32 INJURIOUS INSECTS OF KANSAS. 



4. Pasturing with sheep, and consequent close cropping of the 

 wheat in November and early December, may cause many of the eggs, 

 larvre and flax-seeds to be destroyed; also, rolling the ground may have 

 nearly the same effect. 



5. Sowing hardy varieties. The Underhill Mediterranean wheat, and 

 especially the Lancaster variety, which tillers vigorously, should be 

 sown in preference to the slighter, less vigorous kinds, in a region 

 much infested by the fly. The early- (August) sown wheat (to be 

 plowed under afterward), might be Diehl; the later sown, Lancaster, 

 Clawson, or Fultz. 



6. Of special remedies, the use of lime, soot or salt may be recom- 

 mended; also, raking off the stubble; but too close cutting of the wheat 

 and burning the stubble are of doubtful use, as this destroys the useful 

 parasites as well as the flies. 



Professor Forbes, in the bulletin above referred to, offers the 

 following as the most important general preventive and remedial 

 measures : 



1. As a large percentage of these insects remain in the stubble at 

 harvest, in the "flax-seed state," and as the flies which hatch from them 

 later are weak and delicate, the ground may well be plowed, as soon af- 

 ter harvest as practicable, and rolled to close the cracks through which 

 the winged insects might escape. If the stubble can be made to burn, 

 this will, of course, destroy the "flax-seeds" even more effectually. 



2. The volunteer grain springing up in the fields must be closely 

 watched, and measures taken to destroy it about four weeks after its 

 appearance, as it will otherwise assist to carry the insect through the 

 summer in undiminished or perhaps larger numbers. The most con- 

 venient method of doing this will depend so much upon the season and 

 the cropping planned, that each must select his method for himself. 



3. Such of the "flax-seeds" as are carried away in the grain may be 

 destroyed by heating or burning the screenings from the thresher, if 

 the wheat is threshed at once. 



4. To prevent the wheat from becoming infested in fall by the first 

 autumnal brood, and to escape as much as possible of the second, the 

 sowing of the wheat may, with advantage, be postponed as late as is 

 consistent with its reasonable safety from winter- killing to the last 

 of September or the first of October, according to the common practice 

 in the southern half of Illinois. 



5. The damage done by any but the severest kind of an attack will 

 depend, other things being equal, on the fertility of the soil and the 

 strength of the plant. If the latter be strong enough to send out from 

 the root new and vigorous stalks to replace those killed by the maggots 

 of the fly, a considerable amount of fly attack may be scarcely notice- 

 able at harvest time. From this it follows that the maintenance of the 

 fertility of the soil is often a measurable safeguard against loss. I have 



