INSECTS. 186 



means the crop of the following year will be uninjured ; but in order 

 to avoid the introduction of straggling insects of the kind from ad- 

 jacent fields, it is requisite that a whole neighborhood should per- 

 severe in this precaution for two or more years in succession." The 

 stouter varieties of wheat ought always to be chosen, and the land 

 should be kept in good condition. If fall wheat is sown late, some 

 of the eggs will be avoided, but risk of winter-killing the plants 

 will be incurred. If cattle are permitted to graze th'e wheat fields 

 during the fall, they will devour many of the eggs. A large num- 

 ber of the pupae may be destroyed by burning the wheat-stubble 

 immediately after harvest, and then plowing and harrowing the 

 land. This method will undoubtedly do much good. As the Hes- 

 sian fly also lays its eggs, to some extent, on rye and barley, these 

 crops should be treated in a similar manner. It is found that lux- 

 uriant crops more often escape injury than those that are thin and 

 light. Steeping the grain and rolling it in plaster or lime tends to 

 promote a rapid and vigorous growth, and will therefore prove 

 beneficial. Sowing the fields with wood aShes, in the proportion 

 of two bushels to an acre, in the autumn, and again in the first and 

 last weeks in April, and as late in the month of May as the sower 

 can pass over the wheat without injury to it, has been found use- 

 ful. Favorable reports have been made upon the practice of allow- 

 ing sheep to feed off the crop late in the autumn, and it has also 

 been recommended to turn them into the fields again in the spring, 

 in order to retard the growth of the plant till after the fly has dis- 

 appeared. Too much cannot be said in favor of a judicious man- 

 agement of the soil, feeding off the crop by cattle in the autumn, 

 and burning the stubble after harvest ; a proper and general atten- 

 tion to which will materially lessen the evils arising from the dep- 

 redations of this noxious insect. 



