Season of 1816. 215 



information on this subject, I shall esteem it a Favour. 

 M. Tilghman, Esq. informed me that a man had scald- 

 ed some wheat, limed it, sowed it in a box, and placed 

 that box beside another box, in the south window of a 

 room, where no fly could get at it ; they both came up, 

 and the limed wheat was clear of the fly, while the other 

 was full. I think his information was obtained from a 

 gentleman of the name of Brown, from New York : the 

 experiment is easily tested. I write in haste, and with 

 the hope of being useful. I do not mean to assert that 

 there are no other good crops in Kent county ; I have 

 heard of one or two others, but have not seen them. 



Your obedient servant, 



Richard J. Jones. 

 Mr. Roberts Vaux. 



Those who pursue experiments, founded on the mistaken ori- 

 gin of the fly, as being in the head of the wheat, or in anywise 

 affecting the grain, should spare themselves that trouble. It is 

 well ascertained that the fly deposits its progeny in the young 

 plant, near the root ; and its injuries are ruinous to the straw. 

 The grain is never affected in any other way, than as it is shri- 

 velled and imperfect, by the circulation of the juices which should 

 nourish it, being impeded by the pressure of the nits, or the te- 

 gument enclosing them, on the vessels of the stems. When solid 

 straw, or vigorous pipy stemmed plants, resist this pressure, and 

 the grain is perfect; the flour is as excellent as if no fly had in- 

 fested the plant. This is mentioned, because, in an European 

 publication, I have seen unmerited odium cast on American flour; 

 as having been rendered unwholesome by the Hessian Fly. The 

 southern moth fly injures both the grain and flour. The grain of 

 wheat is its nidus. R. Peters. 



