^^mm^l^ 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



HUHLISIini) 1!Y JOSEPH HRKCK & CO., NO. 52. NORTH MARKET STOEET, (AoBiCULTURAL Wapehoose.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL.. -Wl. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 18, 1837. 



NO. 15 



1 ['rom the Maine Farmer.] 



INSECTS IN WHEAT. 



n Extract from a letter to Elijah Wood, Esq. of Winlhrop. 



Elijah Wood, Esq., — Dear Sir: I received 

 our letter of the 12th of August, soine two or 

 iree d«ys since, aiul liasten to reply. It seems 

 oin j'oiir letter that the grain worm has been do- 

 ig serious injury in your jiart of the country, and 

 ou appear e.\c.eedingly anxious to learn all the 

 icts you can, for your own benefit, and also the 

 nblic benefit. I am glad to find you so wide 

 ivake on this subject, for I verily believe the 

 reatcst obstacles which impede our success in 

 le cultivation of grain, originate from the depre- 

 tttions of insects. 



I have to regret that my attention has been so 

 lucli diverted by other cares and duties from this 

 ibject, so that my observations have not l)cen 

 iade with that accuiracy 1 could wish. I find, 

 owever, that sonje of my neighbors have paid 

 )me atteniion to this subject, and have kindly 

 iswered my enquiries. I will briefly state the 

 :sult. 



1st. The extent of the injury done this year, 

 (mparod vvith the last. 



The most of people rt'ith whom I converse, set 



much lower than last year. On low lands and 

 ■tervales the damage is much the greatest. 



2d. There appears to be more than one species 

 'them producing the injury to the grain. I say 

 •ain, for spring rye has sufl'ered perhaps more 

 lan wheat. I had a piece of late sown winter 

 •e in the same field with a piece of wheat — side 

 f side. I first noticed some small black flies on 

 le rye heads; the full grown ones somewhat lar- 

 ;r than the species in common language emphat- 

 ally termed " Black Flies," so well known in 

 3W settled places by their excessive biting. But 

 |eir business appeared to be entirely with the 

 ^ain, as they were apparently forcing their heads 

 pwn among the husks enclosing the kernel. I 

 Jticed the same ap[)earances in a neighbor's field 

 detached rye heads among his wheat ; and he 

 IS since given me a very minute account of their 

 lerations. He s;ates, that, when the rye heads 

 •St started up above the wheat, and began to 

 Dssom, the flies would crawl up on them, and 

 )peared to be digging into them ; and he obser- 

 id that where he saw these in plenty at night, in 

 very short time the new forming kernels entire- 

 disappeared, and that there was not a single 

 irnel of rye to be found in these detatched heads. 



t this time no flies were seen on the wheat. 



jon after, the bearded wheat, where there hap- 

 ined to be detached stalks in the field, (being a 

 tie earlier than the bald wheat) started up above 



and arrived at the same state of maturity, the 



[es attacked that: and lastly the bald \yheut. My 



iiighbor is confident, from his observation, that 



ese flies injured the grain by sucking the juices, 



well as depositing their eggs and producing 



worms. The same neighbor has considerable 

 winter rye, but noticed no damage on that, cither 

 by Hies or worms ; but be has one piece of s| ring 

 rye altnost entirely ruined by them. He says he 

 has seen but very few of the long slim flies des- 

 cribed in the papers. Another neighbor has sta- 

 ted to me the same facts as to the color and size 

 of the flies he saw on his grain ; so it seems, that, 

 in this neighborhood at least, the greatest i:ijin-y 

 has been inflicted by this species of fly. 



I conversed, a day or two since, with a gentle- 

 man living in Dixfield Village, who informed me 

 that the flies most plenty on the wheat in that vi- 

 cinity, were the slim orange colored flies. And I 

 have made enquiries of some other people in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, who generally agree 

 in regard to sha|ie, in describing the flies they 

 have noticed, but not in color. 1 have, myself, 

 seen but one of the orange colored flies this year, 

 and that was when I was washing my wheat to I 

 sow. This was on the grass where I had been 

 skimming off the blighted wheat. Two or threv 

 days ago, about sunset, after a very warm day ^ 1 

 seated myself at the edge of a late sown piece of 

 wheat, for observation. I saw, perhaps, a d ozeii 

 species of flies, of almost all shapes and sizes, ap- 

 parently busy among the grain, both on tho stalks 

 and heads. One of them resembled the orangj-e 

 colored flies in shape; but w;" yellowish white in 

 color. Those flies were all exceedingly nimble in 

 their movements when disturbed and were as ac- 

 tive on the wing as gjizellen are on the foot. Ai 

 the same time, I saw myriads of siriiilar lookin<g 

 flies basking in the sunbeams in various direc- 

 tions. 



