THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



417 



from the pores. A depression, liowovor, is produced 

 by the obstruction to the circulation of tlie sap, which 

 wealvens the stem, and renders it liable to bo broken 

 oif by a light breeze of wind at a more mature stage of 

 its growth. Mr. Hind suggests tliat the mischief 

 arising from the presence of tlie insect is owing to the 

 non-deposition of the necessary amount of silica im- 

 mediately under the body of the maggot, l)y wluch the 

 straw is weakened at tlio joint, and rendered unalde to 

 resist the force of the wind. It is well known that those 

 varieties of wheat which have strong flinty stalks suffer 

 less injury from this insect than others of a more tender 

 nature. A vigorous growth and abundant tillering — or, 

 in other words, high farming — enables the i)lant to 

 sustain the attacks of this enemy and maintain its 

 healthy condition under them. On poor ill-cultivated 

 land the evil culminates, and on thousands of acres of 

 such land the wheat crops arc annually destroyed in 

 the United States. 



The means proposed by Mr. Hind for arresting the 

 progress of this insect are, first, good husbandry, which 

 implies abundance of manure, deep ploughing, careful 

 weeding, and a systematic rotation of crops. In the 

 county of Suffolk (N. Y.), the land was so constantly 

 tilled without manuring, that on an average not more 

 than five or six bushels to the acre of wheat was raised. 

 The Hessian fly put an end to this kind of husbandry, 

 no other way being found to prevent injury to this 

 crop by the insect than that of high manuring. 



Second, late soioing. Wo should demur to this 

 in this country, however efficacious it maybe iu Ame- 

 rica; and even there it is only certain varieties of 

 wheat that admit of the plan with perfect safety and 

 success. 



Other methods, such as grazing or feeding off the 

 wdieat, rolling, and mowing, by which the autumnal 

 broods of the insects are destro}ed, and the spring 

 broods prevented fromhatching, arepractised; butuntil 

 the system of over-cropping and scourging the land is 

 given up in the States, and a more generous course of 

 husbandry substituted, the American farmers must 

 make their account to be subject, from time to time, to 

 the re-appearance and depredations of these pests, 

 which ai'e in fact, in a great measure, the results of their 

 own slovenly and inefficient modes of culture. 



The wheat midge CCecWowiT/ia tritici), the wheat- 

 stem fly ( Chlorops pumilionis) , the common chlorops 

 (Chlorops vulgaris), the feather-horned chlorops 

 (Chlorops autuinnalis), several species of the oscinis, 

 with numerous other depredators of the insect tribes, 

 are described in Mr. PHnd's woik, most of which have 

 their counterparts in Europe, where they sometimes 

 commit great ravages on the cereal crops. In England, 

 improved systems of husbandry, if they have not 

 banished these pests of the farm, have at least rendered 

 their appearance less frequent in force, and less de- 

 structive. But in the United States they revel with 

 almost uncontrolled sway, held in check only by in- 

 efficient expedients, whilst the more specific remedies 

 of good farming, high manuring, a regular course of 

 cropping, &c., &,c., are rarely practised. 



It is fortunate that Nature herself has provided remedial 

 checks to the inulliplication of the wheat insects, by 

 the parasitic ichneumon flies which prey upon them. 

 Tliese, however, are confined to Europe, and are un- 

 known in America. Wherever the wheat fly appears 

 with us, the ichneumon also, in its three varieties, is 

 sure to be found (Enerytus iitserens, Platigaster 

 lipnUc, and Eurytoma punctratisj . All these feed 

 upon the wheat-fly, and check its ravages by destroying 

 its lava as well as the fly itself. Birds, too, devour im- 

 mense quantities of these flies ; but their fondness for 

 the wheat also makes the farmer rather jealous of their 

 interference as a remedy as bad as, if not worse than, the 

 disease. 



Several instances of the multitudinous appearance of 

 the various insect tribes on the cereal plants have oc- 

 curred in this country during the past summer, but the 

 damage inflicted by them has been confined to very few 

 districts. The high state of cultivation into which most 

 of the soil of the United Kingdom has been brought, 

 strengthens and invigorates the plants, and enables them 

 to withstand iu a great measure the attacks. We have 

 reason, too, to believe tliat in many cases the insects 

 themselves are a migration from other lands, where they 

 are fostered by the same defects in husbandry as in the 

 United States. This is undoubtedly the case with the 

 Tenthredo, or turnip caterpillar fly, which upon its first 

 arrival on our coasts may be shovelled up in bushels-full. 

 They have been seen coming over in "clouds, so as to 

 darken the air."* The occasional appearance, at long 

 intervals, of other insects, and amongst these of the 

 Hessian fly, gives reason to believe that they also are 

 a migration when they appear in destructive numbers, 

 although now naturalized with us. Good husbandry 

 and high farming keep them in check ; but we cannot 

 guard against the neglect of our neighbours on the 

 Continent. 



THE EARTHWORM AND HOUSEFLY. — Tiie 



next time you go out on your morning or evening ramble, if 

 you cliance to see a worm in your path, do not kick it aside, 

 nor step over it, but take it from the ground and lay it on 

 the palm of your hand, and as it tries to crawl away you 

 will experience a slight sensation of roughness on your skin. 

 If you take a pocket leus, and examine carefully the under 

 part of the worm's body, you will perceive several rows of 

 fine sharp hooks, extending from one end to the other, each 

 annulated division (for the worm's body is, as you doubtless 

 know, composed of rings) being furnished with four j)airsof 

 these hooks, which are situated upon small protuberances 

 on the creature's skin. These minute hooks cause the rough 

 sensation alluded to ; and that portion of the body on which 

 they are placed corresponds to the abdomen of the 

 higher animals, the hooks themselves being nothing more 

 nor less than rudimentary feet to aid the worm in its pro- 

 iTress. It has, perhaps, never occurred to you to inquire 

 how it is, when you endeavour to draw a worm forth from 

 the earth, that it can ofter such resistance to your efforts as 

 almost to necessitate your tearing it in two before you can 

 extract it, and why, as soon as you relax your hold, it dis- 

 appears with such rapidity under the soil. These hooks 



Marshall's Rural Economy, &c., vol. ii., p. 287. 



