212 Season of 1816. 



day. This plan he was induced to adopt, from a publi- 

 cation he once read on the subject ; the person publish- 

 ing being under the impression, that the egg of the Hes- 

 sian fly was deposited by the insect, during the time the 

 wheat was in head, about a month before harvest. He 

 reaped a good crop, and means again to pursue this plan 

 the ensuing fall. I have made up my mind to follow his 

 example, being confident, if it does not succeed in de- 

 stroying the fly, that it will, at all events, give the young 

 plants a vigorous and quick growth, and most likely be 

 the means of increasing the crop. Lyttleton Gale, Esq. 

 deceased, who formerly lived near Havre de Grace, on 

 the Susquehannah river, informed me that his crop of 

 wheat was much increased, in consequence of soaking 

 the grain, and rolling it in plaster, until it had taken up 

 all that would adhere to it. The part of his crop which 

 I saw, was in full head, and about six inches higher than 

 other wheat, sowed along side of it, on the same day, 

 which had no preparation whatever, but was sowed in the 

 common way. Whether the grain that was soaked and 

 plastered, was soaked in hot or cold water, I did not as- 

 certain. It was not done with a view to avoid the fly. 



Some years since, being under the impression that the 

 Hessian fly deposited the egg in the young wheat, after 

 it had vegetated in the fall of the year, to avoid the first 

 flight, persons in my neighbourhood were in the habit of 

 sowing as late as possible : they began to sow from the 

 1st to the 10th of October, and continued to sow until the 

 latter part of November ; the crops, of course, were light, 

 not exceeding what might be called half a crop, could 

 the wheat have been sowed about the 1st of September. 

 About a fortnight before I sowed my crop, I was in the 



