1846. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



225 



a soil by the character of the timber that grows 

 upon it 1 And if you take the coal and ashes 

 furnished by the timber, or vegetables of a largei- 

 growth, and apply them to j'our cultivated fields, 

 do you not get tlie best essence of the soil, which 

 forest trees have been 200 years in extracting ? 

 On the borders of their numberless deserts, 

 where little or nothing will grow, the Africans 

 gather an armful of sticks, and burn them pre- 

 paratory to planting a tiill of corn. Without t!ie 

 sticks, whose ash contains the identical minerals 

 found in the ash of corn, and which minerals are 

 indispensable to the growth of that plant, no corn 

 can be raised. Whoever has seen crops grow 

 where log-heaps have been burned, need not be 

 told of the value of wood ashes. Any quantity 

 from five to fifty bushels per acre, can be spread 

 to advantage on any land that ever bore plants, 

 or is expected to bear them. 



The precise amount of salt, ashes, lime, gyp- 

 sum, charcoal, or barnyard manure, which one 

 ought to apply to any particular piece of ground, 

 must be left to the good sense of the agricultu- 

 rist, taking in'o account the cost of the substance 

 lo be used, the condition of the land, and the value 

 of the crop to be grown. 



Who will not try an experiment with salt and 

 ashes, at least to the extent of half an acre, if no 



Hessian Fly. 



In giving a brief notice of this insect in our 

 last, we forgot to urge the propriety of delaying 

 to seed till the danger of injury from the Hessian 

 Fly had passed. On early sown wheat the fly 

 is now busy (20th Sept.) in depositing its eggs 

 on the leaves of plants, at their junction with tlie 

 stem. These eggs are of a light yellowish color, 

 and almost too small to be seen with the unas- 

 sisted eye. A large farmer in this town (Mr. 

 Sheffer,) has just brought us a number of plants 

 having the nits and larvre of the fly, ( Cecidoiny- 

 ia destructor,) de})osited on them, that we might 

 examine them by the aid of a microscope which 

 magnifies objects 2.500 times their natural size. 



Under such an instrument one can see the 

 moist, lubricated line, or groove like surface, 

 down wiiich the grub, when first hatched, de- 

 scends to tlie lower joint in the stem. Its head 

 and mouth resemble those of a blood sucker ; and 

 it evidently takes in its nourishment by suction. 

 Judging from the various vsizes of several on a 

 single stem — and we have counted 38 this sea- 

 son — the larvee grow rapidly to their natural di- 

 mensions, and soon change into pupfe, or what 

 is termed among farmers " the flax seed state." 

 In this stage of their existence they are torpid, 

 and do no material injury to the plant. But if 

 we compare the bulk of the nit or young maggot 

 with that of a full grown one, the gain in size is 

 as 50 or 100 to 1. When a number of these 

 blood-suckers, (for they really suck the blood of 



the plant,) surround a single stem, they kill it. 



Mr. Sheffer has observed that seeds buried 

 but one or two inches deep send up new stems 

 from their first joint below the one where the 

 grubs lie, after they have nearly or quite de- 

 stroyed that on which they subsist. If the seed 

 be buried deep, and the first joint far in the 

 earth this second growth rarely takes place, and 

 the plant eitlier dies outright, or in the end comes 

 to little or no account. We saw sevt ral wheat 

 [)lants where the second growth had already 

 commenced this autumn. It is proper to remark 

 that, Mr. S. raises most of his wheat on the Gen- 

 esee flats, and finds from experience that a thin 

 covering of seed is better than a heavy one. His 

 seed was sown on the last days of August. He 

 says that without a good fall growth, and a deep 

 strong root, the frost heaves his crop out, and 

 nearly destroys it. Hence he seeds early and 

 takes the risk of the fly. As the larvpe of this 

 insect are very soft, and easily killed by pressure, 

 Mr. S. will roll his wheat fields, (some 60 acres) 

 with a heavy roller, to destroy the grubs. This 

 excellent farmer has 2-5 acres of corn which, so 

 far as harvested, yields at the rate of 80 bushels 

 per acre. The grass-hoppers destroyed his car- 

 rots, as other insects did ours, and tlie rust killed 

 all the leaves on his beets, of which he has nine 

 acres. A second growth has just started out, and 

 the crop may be half the usual amount. 



We fear the fly will do unusual injury to th? 

 wheat now up, for the weather has been warm. 



As most seasons are, the 20th of September, 

 as a general rule, is. early enough to place seed 

 in he earth, so long as the fly shall prevail. 



Early White Provence Wheat, 



Our readers will probably recollect an article, 

 published in the August number of the Farmer 

 under the head of " New variety of Wheat for 

 sowing late." The editor of the Michigan Far- 

 mer copies the ai'ticle, and judging from his re- 

 marks we think the seed of the Early White 

 Provence will prove a valuable acquisition to 

 our Michigan friends. He says : m. 



A farmer who lias rnised the White Province wheat ia 

 this country for four years past, confirms the statement above 

 mnde in regard to its vahiable property of producing well 

 with Uxte sowing. He lias sown it as early as the first of 

 September, and as late as the first of October, and found 

 the latter do as well as the former. It springs up and tillers 

 out with great rapidity, covering the ground sooner with 

 less seed than any other variety with which our informant 

 is acquainted. He has not experienced here the objection 

 met with by Gen. Harmon, that of a tendency to fall down 

 and crinkle. It stands as well as any wheat. 



In the town of Hanover, in this county, it has been raised 

 the present season by several farmers, with all of whom it 

 has entirely escaped the rust, and has produced a plump, 

 handsome berry. It has been grown where it could be 

 compared with the Red Chaft" Bald, the Improved White 

 Flint, and the Hutchinson varieties, and has proved itself 

 superior to either. The Hutchinson has been next ia e.X' 

 cellence. 



For the convenience of any that may wish to procure the 

 seed of the Provence, we have ascertained that it may be 

 had of Ruben Heath, of Hanover." 