3d. Last year I sowed a piece of wheat on a 

 field 70 or 80 rods from any other cleared field, 

 and where no manure had ever been carried, and 

 where no other grain had ever been cultivated ex- 

 cept oats, and a very small piece of wheat, some 

 three or four years before. This was injured by 

 them the worst of any I ever had. 1 did not get 

 the amount of seed sown. Though we may well 

 suppose some of these might be carried in the 

 seed wheat, yet why should they be thicker there 

 than about the barn, cScc, where they might 

 be carried in the manure, and in various other 

 ways .' 



I believe, Sir, it would be nothing but vanity or 

 obstinacy in any one, to speak with much confi- 

 dence as to any remedy for preventing their at- 

 tacks. Lime and ashes have been tried in this 

 neighborhood v.'ithout success ; and as to smoking 

 our wheat fields with brimstone, 1 have little faith 

 in the process. All these different kinds of flies 

 seem to agree in one thing : they take shelter 

 among the weeiis and grass at the bottom of the 

 grain. Here I think we must attack them to suc- 

 ceed ; and 1 think it v/oiild be difiicult to get 

 smoke to settle low enough to dislodge thein. I 

 hope, however, you will pardon me for theorizing 

 a little. If we could, by trying experiments on a 

 small scale, find any li(|uid substanci', (not too 

 costly,) that would dislodge them, we might, I 



think, then find some way to spread it over our 

 fields. I have thought of two : First, by engines 

 — RnL-lish Agriculturists use engines for similar 

 purposes. Second, by spouts— such as are used in 

 some places to water meadows, &c. — These be- 

 ing fixed in proi)er places in the spring when the 

 wheat was sown, might serve for the triple pur- 

 pose of conveying liquid manure over the land — 

 supplying the grain with moisture in time of 

 drouth—and of conveying some liquid substance 

 to disloflge the flies, and of course prevent the 

 worms. This plan, too, anticipates another ad- 

 vantage. Yon might then plough the most bar- 

 ren field, and fearlessly sow it with wheat, and 

 manure it just as you pleased, or as e.-?pcrience 

 should determine to be most advantageous. 

 I am, very respectfully, yours, 



Joseph H. Jenne- 



Peru, Sept. 9th, 1837- 



SII>E-HlL.Ii PLOUGH. 



Mr Holmes : 1 have for some time past felt de- 

 sirous to cai! your attention and the atteniion of 

 the agricultural community to the siile-hill plough.- 

 Tuam are several kinds of lilouglis so cal''"; i^"^' 

 I -neaii that with a rolling; share and mouldboard. 

 You doubtless have seen them, and perhapsfcnovp 

 nmch better how to estimate their value thin I — 

 but what 1 have seen of them, and the use I have- 

 made, and tho experience of others much belter- 

 qualified to judge of their worth than I, have con- 

 vinced me that they ought to take the place of all 

 other ploughs, as possessing ail the good proper- 

 ties of the best cast iron jiloughs, to which is to- 

 be added those of turning tlie furrow to eitherthe 

 right hand or left. 



They are not patented. They are manufac- 

 tured by a l\Ir Nourse, of Worcester, Mass., and 

 were introduced into this town by Samuel Davis, 

 Es.). 



'I'here are now in, and within two or three 

 miles of this village, two dozen or more of them 

 in actual use, and I believe every man who has 

 tiied them is entiiely satisfied with them, and has 

 either gotten one for his own use, or is determin- 

 ed to have one the first op)>ortunity. 



They are not only applicable to the side hill bu 

 equally so to level grounds, entirely superseding 

 the necessity of a cenlral or dead furrow. I 

 have had my ploughing done for two year.' past 

 with this kind of plough, and I do not hesitate 

 to say that the ploughing has been as well done 

 as it could have been done with any other plough 

 in use. 



I heki the plough one half a day to break up 

 land that had been mowed about five years. One 

 yoke of oxen was all the team necessary. The 

 work was done with ease to the cattle, and 'be 

 tnan who owned the cattle, and who drove them 

 for me, has since purchased one of the ploughs 

 for his own use. 



One of our citizens contracted to build, and 

 built a new road of about one mile, on (lie shore - 

 of a pondj where he was under the necessity of 



