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there will be myriads. If these numbers reach such a pitch as to deteriorate the crops the remedy is plain. Change the rotation and grow some other crop instead of wheat. Most of the wheat insects are only annuals. If they could be banished for one year they would be banished entirely, or until re-introduced. Now, if there were a controlling authority, what would be easier than to say to the Farmers, "Gentlemen, in the common interest you will substitute barley for wheat in your next year's rotation." The insect, deprived of its proper nidus, must then either lay its eggs in an unsuitable place where they will perish, or have recourse to the pasture flelds for Triticum repens, or other suitable grasses. By this of course the fly would not be exterminated, but its numbers would be so reduced as to render it comparatively harmless, at all events for a time, when if it again re-appeared in force, the same means of defense would be resorted to. Nay, it might be so arranged that two or more countries might brigade themselves together, so as to establish a permanent seesaw by which they should play into each other's hands. But no single man can carry out such a rotation. He may try it upon his own fields, but they will be replenished continually from the fields of his neighbors, unless they at the same time are compelled to follow the same rotation.

Mr. Murray then went over the various other means of extirpation, picking and burning infected plants, the collecting caterpillars, poisons and local remedies, in relation to which he drew attention to the destruction of what are called ticks and lice upon sheep. Every one knows how readily such vermin can be communicated by contact or proximity, and it does seem a very hard case that a man, who has kept his flock clean by proper precautions, should be liable to have infected by a neighboring neglected flock, by stray sheep or even by sheep passing along the road. It is said that, cæteris paribus, the difference in value between a sheep that has been kept clean for the season and one that has been worried by vermin will be 20s. If that is so it is a wonder that sheep farmers have not long since clamoured for some supervision.

At the conclusion of the paper the following resolution was put from the chair and carried :-"That thanks are due to the President and Lords of the Council for having brought the subject of insect

damage under the cousideration of the agricultural bodies of the kingdom."

Dr. Maxwell Masters moved the next resolution, and in doing so said he was charged to express the regret of the President of the Royal Society that he was unable to be present. He spoke of the great ignorance throughout the country on the subject of insect damage, and as an indication of the amount of damage done, said that half the time of the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society was occupied with answering inquiries from all parts as to how to deal with insect foes. The resolution he moved was,"That much of the loss occasioned by insects is preventible, and ought to be prevented." This was seconded by Mr. Maclagan, and carried.

Mr. Mechi then moved-" That it properly belongs to Government to provide the necessary means for protecting cultivators from this loss, as it is only by combined and simultaneous action over considerable districts that it can be effectually done, and Government alone possesses or can obtain the requisite means of endorsing such action."

Both Mr. Mechi in moving it and Prof. Voelcker in seconding it, spoke of the want of knowledge througout the country on the subject. Mr. Sewell Reed urged it was not a question for government but for agricultural societies. The resolution was declared carried, though many hands were held up against it.

The last resolution was-"That the President and Lords of the Council and the Agricultural Societies of the United Kingdom be informed of the opinion of this Conference, and urged to take the subject at once into their consideration, with a view of providing a remedy," which, after a long discussion was carried.-From Nature.

CORRESPONDENCE.

EDITOR FIELD AND FOREST:

As I have lately read in Nature some sharp words to those who entertain the idea that birds hibernate, I send you the following items bearing on the subject:

Mr. John T. Goss, now living in Presque Isle in this county, is a gentleman of intelligence and honesty. He informs me that fifty

years ago he was working in the lumber woods in New Brunswick, it being in the winter when there was a great depth of snow. The colored cook, Ross by name, was digging out and enlarging the spring in a bed of black mud or muck, when he came upon two bank swallows apparently dead, but dry; he ran immediately to the camp with them to show what he had found in the mud. The men handled them, full of curiosity, and in a few minutes, in the warm of the camp, they began to move and after a little while one flew out of the "smoke hole" and fell upon the snow and there remained. The other was taken by the cook and buried in the mud where he found it.

Let me add the testimony of another gentleman on the same subject, but of different occurrence: While in conversation upon this matter of bird hibernation with my friend Dr. G. H. Freeman of Presque Isle, he said that his father had often told him of finding swallows in the winter, and I requested him to write for a detailed account, he did so and I subjoin the letter of the old gentleman who is a man to be trusted.

Minot, Maine, June 25, 1877.

