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a number of fields which to me looked like a rather rough pasture or 
poorly sown grass, and yet these were pieces which had been seeded 
with grass and sown to wheat last fall. There was no doubt of the 
total failure of the grain crop in such cases. These, however, were 
the worst; all grades of injury could be seen. Fields that escaped 
without injury were quite few in the regions visited. 
This outbreak was utilized to secure some data which may be help- 
ful in understanding the situation. Special reports were received 
from about 45 fields, loeated mostly in Erie, Niagara, Genesee, Wyo- 
ming, and Onondaga counties, and representing about 760 acres. Of. 
these areas, 90 per cent or more of the grain on 134 acres was estimated 
as lost, 85 per cent on 58 acres, 79 per cent on 83 acres, 50 per cent on 
176 acres, 25 per cent on 63 acres, and 6 to 12 per cent on 248 acres; or, 
50 to 90 per cent or more of the grain on 451 out of the total of 762 acres 
was estimated as destroyed. These reports were not made on badly 
injured fields alone, but on others as well, and they were made in reply 
to a series of questions formulated for the purpose of ascertaining so 
far as possible the cause for this extensive damage. The inquiry 
developed the fact that a white beardless wheat, known as No. 6, was 
seriously injured almost without exception, while the bearded red 
wheat, known as No. 8, escaped with comparatively little harm. None of 
the above-mentioned reports attributes more than a 25 per cent injury 
to red wheat, while the white variety ranges from that figure to 99 or 
100 per cent destroyed. The white wheat is a much heavier yielder, 
and is therefore greatly preferred by farmers. This inquiry was 
started primarily in the hopes of securing data on the date after which 
winter wheat could be sown with comparative safety. So much grain 
is grown in western New York, and the fields are so near each other, 
that it was impossible to secure anything very definite, except that 
white wheat sown the latter part of September or later was in all 
probability infested in the spring by flies from overwintered puparia 
or ‘‘ flaxseeds.” 
Some climatic effects were also observed. The continued rains in 
the Spring stimulated the transformation of the flies, and on July 10 
a number of fields were seen where the spring brood of the fly had 
completed its transformation and departed. This was further con- 
firmed by finding several large fields of barley, sown about May 15, 
badly infested with larve and young puparia of this pest. The attacks 
on the barley were confined largely to the upper, softer nodes, and in 
at least one field the infeststion was very thorough. Every stalk was 
infested with a few of the pests, and 8 plants taken at random con- 
tained from 19 to 54 individuals, most of them being in the larval 
stage. Curiosity induced me to bring together Weather Bureau 
records showing the total precipitation and the number of rainy days 
in the growing months of the fall of 1900 and the spring of 1901. The 
two loealities selected were Alden, Erie County, and Elba, Genesee 
