16 Insects Injurious to Vegetation. [Jan., 



a few of these insects. We therefore regard this as a primary 

 and indispensable measure and one which must accompany others 

 next to be considered, in order to their full s^lccess. 



2. Lute sowing. — This measure also comes to us sanctioned by 

 the almost unanimous recommendations of writers; and we regard 

 it as one of the most efficient, as it certainly is the most facile of 

 any that can be resorted to. It is universally athnitted that it is 

 the earliest sowed fields that are always the most infested; and we 

 cannot but suspect that the present visit of this enemy to this sec- 

 tion of the country, after so long an absence, has been invited by 

 the general practice of early sowing, resorted to by our farmers 

 under the probably incorrect idea of hereby escaping from the 

 depredations of the wheat fly. Just before harvest, our attention 

 was directed to two contiguous fields of wheat in the town of 

 Stillwater, one of which was seriously injured by the Hessian fly, 

 whilst in the other not a solitary straw broken by the insect could 

 be found. The only cause to which this striking contrast could 

 be imputed, was, that the latter field had been sowed a fortnight 

 later than the former one. Analagous instances have often oc- 

 curred to the notice of every observing person living in districts 

 where the fly has been present. Such cases, however, must not 

 be deemed to prove so much as they at first view appear to. It 

 is not probable that the fly had entirely ceased from depositing its 

 eggs before the second of the above fields had become forward 

 enough for its purposes. Had the sowing of the first field been 

 delayed a fortnight, both fields, it is probable, would have suffered 

 equally. The whole injury that fell upon the first field, would 

 thus have been divided between it and its neighbor. And so in 

 all cases, we presume that the field which is the earliest, attracts 

 all of the insects in its immediate vicinity, and these finding all 

 the accommodations they desire there, have no occasion for going 

 elsewhere. For a more extended elucidation of this topic, see the 

 American Farmer, vol. ii., p. 167, Two objections have been 

 urged against late sowing; the liability of the young plants to 

 "winter-kill," and of the crop when near maturity to be attacked 

 by "the rust." There is little danger of the first of these casual- 

 ties, we suppose, upon porous soils, it being a disaster almost pe- 

 culiar to stiff clays, which retain a large amount of moisture at . 

 their surface. In such soils, therefore, it may be advisable to re- 

 sort to the plan employed in some parts of England, namely, sow- 

 ing only on a newly turned over sward, the grass roots in which 

 serve to bind the soil together in such a manner as to retard its 

 " heaving" by the frost. ( Fessenden's Complete Farmer, p. 114.) 

 This disaster, moreover, is guarded against in a great degree by 

 sowing only upon a very fertile soil, whereby a quick and vigor- 

 ous growth is secured, and the young plants are thus enabled to 