When I was a boy about ten years old, say sixty-six years ago, my father's hired man, John Chandler, went to the woods about fifty or sixty rods from where we lived, to get firewood to haul to the house. I went out with John on the ox sled to drive the oxen when he had cut and put on a load of wood. He felled a large white maple tree which had a hollow place towards the top, and when the tree fell it broke where it was hollow and quite a number of birds such as I had learned to call bank swallows, tumbled out frozen stiff; this was in the cold weather of winter. We picked up some of the birds and John cut one with his axe in two pieces and found ice in the center of the bird, to all appearances dead. At the suggestion of John (he said they had life) I took two of the birds and carefully carried them to the house, place them in a room where the sun shone in at the window and before night they flew about the room. They were of a brownish color with white or light bellies such as we find around holes in the sand banks in the summer. The next morning they were dead and did not revive when warmed.-A. S. FREEMAN.

It is worth noticing that these gentlemen, Messrs. Goss and Freeman, although strangers to each other, agree that the birds found in winter were bank-swallows. I desire to put on record these two instances while the witnesses are alive and can reply for themselves, should the matter be questioned.-ROBT. R. MCLEOD.

Houlton, Maine.

Field and Forest

A MONTHLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO THE NATURAL SCIENCES.

VOL. III. SEPTEMBER, 1877.-No. 3.

Roan Mountain and its Flora.

At the conclusion of the Nashville meeting, a party of fifteen, mainly geologists, at the invitation and under the guidance of General J. T. Wilder, the Iron King" of Chattanooga, started on a tour of exploration among the rich iron mines of Roan Mountain and vicinity.

The writer had the good fortune to represent the botanical department in the party, and he gives these few notes, with the hope of turning the attention of travellers toward these southern summits of the Appalachians, and giving some information as to the means of reaching them, and especially with the desire of calling the attention of botanists to the richness of the locality, and the attractions it has for them at every season.

The E. Tenn. Va. and Ga. R. R. issued orders to pass the party free on all sections of its line, and Johnson City, twenty-five miles from Bristol, the eastern terminus of its road is our point of departure.

At 7 A. M. September 8th, a lively crowd of scientifics variously bestowed in stage wagons and other vehicles, started for our twentyfive mile ride, over a road which we soon agreed was equalled by by few and surpassed by none for roughness and consequent amount of exercise. Sometimes it lay half for a mile in the bed of a mountain stream, then climbed and crossed limestone ledges, then it plunged into a mud hole, and all along was thickly strown with bowlders of all kinds. For five miles we ascended Buffalo Creek, a mountain stream draining and running parallel with Buffalo Ridge, a limestone range reaching perhaps 3000 feet.

The general Flora is that of the country below, Verbesina Siegesbeckia, (Crownbeard) and Vernonia fasciculata (Ironweed) the most noticeable species, while Ambrosia trifida, (Ragweed) and Helenium autumnale, (Sneezeweed) are very abundant.

Then crossing a "divide" of moderate elevation, we strike Indian Creek, draining a quartzite region, and the Flora undergoes a sudden and marked change. Abies Canadensis (Hemlock) and other Conifers, Rhodedondron maximum, the magnificent "Great Laurel," Kalmia latifolia (Calico-Bush) and Leucothee Catesbaei, these latter in dense thickets along our way, Acer saccharinum, (Sugar Maple,) Ilex opaca, (Holly) Castanea pumila (Chinquapin,) with other trees form shady woods throngh which we ride, and betoken our approach to the mountains.

For five miles more our road winds along the side of Stone Mountain literally rock-ribbed with great furrows plowed between from summit to base. We lunch at the house of Dr. Bell, a man of note in the region, whose boast it is that the "Stars and Stripes" hung over his mantel, were never taken down during all the years of war. Then "upward and onward we begin to climb the steep sides of Iron Mountain, along a noisy and dashing streamlet, here and there forced to turn the machinery of some little mill, and to the delight of the botanical section of one, and the admiration of his non-botanical companions, the beautiful pink blossoms of Chelone Lyoni, (Snakehead) appear in profusion, with the brilliant scarlet of Monarda fistulosa, (Horse-mint,) and the not less interesting though less showy spikes of Galax aphylla in fruit, on the dryer banks. Many unfamiliar shrubs are met with. Leucothoe recurva and Azalea calendulacea (Flame-colored Honey suckle) among the number.

After a hard climb of several miles, we stand on one of the summits of Iron Mountain Range, and a sight of surpassing grandeur meets our eyes. Mountains to right of us, mountains to left of us, mountains in front, mountains on every side, and Roan the objective point of all our travels full in front.

We dash down the steep sides of the ravine along one of the streams which help to form the Nolechucky River, noting for future collection Aster Curtisii, Pyenanthemum montanum, and in a little spring, Cardamine rotundifolia, and about 5 P. M. we draw up at "the Forge,"

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