18 Insects Injurious to Vegetation. [Jan., 



judicious and important measure, if seasonably resorted to. The 

 intelligent wool grower, will scarcely require to be informed, that 

 sheep taken from their ordinary walks, should at first remain upon 

 the rank feed of the wheat field but an hour or two of a day. 



4. The roller. — Passing over the grain with a heavy roller, is 

 a remedy in commendation of which several writers concur, sup- 

 posing that many of the eggs upon the leaves will thus be crushed. 

 Col. Morgan was in the habit of both rolling and grazing his 

 wheat fields, before the Hessian fly appeared in his vicinity; and 

 as his crops were much less injured than those of his immediate 

 neighbors, he attributes his escape to these causes. If there be 

 any foundation for Mr. Smeltzer's opinion, that certain varieties 

 of wheat are fly proof, because their leaves grow horizontally in- 

 stead of inclining upwards, assuredly by a repeated use of the 

 roller every kind of Avheat may be made fly proof. No doubt this 

 measure is a judicious one, particularly on fields that are so smooth 

 and free from stones that almost every plant will receive a firm 

 pressure by the operation. If resorted to, it should obviously be 

 done at those times when the eggs are newly laid upon the leaves. 

 After all, is not the efficacy of the roller, at least in part, owing 

 to its loosening and dislodging the eggs from their position and 

 causing them to drop to the ground, whei'e the worm, hatching, 

 is unable to find its way into the sheath of the young plant? This 

 point merits investigation; for if there is any truth in the sugges- 

 tion, sweeping the plants with a broom or some similar implement, 

 will probably brush off much greater numbers of the eggs than 

 passing a roller over them can do. 



5. Mowing. — Mr. Goodhue, of Lancaster, Wisconsin, in a com- 

 munication in the fifth volume of the Prairie Farmer, suggests 

 that the larTJR concealed within the bases of the leaves, may be 

 destroyed by mowing the wheat, and feeding it to the stock. We 

 deem this ])roposal a valuable one for exterminating the second 

 or spring brood from a Avheat field. In those cases where the 

 worms are discovered in the month of May, to be fearfully nu- 

 merous at the joints of the young stalks, there can be little doubt 

 but that on smooth grounds the scythe may be so used as to take 

 off almost every spear below where the larvffi are lodged; and 

 that thus a second growth of stalks will be produced, quite free 

 from these depredators. The following facts incline me to believe 

 that on a fertile soil, wheat nray be thus mowed, with little if any 

 eventual injury to the crop. JPortions of a field of my own, the 

 past season grew so rank, that deeming it would become lodged 

 and mildewed, by way of experiment a space in it was mowed 

 down after the plants were two feet in height, and another after 

 the heads had begun to put forth. Though not so early in ripen- 

 ing, the appearance of these two patches at harvest, indicated, so 



