1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



429 



work, its importance rises before us. As promo- 

 ling' commerce, agriculture and t lie arts, as 

 strengthening and extending every tie of social 

 giving vigor to our arm?, and stability to 



oar institutions, we recommend tins work to the 

 warm support of our fellow citizens of Virginia 

 ana North Carolina. 



GEO. TOW3VES, 



C. C. LEE, 



N. M. TALIAFERRO, 



B. W. S. CABELL. 



EARTH W. EGAX. 



From the New York Farmer. 

 RAVAGES OF AND REMEDY FOR THE XOR- 

 TIIERX WHEAT IKSECT. 



The grain fly, or insect, which, for a few years 

 past, has been so destructive to wheat in many 

 parts of the country, has tins year extended his 

 ravages, and excited, wherever he has made his 

 appearance, very serious alarm. An eminent 

 farmer in the State of New York wrote to me a 

 year since, that he must give up the cultivation of 

 wheat, as his crops were so much injured that he 

 hardly obtained a return equal to the seed sown. 

 I knew another instance in the same state, where, 

 though the straw was large an 1 the appearance 

 promising, yet from thirty bushels sown not more 

 than seven were obtained. 1 have known other 

 cases in which the whole field has been mowed 

 and sold lor litter; and in a recent excursion up 

 the valley of the Connecticut, I have heard com- 

 plaints every where, and seen hundreds and hun- 

 dreds of acres so destroyed that the grain they 

 would yield would hardly pay for the reaping. 

 Besides this, the same insect has destroyed many 

 fields of rye in the same manner as liie wheat, 

 and had been found this year in the oats; the pro- 

 gress of the insect has been about forty miles a 

 year; and a distinguished gentleman in Vermont, 

 a practical and extensive firmer, remarked that 

 he feared they would on this account be obliged 

 to relinquish the cultivation of small grains. 



The habits of the insect have not yet been ac- 

 curately observed. I myself have not yet seen 

 the fly, but have seen the worms in the kernel af- 

 ter the grain has been destroyed. He is represent- 

 ed as being a small reddish fly, which is seen ho- 

 vering over the wheat fields in immense numbers, 

 while just in flower, and has been observed to 

 alight upon the kernel or bud, to ascend it, and 

 then descending in the inner side, to deposite his 

 egg between the stalk and the kernel. I purpose- 

 ly avoid the use of all scientific terms, wishing to 

 be understood by common farmers. From this 

 egg the worm is generated, which entirely con- 

 sumes the grain while in the milk, leaving nothing- 

 but the husk, in which are found several small 

 5^ellow worms, about an eighth of an inch in 

 length. As the woik of destruction is now com- 

 pleted, any farther observation of his habits are of 

 no importance, unless we can some way reach so 

 as to destroy the germ of the future insect. No 

 preparation of the seed or ground, however, has as 

 yet been found effectual to this end. 



The continuance of the fly upon the grain is 

 thought not to exceed three or four days, and they 

 are, seen in greatest numbers just at night. Some 

 farmers have (bund late sowing a partial security, 

 as the season for the flies has passed away before 



the wheat was in condition for their attack. Spring 

 wheat sown as laic as the 20th and 2Sth of May 

 has in a great measure escaped, while some sown 

 as late as the 7th and Sth of June has been un- 

 touched, though incases of such very late sowing, 

 the larmer will be very fortunate if, in attempting 

 to escape the fly, he does not get nipt by the 

 frost. 



I have now, however, the extraordinary happi- 

 ness of announcing to the agricultural public, 

 wbat there is reason to believe will prove an ef- 

 fectual, as it is a reasonable and Jeasibie preventa- 

 tive. Should it prove effectual, the remedy will 

 be worth millions and millions of dollars to the 

 country. It. was communicated to me on a late 

 tour of agricultural inquiry and observation by Dr. 

 Eli] halet Lyman, of Lancaster, N. II., an intelli- 

 gent and practical .farmer, whose crop of wheat 

 usually averagas from twenty-five to thirty bush- 

 els per acre, it cons sts in the application of fine 

 slacked lime to the wheat just at tiie time of its 

 heading out and flowering, at the rate of about 

 a peck to the acre. It is sown broad-cast upon 

 the wheat while the dew is on, and the field is ren- 

 dered, white with it. The bes: mode of applying 

 it is with the hand, and for the person, who sows it, 

 taking his proper breadth or cast, to walk back- 

 wards, so thai he may not cover himself' with the 

 lime. It must be sown while the wheat is wet or 

 the i\e\v is on, and the philosophy of its application 

 is very simple. The maggot of the fly is deposit- 

 ed between the grain and the stalk. It is, of 

 course, an animal substance. The lime, oralkali, 

 mixing with the dew, is carried down upon it, 

 and neutralizes or destroys it. Dr. Lyman has 

 now tried this preventative three succes ive years, 

 and has invariably, as he assures me, saved his 

 crops, while those of his neighbors have been de- 

 stroyed. 



I visited, at the same time, the field of a Mr. 

 Bellows, in the same town, who had been advised 

 by Dr. Lyman to make this application. The 

 field consisted of several acres. He did it, and it has 

 proved successful; and what is strongly confirma- 

 tory of the value of this remedy, is the (act that a 

 field of rye belonging to Mr. Bellows, adjoining 

 his wheat, and 1 think within the same enclosure, 

 which was not limed, has been nearly destroved 

 by the fly. 



These, are certainly very important experiments, 

 and I make no delay in presenting them to the 

 public. Dr. Lyman has promised me a more par- 

 ticular account of the experiment and result, and 

 likewise Mr. Bellows, which, as soon as received, 

 I shall be happy to communicate. I have re- 

 ceived an indirecet and indefinite communication, 

 that the same experiment has been successfully 

 made in Gilmanton, N. H., but I have not yet 

 been able to obtain either the name or the de- 

 tails. 



IIEXRY COLMAN. 



Meadoiobanks, Sept. 15th, 1835. 



AX EXPERIMENT OF EM AXCI P ATIXG X E- 

 GROES, UXE-ER VERY FAVORABLE CIRCUM- 



STAXCES. 



[The reader will observe that the following state- 

 ment is not made by a slave holder, nor was it written 

 or published in a slave holding state. The source from 

 which it proceeds leaves no ground whatever for the 



