120 STATE HORTiaULTUBAL SOCIETY. 



latter, and is provided with a laucetlike beak instead of a fleshy-lipped 

 sucker. No figure of it is here given, as in all those prepared the in- 

 sect has been so highly magaified that the illustration would not greatly 

 aid popular recognition. It was named the "Horn-fly" from a habit it 

 occasionally manifests of clustering about the bases of the horns, but 

 it does no especial harm in this position. On the other side of the At- 

 lantic it is only known to occur in France; but as very few cattle are 

 Imported from that country, it is probable that it is to be found in Hol- 

 land and other neighboring countries, from which we obtain some of 

 our choicest breeds. Once introduced into the United States, the 

 moist climate of our Atlantic seaboard favored its multiplication, and 

 by the time it was recognized as a pernicious intruder, it had obtained 

 such a foothold that extermination was practically impossible. 



The first complete account of it that appeared in this country was 

 published in volume 2, of Insect Life, in 1889, and it was discussed in 

 several State reports of the same year. It spread rapidly over the 

 country, especially to the southward and westward, proving particu- 

 larly injurious to dairy herds, which rapidly fall off in their milk and 

 lose flesh from the effects of its innumerable, irritating pricks, and the 

 almost frenzied activity manifested by the cows in efforts to dislodge 

 it. Individual cows often suffer more than their companions, deep 

 sores being formed on neck and udder, while the fact that the flies rest 

 upon them constantly gives them no respite night or day. It is the 

 perfect insect only that is a blood-sucker. The females lay their eggs 

 upon the fresh droppings of the cattle, and the maggots which hatch 

 almost immediately develop with great rapidity in the moist manure, 

 and when full grown — at that time rather stout and about one-third of 

 an inch long — burrow slightly under-ground to pass their transforma- 

 tions : first, to a dark, oblong pupa, and later to the fly — the latter 

 appearing in about two weeks from the time the egg was laid. The 

 number of generations daring a season varies wiUi the temperature 

 and amount of moisture, from five or six to a dozen, the last one pass- 

 ing the winter as pupse under-ground. Dry seasons are unfavorable to 

 the development of the insect, which will cease to be very annoying 

 after mid-summer. 



Prof. Howard E. Weed, of Mississippi, who has had valuable expe- 

 rience in the treatment of this pest, contributed the following on the 

 subject of remedies to the " Eural World" of June 22d, 1893: 



The treatment for the Horn-fly is mostly preventive in its nature, and consists 

 of the application to the cattle of odorous substances which will iieep the flies 

 from the animals. For this purpose a great many substances have been recom- 

 mended, but most of them have proved of but very little value. The following, 

 however, have given the most satisfactory results at our hands: 



