-day, do you kuow what will happen ? " Witness: Well, me must be only let go again, I s'spose. (Roars of laughter.) His Honor: Don't you know he will be hanged ? Witness : Well, a fellow like that ought to be hanged. It's the second one of 'em. His Honor: Do you know that you will deserve to be hanged if the prisoner is hanged on false evidence of yours ? Witness: Yes, I know that, sir. His Honor:. Well, he must be examined as an aboriginal. The prisoner was ultimately acquitted. The Harvest of Death,—We have learned with deep regret that the wife of Mr. Longmore —from whom seven out of eight children have been recently snatched away by death—died on Thursday morning at nine o'clock, from physical exhaustion and mental distress, the consequence of her ceaseless watchings before her sufferiug children, and their subsequent deaths. The fast succeeding bereavements by which the parents were afflicted seemed like the extreme measure of human suffering and endurance, and, it was earnestly hoped that a termination had arrived to such fearful calamities. But it has been willed'otherwise, and the unhappy mother has followed the children whom she deplored. To this mournful tale, we have to add that Mr. Longmore is himself in so precarious a-state that but little hopes are entertained of bis recovery. The only surviving son has beeu removed from the house of death ; and the unhappy father alone remains of a large and happy family in 'this desolate home.— 'Ballaarat Times. —-To the above melancholy record we have now to add the death of Mr. Longmore himself, which is thus announced in the Age:—The shocking case of mortality in the family at Lake Learmouth, to which we have so often alluded to of late, has received yet another addition to its sadness. Mr. L,pngmore died on Friday afternoon, on the same day on which his wife, who had been near her confinement at the time of her death, was buried. Thus, : out of; a family of ten, all of whom were a few weeks ago-in. the enjoyment of good health, seven children and both parents have been -taken away within a very $hort time. There cow remains but one little boy. — Sandhurst, . Weekly Advertiser, ; .

Cousins Talk,—■••No, Amyj you're quite wrong. I never was refused in all my life." « Oh, Tomj.how can you say so ? Why there was Louie Simpson." " I tell you again, you're wroug, completely wrong. It's true I Was ' declined with thanks once, but I never was refused."—yPunch. ■

No single woraeu are allowed in Japan. Every man is allowed one legal wife, and as many second wives as his means will permit him to support. The second wives are : selected by law from ther poorer classes of society whose relatives are unable to maintain them,, and the children are all adopted by the legal wife,,who is the only acknowledged mother; The old rule is, therefore, reversed in Japan, where instead of a boy not knowing his; own father, hundreds do not know their own mother. ■ • •■ ■

Obstinacy.—Mr. Asaheton Smiths.father was remarkable, like'his son, for inflexibility 6f: purpose, but in him it bordered too closely upon its neighboring vice, obstinacy. He always entertained'a very great objection to Mr. Telford's proposal to cross the Menai Straits by means of a suspension bridge, which he affirmed must necessarily interfere with the navigation; and when serving on a committee of the House of Commons, as member for Andover, he found feelings of h.'s colleagues favorable to the .project, he threw his hat-upon-the floor, and vowed most solemnly that, even if the bridge were completed, he would never cross it as long as he lived. This vovv he kept, always making use of a boat in order to reach the opposite shore.— Reminiscences ofiThos. Asslieton Smith. A Long- Pedigree Checkmated.—The late Mr. Hamilton, farmer, Dykebar, visited the palace of Hamilton on one occasion, , and was,, brought into conversation with.the late Duke y his Grace, pleased with the humor of the,.old. farmer, said in a jocular way, " Pray, Mr. Hamilton, where in our family tree am I to look for your family ?" " Hoob," drawing a long breath, as if astonished, " Wha wad ever think o'leuking for the root among the bran-. ches■?" The Duke, it is said, laughed heartily, and added, " Quite true, quite true, it would be folly to do so." ■ The Paris/correspondent of the Morning Herald, writing on Monday evening, says:—" The annexationist intrigues in Belgium have now reached a point when further concealment is impossible. It is reported in Parisian official circles that numerous agents of the police ■■' secrete' are actively engaged in going about the provinces close to the French frontier, pointing out to the laboring classes the inestimable blessings of the paternal rule of the Emperor NapoleoQ. Money is not spared, and several large manufacturers are said to have promised their support. That the French agents have not lost their time is now proved by an insolent petition to the King, allusion to which has been made in the Belgian Houses of Representatives. Strange as it may appear, it seems' that the commercial treaty with England is one of the arguments put forward as a conclusive proof of the ' solicitude of the Emperor of the French for the well-being of the laboring classes.' Tb at petition is from the sugar refiners, and holds out as a threat, if their demand for the reduction of the sugar duties be not complied with, the annexationist tendencies of the population. I have reliable information that the conspiracy against the existence of Begium is far more widely spread than even this' petition' would lead one to suppose. Men of European name, Princes, are reported to be anxious to barter the independence of their country against a post of Chamberlain at the Court of the Tuileries, and to fancy that a Senator's livery will conceal their shame."

