No. 2. 



The Hessian Fly — Mediterranean Wheat. 



69 



The Hessian Fly. 



When I began to manage the farm where 

 I now reside, which was twenty-one years 

 ago, I had heard much of the ravages of the 

 Fly, and of the different pickles for the seed, 

 to prevent the evil. Some would find a cer- 

 tain preventive in lime-water, others in a so- 

 lution of nitre, strong brine, &c. ; all based 

 on the idea that the egg, or nit, from which 

 the fly came, was carried into the earth in 

 the fuzzy end of the grain. For the purpose 

 of trying the effects of the different soaks, I 

 prepared some seed-wheat in each kind of 

 soak, and sowed it in a lot near the house, the 

 middle of September, keeping each kind by 

 itself: other seed I sowed on cotton, floating 

 on water, in a glass vessel in the house ; which 

 vegetated about the time as that sown in the 

 ground. I let all stand until the 25th of Oc- 

 tober, when I examined the plants from the 

 different kinds of soaks, splitting them from 

 the roots to the tops, and placing them under 

 a strong microscope, when, to my surprise, 

 nearly every plant that came from the lot 

 was perforated near the surface of the ground, 

 having from three to eight eggs, or nits, in 

 each, while those taken from the cotton had 

 neither perforation or nits about them. This 

 satisfied me that the fly was not carried into 

 the ground by the seed. I therefore came to 

 the conclusion, that if I kept my wheat out 

 of the ground until after a few good frosts, 

 which would be likely to destroy what flies 

 there were, I should not afterwards be trou- 

 bled by them ; and from that time to this, I 

 have never sown my wheat until October, 

 and have never found my grain injured by 

 the fly, although I have not omitted sowing 

 for eighteen years. From this I conclude, 

 that the farmer who sows his wheat early, 

 and thereby gets his crop very fine in the 

 fall, offers the Fly a shelter for its e^gs, and 

 invites them to destroy his grain. — Alb. Cult. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Mediterranean Wheat. 



The pleasant time for wheat-sowing has 

 again returned, accompanied with its count- 

 less nostrums tor the cure of diseases, which 

 are to fall out about nine months hence, in the 

 shape of Rust, Fly, Mildew, &c., all which 

 are to be prevented, or cured, by certain 

 steeps and ablutions, to be practised upon the 

 grain before sowing ; but although these were 

 all put in operation " secundem artem," the 

 past year, how deplorably inferior have the 

 crops of wheat proved the present season ! in 

 fact, I have not yet seen a tolerable sample 

 of wheat grown in this neighbourhood — all 

 are defective, and many to a ruinous extent. 

 Numerous inquiries are making for the Me- 

 diterranean species, for seed, and certainly, 

 its being, hitherto, found proof against the 



Fly, is a strong recommendation ; but its 

 diminutive ears, and short straw, its inequal- 

 ity of sample, and inferiority of flour, render 

 it, to me, a very exceptionable variety ; in- 

 deed, I wonder how any good manager would 

 be content to grow ears two inches in length, 

 yielding only twenty grains, on an average, 

 with straw so weak and short as to fall before 

 the crop is ripe, and diminishing the size of 

 the dunghill nearly one-half. 1 have exam- 

 ined many crops of this peculiar species of 

 wheat, and am convinced, in my own mind, 

 that it is the real " Tres mois,^' or French 

 spring wheat, which, as its name imports, be- 

 comes ripe in " three months" from the time 

 of sowing, and of which I have seen hundreds 

 of acres growing in Europe, particularly in 

 the Channel islands, Guernsey and Jersey, 

 where it is valued, chiefly, on this account, a 

 character for earliness, which it has sustained 

 in this country and climate; coming ripe, 

 under the same circumstances, ten days, or a 

 fortnight, earlier than anyother variety known 

 amongst us; thus, probably, escaping the rust, 

 which is pretty sure to fall on the late-ripen- 

 ing wheat : but, wherever it is sown, in 

 Europe, it is considered a very inferior crop, 

 and is cultivated only on land that is either 

 too poor or ill-conditioned to warrant more 

 than half a yield of other varieties. Now it 

 would be easy to test the correctness of this 

 idea — namely, that it is a spring wheat — by 

 sowing it in the spring; and, if my suspicions 

 be well founded, it will bear forcing by ma- 

 nure, at that season, without much danger of 

 its becoming too gross in the straw, or being 

 injured by the rust, provided the dressing so 

 applied be properly decomposed, and well pul- 

 verized. In the islands above-mentioned, it 

 is customary to sow it on a soil well dressed 

 with the ashes of sea-weed — perhaps the most 

 stimulating of all manures — which it will 

 bear without rusting; the surface of the land 

 reeking like a boiling pot, many days after 

 the seed is sown. 



I have had an opportunity of seeing the 

 Red Cone-Wheat, imported by Mr. Zollikoffer, 

 the present season, a description of which is 

 given at p. 314, of the 5th vol. of the Cabinet, 

 and have no hesitation in saying, if such 

 wheat can be grown in this country, it will, 

 in all probability, supersede the use of all 

 other varieties, on our cold and stiff" soils. I 

 shall look with anxious expectation to the 

 time of its ripening amongst us. Subscriber. 



Berks Co. 



We have examined a sample of Mr. Zollikoffer'a 

 wheat, and have never seen a finer specimen, if the real 

 Red-Cone— we trust the expectation that it is fly-proof 

 — and which, we suspect, will include the term rust- 

 proof also— wiU be realized. The addition to the straw- 

 yard, when compared with the Mediterranean species, 

 will, if it succeed in this warm climate, amount to half 

 tlie value of a middling crop.— Ed. 



