480 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



tural papers.* For this purpose brimstone has been used, in 

 the proportion of one pound to every bushel of seed sown. 

 Strips of woollen cloth, dipped in melted brimstone, and fast- 

 ened to sticks in different parts of the field, and particularly 

 on the windward side, are set on fire, for several evenings in 

 succession, at the time when the grain is in blossom; the 

 smoke and fumes thus penetrate the standing grain, and prove 

 very offensive or destructive to the flies, which are laying their 

 eggs. A thick smoke from heaps of burning weeds, sprinkled 

 with brimstone, around the sides of the field, has also been 

 recommended. Lime or ashes, strown over the grain when 

 in blossom, has, in some cases, appeared to protect the crop; 

 and the Rev. Henry Colman, the Commissioner for the Agri- 

 cultural Survey of Massachusetts, says that this preventive, if 

 not infallible, may be relied on with strong confidence.! For 

 every acre of grain, from one peck to a bushel of newly slacked 

 lime or of good wood ashes will be required; and this should 

 be scattered over the plants when they are wet with dew or 

 rain. Two or three applications of it have sometimes been 

 found necessary. Whether it be possible to destroy the mag- 

 gots after they have left the grain, and have betaken them- 

 selves to their winter quarters, just below the surface of the 

 ground, remains to be proved. Some persons have advised 

 ploughing up the ground, soon after the grain is harvested, in 

 order to kill the maggots, or to bury them so deeply that they 

 could not. make their escape when transformed to flies. I am 

 inclined to think that deep ploughing will prove to be the best 

 and most practicable remedy. Perhaps thoroughly liming the 

 soil before it is ploughed, may contribute to the destruction of 

 the insects. The chafl", dust, and refuse straw should be care- 

 fully examined, and, if found to contain any of the maggots, 

 should be immediately burnt. It is stated that our crops may 

 be saved from injury by sowing early in the autumn or late in 

 the spring. By the first, it is supposed that the grain will 

 become hard before many of the flies make their appearance ; 



* Among others, see "The Cultivator," Vol. V., p. 136. 



t "Third Report on the Agriculture of Massachusetts," p. 67. 



