18 



The Hessian Fly. 



Vol. V. 



I copy the following from the Western 

 Farmer, as strongly corroborative of the 

 theory here adopted, and to show that the 

 writer is one of the three systematizers above- 

 mentioned, who seem to be all wide of the 

 mark. He says, 



" As the Hessian fly is making great rav- 

 ages in the wheat crops, both in Ohio and 

 Kentucky, this season, we may as well com- 

 municate our own experience, as well as that 

 of many old farmers who have cultivated 

 wheat many years, that the Hessian fly, as it 

 is called, almost invariably attacks early sown 

 wheat in the latter part of autumn ; and 

 after-experience has also proved, that wheat 

 sown very late is equally liable to destruction 

 in the following spring, as is particularly now 

 the case, according to the information we 

 have recently received from the neighbouring 

 country. It appears then advisable to adopt 

 a middle course, sowing our wheat, if pos- 

 sible, between the 8th and last of October. 

 The oldest farmers inform us that, having 

 adopted this course, viz., sowing after the 

 first autumnal frost, that the wheat may not 

 be above ground until the autumnal fly has 

 perished ; with a good soil and good culture 

 to insure vigorous growth {the present wet 

 season, of course, forms an exception to the 

 general rule of growth in this respect) they 

 have never suffered any loss from this insect.* 

 Warm and unseasonable weather late in the 

 autumn, as was the case last year, will 

 favour the work of destruction at that time, 

 and the spring insect is more liable to do mis- 

 chief when wheat is sown so late as to be 

 much stinted in its growth by, the severity of 

 winter frosts, for in that case its growth is 

 not sufficiently strong to outlive the attacks 

 it may receive from this pest. We may 

 shortly state, until more light is thrown on 

 this subject, that the best precautions against 

 disease would be, manuring well on very poor 

 land, making use of a heavy roller, after the 

 crysalis or grub is formed in the autumn, or 

 in the spring before it is hatched ; ploughing 

 up the stubble deep, and thus burying it ; or 

 burning the stubble — an operation which, if 

 thoroughly done, must destroy the grub most 

 effectually — pasturing in the spring on strong 

 lands, and when the crop is rank in growth ; 

 and last, but not least, sowing the wheat, as 

 before stated, as far as the knowledge of the 

 season will permit, at a medium distance be- 

 tween the first and the last frosts of autumn." 



Now, if the above article had been written 

 to substantiate the reasoning contained in the 

 extracts from the new Farmers' Calendar, I 

 know not how it could have been done more 

 effectually ; I do not, however, mean to attach 



*Then it would appear that the present wet, or un- 

 favourable season, has overthrown their whole hypo- 

 thesis ! 



the least importance to the article on account 

 of its own merits, for who, amongst farmers, 

 would think of delaying his general wheat- 

 sowing until after the " first frosts of autumn," 

 even if he were sure he would then have an 

 opportunity, "between the first and second 

 frosts" of so doing ? the idea is absurd ! And 

 then comes the curious exception to the gene- 

 ral rule, owing to " the present wet season," 

 which might happen again for a dozen years 

 to come, for aught we know. 



His observation, that the oldest farmers 

 who have adopted this practice have never 

 lost a crop, would lead one to suspect that 

 they had never a crop to lose, as was the case 

 with the fortunate lawyer, who had never lost 

 a cause, merely because he never had had a 

 cause to lose ! And then again, to advise the 

 use of a heavy roller in the autumn, after the 

 grub is formed — which on moist land would 

 be dead ruin at that season of the year — to 

 crush the " grub or crysalis," which, if this 

 writer had ever seen, he would know to be 

 impossible to effect by such means ; ploughing 

 up the stubble deep — I presume he means 

 after harvest, when all the injury has been 

 done — and burning the stubble, which, as the 

 eggs are inserted into the stalk so near the 

 crown of the root, would, in all probability, 

 be ineffectual — but he ought to know that 

 this burning the stubble is quite out of the 

 question ninety-nine times out of a hundred, 

 which is, I believe, about the number of 

 chances to one that the wheat has been seeded 

 with grasses. And then comes the last pre- 

 caution, which is, in his estimation, " though 

 last not least," namely, to sow, as far as the 

 knowledge of the season will permit — to know 

 aiiy thing about which a man must be a con- 

 jurer — at a medium distance between the 

 first and second frosts of autumn ! 



Now, it is a fact, that, in such seasons as 

 the present, the Hessian fly does almost inva- 

 riably attack the early sown wheat in the lat- 

 ter part of autumn, because at that season it 

 has become lavish and premature in its growth, 

 stimulated to a highly improper degree by 

 the fallowing, the pulverizing, the dunging, 

 and often the liming, which it is universally 

 the custom to give to the oat-earshes after 

 harvest, to enable the land, exhausted by the 

 production of a crop which feeds precisely on 

 the food ivhich is natural to the support of 

 the wheat, to carry a second grain crop in 

 succession, than which nothing could be more 

 injuriously contrived. This stimulating pro- 

 cess, joined to the heat of an Indian summer, 

 draws up the crop so soft and tender, that, if 

 the frost sets in before a Covering of snow 

 falls to protect it, it is certain to be affected 

 by a blight, which soon shows itself in the 

 shape of some disease or other, and most fre- 

 quently in what is called the fly : the juices 



