AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 161 



awarded the first prize by the Bureau of Agriculture and Statistics of 

 Canada West in 1857, and from consulting the authorities by him referred 

 to, conspicuous among which are the essays and papers of Dr. Fitch of this 

 State, as well as from conversations had with entomologists who have 

 studied the habits of this insect, I have come to the conclusion that it is 

 in the power of the farmers to rid themselves mainly if not entirely of this 

 terrible enemy. 



It seems to be well ascertained, that the larvae of this insect, after hatch- 

 ing from the egg deposited by the fly in the head of the wheat, and feeding 

 upon the milk3r substance that forms the berry until it acquires the power 

 of locomotion, leaves the wheat-head and descends by the stalk, or falls to 

 the ground, when it works itself down to the depth of an inch or more, and 

 there remains in a torpid state, unaffected by any severity of frost, through 

 the winter. Mr. Almy, an entomologist, of Farmersville, Seneca county, 

 who has studied the habits of this insect with great care and thoroughness, 

 says they sometimes bury themselves where the earth is mellow, to the 

 depth of two inches, seldom more. 



Being so nigh the surface of the ground, the same solar heat which 

 brings up the wheat in the spring, reanimates the larva3, and they "wrig- 

 gle" themselves to the surface just in time to cast their skins and take 

 wing as the wheat comes to head, and the female, after meeting the male, 

 commences her work of destruction, which she in a few days terminates 

 simultaneously with her life. 



Prof. Hinds, at paragraph 163, suggests their destruction as follows : 

 " If, therefore, at any time between August and May of the following year, 

 the ground be plowed the depth of six inches, and in such way that the 

 furrow slices lie as compactly as possible, there can be no doubt that a 

 vast majority of the pupse will perish from inability to escape from their 

 imprisonment." I have not seen it stated whether the larvae turn them- 

 selves in the ground and come up the same end foremost as they go down, 

 or whether they ascend by a reversed motion. If by the latter, as the 

 plow inverts their cells, their reversed motion would carry them downward 

 instead of upward. But if from instinct or otherwise they should move 

 directly towards the surface, having five or six inches of compact earth to 

 penetrate instead of one or two inches, they would arrive at the top of the 

 ground, if they arrived at all, after the wheat had gone to the barn, and 

 they would perish from want of accommodations for reproduction. In addi- 

 tion to this obstacle to their getting to the surface in time to find the wheat 

 coming into head, the effect of the sun"s rays would be m.any days, and 

 perhaps weeks, longer in reaching them to produce reanimation, if they 

 were hid to the depth of five or six inches from the surface, than it would 

 if they were within one or two inches of it. 



How to ti-eat the Field. — There should be no clover or grass seed sowed 

 upon any wheat or barley field where the insect will be likely to appear. 

 It might form an objection with the farmer to plow in his stubble. 

 [Am. Inst.J 11 



