108 



THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



his whole family and pick the bugs oflf every even- 

 ing for about a month, till finally he became dis- 

 couraged and gave up the job. Consequently the 

 whole patch, like many others in my neighborhood, 

 is nothing no'w but a mass of dead dry blackened 

 stumps; and of course he will not even get his 

 seed back. 



A New Humbug. 



EV BENJ. D. 1VAI.SI1, M. A. 



Suppose I were to come before the Agricultural 

 community with some such proposal as the fol- 

 lowing : — 



GREAT DISCOVERY IX BREEDING HORSES!!! 



I claim to have discovered an unfailing method of rear- 

 ing every year, at a trifling expense, some ten or fifteen 

 good strong and healthy colts, "vvorth $500 apiece, from 

 any mare, however old and worthless she may be. 

 After a series of ex]>eriments running through fouror five 

 years, I have discovered that every brood-mare, during 

 the montiis of September and October, lays ten or fifteen 

 large yellow eggs, about the size, shape and color of a 

 pumpkin, always straying away from home to lay, as the 

 guinea-hens do; and that, in order that the eggs may not 

 be addled, it is necessary to allow her to sit upon them 

 for a certain number of hours every day, and it is fur- 

 ther necessary to take certain other precautious, which 

 for the present I choose to keep secret. As an evidence 

 of the ti-uth of my assertion, I demand that a committee 

 of the most eminent stock-raisers be forthwith formed, 

 and that tliey jjroceed to satisfy themselves, by search- 

 ing diligently in their fields, whether these large round 

 yellow mare's eggs are not often to be met with, espe- 

 cially in corn-fields. I propose to offer the right of us- 

 ing my new Patent Method of hatching out Mare's 

 Eggs to each County for $100 — a liberal discount allow- 

 ed to several couuties clubbing together. As there are 

 thirty-six States in the Union, averaging perhaps about 

 one hundred counties apiece, to say nothing of poor vetoed 

 Colorado, this will only put $:j(iO,000 into my private 

 pockets; which I consider to be but a very moderate re- 

 compense fen- the trouble and expense I have been at, in 

 making this most astonishing and invaluable discovery. 



What would the Farmers .say to such a proposal 

 as this? Well, they would laugh me to scorn. Why? 

 Because they know all about mares and colts, and 

 they are well satisfied that marcs do not lay eggs. 

 But when a plan to get rid of the Hessian Fly, 

 which is just as absurd and just as irrational as my 

 imaginary plan for hatching out Mare's Eggs, is pa- 

 raded before them by a man who is either a fool or 

 a knave, or a beautiful compound of these two cha- 

 racters, the Agricultural Papers endorse the hum- 

 bug, and many a Farmer will, no doubt, swallow 

 the gilded hook Why ? Because, although Farm- 

 ers understand well the Natural History of the 

 Horse, not one of them out of a hundred knows 

 anything of the Natural History of the Hessian Fly. 

 But to the point. The following appears in the 

 Matyland Furnur for July, ISGG. I will first fur- 

 nish the bane, and then do what little lies in my 

 power towards administering an antidote. But in 

 spite of all I can say, I know full well that Mr. 

 Newcomer will find plenty of disciples and follow- 

 ers. When a farmer wants crackers, he goes to a 

 baker fur them; when he wishes for anew coat, he 

 goes to a tailor ; and if he lacks a new pair of boots, 

 he usually calls on the shoemaker. But, somehow 

 or other, most farmers have a lurking idea in their 

 heads, that the place to go to for information about 



the Natural History of Nosious Insects is, not to 

 those who have made such matters the study of 

 their lives, but to the first impudent mountebank 

 that comes along with a precious story about a Cock 

 and a Bull. 



GREAT DISCOVERY IN DESTROYING THE HESSIAN 

 FLY. 



We would call the particular attention of farmers, espe- 

 cially wheat growers, to the following brief communica- 

 tion from Joseph \V. Newcomer, formerly of Washington 

 Co., Md., who claims to have discovered an unfailing 

 remedy for the Hessian Fly in wheat. He has accom- 

 plished this after aseriesof experiments running through 

 four or five years, and it has never failed him. If he has 

 succeeded, as he believes he has, he will have rendered 

 himself indeed a great benefactor. He claims that the fly 

 is formed in the new wheat, and it must be destroyed be- 

 fore it is seeded — and as an evidence of the truth of his as- 

 sertion, he calls upon growers of wheat to thoroughly ex- 

 amine the present wheat crop to convince themselves of 

 this theory. He proposes to offer the right of using his 

 method of preventing the Fly, to each county, for SlOO. — 

 We would suggest that some of our experienced wheat- 

 growers would examine into the subject, and report the 

 results of their investigation. Considering the matter of 

 so much importance, we have introduced it in our edito- 

 rial instead of our advertising columns. 



"The Hessian fly first forms its eggs in the new wheat 

 — if the farmer will take the trouble to examine his pre- 

 sent crop, he will find the nitt laid in the curve of the grain 

 — it is deposited there by a small black fly. The farmer 

 sows the wheat with the insect deposited, and if the fall 

 season should be dry the fly makes its appearance. 

 When they come out early in the spring, if the season 

 should be dry, they deposit their eggs in the first joint. 

 The spring hatching does the injury. If the season should 

 be dry the insect cuts through the stock, which generally 

 makes its appearance about the 10th or 15th of June. I 

 have been several years in making the discovery how to 

 destroy the fly, and I now claim to do it without fail." 



All communications addressed to Mr. Newcomer can 

 be directed to the care of this office. 



Now let me point out a few of the mistakes and 

 absurdities in the above, which the Editor, " con- 

 sidering the matter of so much importance," has 

 published in his editorial columns — whether gra- 

 tuitously or not he does not inform us. 



1st. The Hessian Fly does not, as Mr. Newco- 

 mer asserts, ever under any circumstances deposit 

 its egg upon the grain in the ear of the wheat. 

 There are two broods of this fly every year. The 

 first brood comes out about the first of May in the 

 latitude of New York, or a little earlier or later as 

 you go south or north, and lays its eggs upon the 

 upper surface of the leaf of the wheat, close to the 

 part of the straw which is tightly enwrapped by the 

 base of the leaf, generally about the .2nd joint in the 

 straw from the ground. From this spot the little 

 maggots produced from the eggs crawl downwards 

 into the space between the straw and the base of 

 the leaf, and remain there, sucking out the sap of 

 the plant, till they are full-grown and ready to pass 

 into the pupa state. They then construct a shining 

 semi-transparent mahogany-brown cocoon, inside 

 which they lie a long time iu the larva or maggot 

 state, but finally assume the pupa state. The above is 

 what is ordinarily known as "the flaxseed state," 

 from the cocoon being flattish and somewhat point- 

 ed at each end, so as to resemble a flaxseed. About 

 ten or twelve days afterwards they burst through 

 the cocoon, and come out in the shape of a small 

 blackish fly, with some orange bands on its abdo- 



