29 



already treated this subject so much at large in the Report on 

 the Cultivation of Spring Wheat, and the Third Report of the 

 Agriculture of Massachusetts, that I do not feel at liberty to 

 enlarge much upon it in this place. 



I should do wrong, however, to pass over the experience of 

 several farmers in the town of Charlemont, cultivators of wheat, 

 in relation to the grain insect. Lucius Ellis and Josiah Lyman 

 have used lime on their wheat with perfect success against the 

 fly. They applied finely powdered slaked lime on the crop just 

 as it was coming into flower, and while it was wet with dew 

 or rain. The flies had appeared upon the wheat ; but their op- 

 erations were immediately suspended by the application of the 

 lime. They consider the experiment decisive. The experience 

 of Samuel Potter in the immediate neighborhood corresponds 

 with this. Calvin B. Hawkes, likewise, in Buckland, separated 

 from Charlemont by the river Deerfield, details his success in a 

 similar application. He applied at the rate of three bushels to 

 an acre ; the lime was newly slaked and warm, and was applied 

 when the dew was on. The field appeared quite white. The 

 evening previous to the application he plucked a few heads of 

 wheat and found twenty worms or maggots. The ravages 

 ceased at once upon the application of the lime, and his wheat 

 crop was saved. The flies, he says, left in a body. This rem- 

 edy is a most important discovery, and is corroborated by other 

 and strong testimony from difl'erent parts of the country. 



The wheat chiefly grown in this county has been spring wheat. 

 It is desirable to get it in as early as the state of the ground 

 will admit of it. This may sometimes be done in March, but 

 not in general until the first of April. 



One of the best farmers in the county or State considers his 

 wheat as sure a crop as any which he grows, and his average 

 yield is thirty bushels to the acre. His land is manured for In- 

 dian corn, and his usual rotation for a long course of years has 

 been, first, corn ; second year, oats and pease, or oats and wheat, 

 or wheat, or rye. He stocks his land down to grass with wheat 

 or some other grain. 



