338 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



September, and the whole field be seeded uader favorable condi- 

 tions for a good fall growth, weather permitting. If the first 

 brood can be planted in this way, the second brood will :( come 

 up" minus. There is one thing certain, where a field of wheat 

 has been sown in the fall, and the flies make their appearance in 

 such numbers as as to indicate the destruction of the crop, or so 

 as to materially injure it, which can be easily told by the color of 

 the wheat, or by even a cursory examination, the whole may be 

 turned under in the fall, or early in the spring, burying the foe be- 

 yond the power of re-urrection. If the wheat be eirly sown, the 

 seed and labor will not be lost, for the green coat turned under 

 will add to the value of the next crop; and the gratification of hav- 

 ing outwitted the enemy, and having sent them to an untimely 

 end, will lighten the labor of putting it in. 



Pasturing affected wheat with sheep in early fall is said to be 

 attended with good results ; also, when ground is dry, early in the 

 spring. Some of the eggs and larvas may be destroyed in this 

 way, and the tendency of close cropping is to cause the wheat to 

 tiller, and as the remaining larvae cannot move from their original 

 stalk, the new shoots would strike out for themselves, and being 

 free from the parasitic burden, would soon draw the vigor of 

 the plant to themselves. 



It is a very common practice where the fly has destroyed a crop 

 of wheat, so that it is not worth harvesting, to set fire to the dead 

 and crinkled straw ; also, where the crop has been cut from such 

 a field, to burn off the stubble, in hopes of thus destroying the 

 destroyer. Those who have made this subject a study c'aim that 

 this is a very questionable practice. In nearly every instance 

 whpre the fly has been very destructive in a season, it is followed 

 by one or more seasons where few, if any, are to be seen, and that 

 it is only by degrees that much of a perceptible increase in their 

 numbers is seen. This is largely attributed to parasitic foes. 

 These are mainly two species of ichneumon flies, the most impor- 

 tant of which is a four-winged chalcis fly, — semiotellus destructor — 

 that lays its eggs in the " flaxseed " larva, and the Platygasier that 

 devours the esss of the Hessian Fly. Conditions favorable to the 

 fruitfulness of the Hessian Fly are said to be far more favorable 



