288 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



Mr. J. Young, of Florence, read an original poem, after which Pros. Abbot, 

 of the State Agricultural College, gave an address ou ''Colleges and Industrial 

 Pursuits." 



Mr. Gr. Osborne, of Mendon, read the following essay on the 



HESSIAK" FLY. 



Me. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen : — The Hessian fly was the 

 subject allotted to me at an informal meeting of this institute. Tlie subject 

 is worthy of an abler pen than mine, especially at this time, when the ravage of 

 this pest is being felt by tlie farmers of this county and elsewhere. It is 

 agreed by most, if not all, the authorities upon this subject, that the Hessian 

 fly was imported into this country by the Hessian troops, in time of the revo- 

 lutionary war, hence the name, Hessian fly. 



I shall not attempt to give a minute description of this inset here, but refer 

 you to the perfect and elaborate description given by Professor A. J. Cook, in 

 his lecture delivered at the Paw Paw and Climax Institutes, and published in 

 the transactions of the Michigan Board of Agriculture for the year 1877, on 

 page 3G3. This book should be in the hands of every farmer and carefully 

 perused, for it contains much valuable information upon almost everything 

 connected with farming. It is surprising how few farmers can identify this 

 insect, an insect which has taken thousands of dollars out of their pockets, 

 and done the mischief in broad daylight, and right before their eyes; it shows 

 a great lack of observing cause and effect, which should be one of the farmer's 

 greatest studies. 



Who has a broader field for the observation of nature than the farmer? 

 "Who has a better chance to study the insects and diseases which prey upon 

 them? And yet how meagre the knowledge obtained from such observation. 

 Every farmer should be as well acquainted with the form, size, color, and hab- 

 its of the Hessian fly as he is with the damage done his wheat crop, and a few 

 hours spent hunting for them at the riglit time will give him this knowledge. 



My first acquaintance with the Hessian fly in this county was in 1S4G, when 

 the effect of their mischief was visible in the growing wheat. I find by con- 

 sulting a diary of my daily transactions in farming at that time, that in the 

 spring of ISlt), the damage done by this pest was so great that we ploughed a 

 great part of our wheat up and planted to corn, the part left to wheat yield- 

 ing eight bushels per acre ; the wheat was sowed the last week in August. 

 Many farmers thought that the early sowing of wheat would ensure it against 

 the fly, and very early sowing was practiced for a few years, and so as to 

 better enable us to act in the future, I will give a short history of my expe- 

 rience in wheat raising, taking the facts and figures from entries in my 

 diary, made at the time referred to. In 1852 we commenced sowing wheat 

 August 12th, and finislied the last day of ►September, sowing in all IGO acres, 

 yielding 13 bushels })er acre. Tiie fly had done but little damage this year, 

 which was due, no doubt, to the cold wet weather in the spring. The ground 

 froze an inch deep the 20tli of May, and it was a cold dry summer. The wheat 

 crop of 1853 was also a middling good one, the fly doing but little damage; 

 the spring luid summer were cold and dry; a iieavy frost on the 27th August 

 ruined the corn in many places, but we had a warm late fall, and some insects 

 in all the early sown wheat. In 1854 the fly did a great deal of damage. (I 



