CATERPILLARS.
Farmers who are in the habit of rearing CATERPILLARS, for ornament and use, will doubtless be gratified to learn, that the late favourable weather has produced a goodly show of their favourite vermin. They are already basking in the sun, and expanding by the nutricious aliment of foliage and fruit buds; and if not prematurely molested, (which there is little reason to apprehend) we may, in due time, taste from our kneading troughs the former repasts of Egypt.
Judging from the produce of last year, it may be fairly calculated that many of our farmers, (and some who do not belong to the Agricultural Society) will, this year, raise double as many bushels of caterpillars as of apples. Those (and there are some,) who prefer the appearance and flavour of the latter, will do well to look to their trees immediately. A thimble full of these reptiles, which can now be destroyed in an instant, would fill a hat a month hence, and would require tenfold the labour to subdue them. Every farmer's common sense will suggest the best method of extirpation.—Ibid.
A method of taking the Honey without destroying the Bees.—The common practice of killing the bees, in order to obtain the honey, few can witness without some little compunction; and as there is a very simple method of effecting the object without any injury to this most interesting little animal, (which, on the score of interest, as well as humanity, claims regard,) I beg leave to communicate it through your paper, should you deem it worthy a place in it.
In the evening, when the bees have retired, take the hive gently from the stand; spread a table cloth on the ground; set the hive on it, placing something under to raise it three or four inches; then draw up the corners of the cloth, and fasten them tight around the middle of the hive, leaving it so loose below, that the bees will have sufficient room between it and the hive—then raise the lid of the hive a little, and blow in the smoke from a segar; a few puffs of which, as it is very disagreeable, will drive them down: continue raising the lid gradually, blowing in the smoke all around, and in a few minutes it will be found that they have all gone out of the hive. You may then take off the lid, and cut away as much of the honey as you may think proper. If the operation be performed the beginning of July, you may take nearly all, as there will be time enough to provide a sufficiency for their support during the winter. As soon as you have taken the honey, put on the lid, loosen the cloth, and spread it out, and in an hour or two the bees will have returned into the hive. It may then be replaced on the stand, and on the following day they will be found at work as usual.
This method is very simple, and preferable to that sometimes practised, of driving the bees into another hive; as you get all the honey, and moreover the new comb, which is still empty; and the young bees, not yet out of the cells, are preserved. There is also danger in driving, of their not liking their new habitation, and, in that case, of their sallying out and making war on their neighbours.
The above method has frequently been practised by myself and others, and we have always found it to do well.
AMATOR MELLIS.
Washington, June, 1819.
[Am. Farm.
Conversion of Rags into Sugar.—We find this is no joke. There is in the Annales de Chemie a long and very circumstantial account, from the pen of M. Henry Braconnot, of Geneva, of the whole process of this singular discovery; and are now so well satisfied there is nothing of "pleasantry" in the matter, as at first sight appeared to many, that, should we be told to-morrow that, as linen may be converted into its constituent principle, sugar—(a piece of fine Irish linen into a loaf of double refined!)—so may wool be converted into its constituent principle, fat—(an old threadbare coat into a basin of fine gravy soup!)—we shall be prepared to look quite grave at the announcement.
"The conversion of wood into sugar (says M. Braconnot) will, no doubt, appear remarkable; and when persons not familiar with chemical speculations are told that a pound weight of rags can be converted into more than a pound of sugar, they may regard the statement as a piece of pleasantry, though nothing can be more real."
The agent in making this wonderful conversion is sulphuric acid, and those to whom it may not be enough to know that the thing can be done, will find ample directions as to the modus operandi in M. Braconnot's Memoir. We shall content ourselves here with one extract:
"I made these 359.2 gr. of sugary matter (obtained from old cloth well dried) into the consistency of sirup; at the end of twenty-four hours it began to crystallize; and some days after, the whole was solidified into a single mass of crystallized sugar, which was pressed strongly between several folds of old cloth; crystallized a second time, this sugar was passably pure; but, treated with animal charcoal, it became of a shining whiteness.—The crystals were in spherical groupes, which appear to be formed by the union of small diverging and unequal plates. They are fusible at the temperature of boiling water. This sugar, of a fresh and agreeable flavour, produced in the mouth a slight sensation of coolness. It dissolves in hot alcohol, and crystallizes by cooling. Dissolved in water, and mixed with a little yeast, it fermented; the vinous liquor which resulted, furnished alcohol by distillation. Burned with potash, and its charcoal washed with diluted nitric acid, it yielded a fluid not troubled by nitrate or barytes. It would be useless to insist farther on the properties of this sugar: it is evident that it is perfectly identical with the sugar of grapes or of starch."