DKSTRUCTION OF CROPS BY INSECTS. 239 



up a team in the spring, and harrow the fertilizer well in. Repeat the operation 

 immediately after cutting and removing the first crop. Wherever this process has 

 been tried the result has been highly satisfactory. In many instances the yield of 

 hay has been doubled, and of a better quality than in neighboring fields not so 

 treated. 



A few words more about sowing wheat. One year ago last fall we commenced 

 drilling in our wheat on the 17th of October, 1883, drilling five pecks of Mediterra- 

 nean wheal to the acre, without fertilizer. The temperature of the earth two 

 inches below the surface was forty-flve degrees Fahrenheit. Five acres were put 

 in in this manner. Five days later another five acres were put in in a similar 

 manner, and ten acres more were finished on the 28th day of the same month. The 

 temperature varied from forty -five to forty-two degrees, but in following up the 

 drill it was found that the temperature would rise in the newly-disturbed earth 

 from 9 o'clock A. M. to 2 o'clock p. m. to forty-eight and fifty degrees, showing the 

 tendency of freshly loosened earth to absorb heat, while a smooth, hard surface will 

 repel it. All the grains sprouted in seven days. That jilanted first was through 

 the ground in eleven days. A hard frost setting in just then, the wheat sown last 

 did not appear above ground until spring. Half of the ground was harrowed in 

 the spring. It was intended to sow fertilizer on the whole piece in March, but 

 through a disobedient farmer it was not done, and that part of the experiment was 

 lost. The piece harrowed showed a difference of from three to five degrees of heat 

 above that which was not harrowed. The wheat grew a third faster, looked 

 healthier and better in every way. It yielded twenty-four and a half bushels per 

 acre, while the other gave us but seventeen bushels to the acre. Unfortunately the 

 early and late sown wheat became mixed in threshing, so it was impossible to tell 

 the difference in the yield of the respective pieces, but it looked on the field as 

 though the early sown wheat was a little the best. The soil on which this wheat 

 was raised is a light, sandy loam. 



We have sown no wheat for this year, as we intend to make a series of experi- 

 ments on corn this season. 



DESTRUCTION OF CROPS BY INSECTS. 



BY J. G. KINGSBURY. 



I might easily have found a more attractive subject. Worms and bugs are not 

 pleasant to look at, nor think about, and now that winter has his icy hand upon 

 them they seem to have but little interest to us. Out of sight is out of mind, so 

 far as the bug family are concerned. But to speak in earnest, there are few sub- 

 jects that farmers have a more vital interest in than that of insect depredations. 



"Read before the State Board of Agriculture, at the January meeting. 



