256 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



deposited so profusely as will occur in the course of a few days. I 

 feel strongly confident, that by sweeping over a field a very few 

 times in the manner above described, the fly may be so completely 

 thinned out and destroyed, as to be incapable of injuring the crop 

 perceptibly. 



"With regard to destroying the fly in the earlier stages of its exis- 

 tence, only a few words will require to be said. Whoever has read 

 the preceding account of the habits of this insect, must have been 

 struck with a consciousness of the perfect facility with which that 

 portion of the worms that are brought into our barns may be exter- 

 minated. It would seem as though Divine Providence had expressly 

 designed to place a part of every generation of these insects directly 

 in the hands of man, that he might destroy them or not, at his option. 

 And Uncle Toby is so extremely benevolent, that he has uniformly 

 carried them to the door, and said "Go away, little flies, go away ; 

 the world is wide enough for you and me both." Now it is scarcely 

 necessary for me to say, that the screenings of the fanning-mill 

 should invariably be closely examined, and if the minute yellow 

 wheat-worms are numerous in them, the person should consider it 

 a sacred duty which he owes to himself and his neighbors, to con- 

 sign these screenings at once to the flames. If there are but occa- 

 sional worms among them, let them be emptied into the hog-trough ; 

 but never empty them upon the ground, or among the straw of the 

 barn-yard, unless they appear to be entirely free from these vermin. 

 And now, if that portion of the worms which remain in the fields 

 can also be destroyed, it becomes certain that we are at once and 

 forever relieved from all farther solicitude with regard to future in- 

 juries which this insect can inflict upon us. But can this be done ? 

 It has been proposed to burn the stubble of wheat-fields after the 

 harvest ; and if this measure be resorted to at a very dry time in 

 the autumn, probably some of the worms would be destroyed by 

 it. But, so far as I have observed, they uniformly lie here in situa- 

 tions where they are surrounded with some degree of moisture, 

 under damp and mouldy clusters of straw and stubble, or slightly 

 witiiin the surface of the ground. It would, therefore, only be those 

 straggling individuals that were not in their usual haunts, that the 

 transient heat caused by such a burning would reach. Would a 

 turning over of the field with the plow bury them to such a depth, 

 that they would fail of finding their way to the surface again ? This 



