584 DIPTERA. 



ety, that Miss Morris advises obtaining " fresh seed from 

 localities in which the fly has not made its appearance," 

 and that " by this means the crop of the following year 

 will be uninjured ; but, in order to avoid the introduction 

 of straggling insects of the kind from adjacent fields, it is 

 requisite that a whole neighborhood should persevere in this 

 precaution for two or more years in succession." " This 

 result," Miss Morris says, " was obtained, in part, in the 

 course of trials made by Mr. Kirk, of Bucks County, Penn- 

 sylvania, with some seed- wheat from the Mediterranean, 

 in and since the year 1837. His first crop was free from 

 the fly ; but it was gradually introduced from adjacent fields, 

 and, in the present year (1840), the mischief has been 

 considerable." In other hands this course has proved of 

 no use whatever. 



Xot to mention other instances, the following appears 

 to be conclusive on this point. About fifty years ago, 

 Mr. Garret Bergen, of Brooklyn, Xew York, procured 

 two bushels of wheat from the Genesee country, then an 

 uninfected district, which he sowed in a field adjoining a 

 piece seeded with grain of his own gathering. Both pieces 

 were severely damaged by the Hessian fly, which could 

 not have happened, in the same season, if the eggs of the 

 insect are laid only on the grain. A few years ago he 

 soaked his seed-wheat in strong pickle, and the crop was 

 comparatively free from the fly. In 1839 he tried this 

 experiment again, but not with similar success. In 1840 

 he sowed without previously soaking the grain, and his 

 crop was uninjured. He says, moreover, that he has uni- 

 formly found the grain most affected in spots, usually near 

 the edges of the field, where long grass and weeds grew, 

 which afforded shelter and protection to the fly. This fact, 

 he thinks, affords another proof that the egg is not depos- 

 ited in the grain. I regret that my limits will not permit 

 me to extract the whole of Mr. Bergen's interesting re- 

 marks, which may be found in number eight of the eighth 