An American View of English Invention. —Speaking of the inventor of Msegathon the New YorJc Tribune says—James . Boydell, the inventor of the steam traction engine, and one of the greatest mechanical worthies of the age,. died about three weeks since of decline, brought on by cold caught through exposure on Woolwich marshes while waiting for the officials to test his engine. He was a man of giant frame, simple and noble disposition, untiring industry, and genius. He was murdered in the prime of life by routine. Government officials hate all inventors.• They accordingly made him wait for hours in the.wind and rain while tantalising him with experiments withheld. : The fate of this man working like Archimedes, in the very antechamber of death, feebly attempting to.busy himself with his models of new inventions—one, I believe, of immense value in the construction of locomotives—affected me much. For years he had labored, and on the verge of fame, with success in bis grasp—for bis traction engine is at length approved—he dies a victim to.the system by which the entrance to the Government departments in this country is strewn with the bones of inventors and carpeted with their skins. For one Armstrong there are a hundred Boy dells. Would, that a mammoth traction engine might plough up the site of Admiralty and Horse Guards, and dwellings of the red-tape flunkeys who strangle the birth-of-great things. ; , ■■•.•■■

It is not worth while to hear what your servants say when they are angry ; what your children say after they have slammed the. door; what beggars say when you have rejected them from your door ; what your neighbors say about your children ; what your rivals say about your business or your dress. ; !

Literary. Phantom.—A curious incident has occurred; at the Astor Library, New York^ not without special scientific interest. Dr. Cogswell the chief librarian, has devoted unceasing labor to the arrangement of the library, and the completion of the catalogue of the splendid collection ol books under his care. A few:, weeks since, he entered the library at 11 p.m., bearing a taper, in; search of a book. In passhig one of the recesses, he saw a well-dressed man standing before the shelves, in whom he recognised Dr. —>-—, of Lafayette-place, who had died six months before. After a moment's pause, during which he assured himself of the identity of the pTiantom, Dr. Cogswell addressed him;-" How isit that you, who never came to the library during your life, now haunt it after death?" The phantom gazed upon him with dull, ; passionless eyes^ and disappeared.; This was perfectly orthodox behaviour, but very startling to the doctor. Next night, at the same time, Dr. Cogswell was seized .with a desire to repeat his visit. The shadow was there and a similar seen c occurred. On the third night he was still there.; The doctor now-observed thac he was standing before shelves loaded with necromantic works, and, obeying a new impulse, he asked if any one of them troubled his repose, offering in that case to remove them. In reply, the apparition made himself" conspicuous by his absence." Dr. Cogswell now communicated the circumstance to his friends, and acquiesced in their advice, Which comprehended rest from his excessive labor, change of scene, and a dose ortwo or calomel, &c. He is now rid of his singular and distressing hallucination, of; which the relation is interesting from its circumstantial, character, and the precise resemblance which it bears to so many similar visions which have, had unquestionably a like origin, but have not always been so fortunately dispelled or so rationally interpreted. ,

HoLtoWAY's Ointmen^anbPillb.—Rheumatic Pains and Tic Doloureux—-These diseases are n»O3t distressing, sometimes for years baffling all medical skill, which frequently fails to: alleviate the sufferings. . In no case hitherto reported have Holloway's Ointment and Pills disappointed. The attack soon becomes milder, and the intervals between paroxysms longer. The Ointment exerts a peculiarly soothing influence, over the irritable nerves and muscles, relaxing spasms, and subduing pain, neither of which return, whilst its power remains. The Pills restore ;■. the body from a weak and debilitated condition to a state of health. Both Ointment and Pills, simultaneously used, invariably replace misery by happiness and strength. ,