THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



" The Produc*io"s of the Ea-th ■¥■'! a'ways b" ■" proro't'O" *o ''"e cu''u'e be=''-'°e'' up"n it " 



Vol. v.— No. 1.] 



8th mo. (August,) 15th, 1840. 



[Whole No. 67. 



KIMBER & SHARPLESS, 



PROPRIETORS AND PUBLISHERS, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year.— For conditions see last page. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 



The Hessian Fly. 



Sir, — While one class of writers profess 

 to have found, by experience, that the early 

 sown wheat is the least liable to be affected 

 by the Hessian fly, and others, by the satne 

 test, have discovered that the late sown is the 

 most likely to escape its ravages, I find a 

 tliird party advocating a middle course, as the 

 only mode by which the destruction can be 

 averted ; arguing, very conclusively too, as 

 do all the others, that their system only is to 

 be depended upon for security from the 

 scourge ; while the sagacious Lawrance* ob- 

 serves, and I must be permitted to repeat the 

 observation, " The probable reason for that 

 multitude of caterpillars which are produced 

 in a blighting season is, that such seasons 

 are usually preceded by a mild winter ; hence 

 the direful ravages of locusts, Hessian flies, 

 and various genera of insects in warm climes," 

 but he adds, " Every observer will find, that 

 the effects of blight depend entirely on the 

 state of the atmosphere for their continuance 

 or recession ; and should they even have ad- 

 vanced to a considerable degree of maturity, 

 warm showers of rain and a permanence of 



* See Lawrance's new Farmers' Calendar, article 

 " Blight," and in the appendix. 



. Cab.— Vol. V.— No. I. 



seasonable weather will prove an effectual 

 remedy." And accordingly, we find at the 

 present time the common observation in the 

 papers, " the late seasonable weather has had 

 the most decidedly beneficial effects on the 

 wheat, so seriously injured by the Hessian 

 fly." He then goes on to add, " the disease 

 — originally caused by atmospheric affection 

 — depends entirely on the subsequent state 

 of the weather for its increase, decrease, or 

 annihilation ; nor are the seeds of the sup- 

 posed parasite" (he is here speaking of the 

 fungus, but I consider his reasoning as appli- 

 cable to every description of blight) " of the 

 smallest future consequence, since we inva- 

 riably find, that, whether the vegetation of 

 the sycceeding year shall be blighted or not, 

 depends simply on the course of the winda 

 and the condition of the atmosphere; and 

 that, whatever store of the seeds of the para- 

 site may remain after the most blighting sea- 

 son, they are still perfectly harmless in warm 

 and genial seasons; and after an interval of a 

 number of years of exemption from the ma- 

 lady, one shall suddenly occur, in which the 

 disease shall be epidemic, and its cause an 

 atmosphere unfavourably changeable, so ob- 

 vious, that if a blind man cannot see it, he 

 shall be sure to feel it ! In the mean time, 

 what becomes of the seeds of these parasite 

 plants'! Do they remain floating in the air, 

 buried in the earth or beneath the waters, 

 patiently holding themselves — perhaps for 

 years — in readiness to obey the summons of 

 boisterous East-North-East, to nestle in the 

 vegetable body, now prepared for its recep' 

 tion, in order to suck up its life's blood?" 



a?) 



