Ohfirvatioii^ on the H.'JJlan Fly. 97 



ftraw ; next to this ma)^ be ranked the feveral kinds of wheat 

 whofe ilraw is more firm and foHd, Rich as the various forts of 

 b^carded wheat, and the great red bald, or red-chaff wheats 

 and next to this may be ranked rye ; with refpecl to barley,' 

 I have not had information from different parts of the country, 

 but from the inflance above recited, I am incUned to beheve, 

 that as a food which is agreeable to the in feci, it ought to be 

 ranked with rye, if not before it. Some have affirmed, that 

 the maggot has been found on oats, but I never could difcover 

 any on that kind of grain. The manner in which the maggot 

 obtains the fap, or juice of the grain, appears to be altogether 

 by fuclion, which is very probably performed through fome very 

 fine and imperceptible tubes. It appears deftitute of any faculty 

 of corroding the folid part of the flraw ; and as it grows larger 

 its whole body indents the (traw, and prevents the rife of the 

 fap, and the grain either falls down, or periflies before it has 

 grown to be of any confiderable height. The fize of the 

 maggot when full grown, and the time neceffary to compleat its 

 growth, depend in a great degree on the quantity of nourifli- 

 ment it may obtain from the grain, and the number of maggots 

 that may happen to be on one ftraw. This, according to the 

 bed of my obfcrvations, is fomewhere between four and fix 

 weeks, which will bring the time in which its growth will gene- 

 rally be compleated, to be in the firft part of Jime. But here 

 the feveral caufes of variety in the time of its being laid in the 

 wheat, and of its compleating its growth, both confpire to 



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