No. 1. 



The Hessian Fly. 



19 



of the plant, being thus obstructed in their 

 circulation, stagnate, and become corrupt; 

 and then it is a law of nature for putricity to 

 engender life ; or, if you had rather, when 

 these juices are Ijecome putrid, then the fly 

 deposits its egg, knowing by instinct that the 

 progeny will be supplied with the means of 

 its existence — on the principle, " no fly will 

 deposit its eggs on a healthy sheep, or, if it 

 should, they will never come into existence." 

 This is the reason why the early sown wheat 

 is so liable to be affected ; and at this season 

 it is that the fly is supposed to deposit its first 

 or autumnal crop of eggs — the very late 

 sown wheat is often affected in the same man- 

 ner, but not by the same cause — its tender- 

 ness arising merely from its natural state of 

 weakness, from too late sowing — while that 

 which- is sown in the middle part of the sea- 

 son might possibly sometimes escape, solely 

 from the cause of the weather being more 

 propitious during its state of germination, and 

 its greater age communicating more strength 

 of constitution to enable it to resist a degree 

 of cold that might be sufficient to prostrate 

 the latest sown crop. But all these crops, 

 sown at such different seasons, are sure to 

 suffer by the fly, or some other disease, if un- 

 eeasonably warm weather — such as that which 

 was experienced, first in the autumn and 

 then in the early spring of the present sea- 

 son — is followed by many successive days of 

 cold and piercing blasts, with the wind from 

 the north-north-east, and the thermometer 

 nearly to the freezing point, all which must 

 have been observed at the time, causing a 

 foreboding of blight, in some form or other, 

 in the minds of those whose business led them 

 to notice the state of the atmosphere ; and 

 these circumstances, I conceive, are quite suf- 

 ficient to account for the appearance of the 

 fly, in the present remarkably changeable 

 season, both in the late and early autumn- 

 sown wheat, as well as in that sown in the 

 spring ; as also in crops grown from foreign 

 seed, sown for the first time in this country. 

 It has been stated in the agricultural jour- 

 nals, as the general opinion of agriculturists, 

 that no preventive of the ravages of the Hes- 

 sian fly can ever be pointed out; this might 

 be the fact, under very peculiar circum- 

 stances, especially in a country where the 

 transitions from heat to cold are not only ex- 

 tremely frequent, but to a degree of intensity 

 which must be exceedingly injurious, as well 

 to animal as to vegetable life ; but it is be- 

 lieved that very little would be heard about 

 the disease, if a different course of manage- 

 ment were adopted, and such a rotation of 

 crops substituted, as that which is followed in 

 the grain-growing districts of the continent 

 of Europe, where, to grow two grain crops in 

 succession would in many places subject a 



tenant to a forfeiture of his lease, if not to a 

 prosecution for damages. 



The most favourable soil and climate for 

 the growth of wheat is that which is cool 

 and rather heavy ; it requires careful culture 

 and a strong and rich seed-bed, but, in this 

 climate especially, it ought never to be sown 

 on a pulverized fallow, for although on some 

 of the cold clays of parts of England, im- 

 mense crops are obtained by these means, no- 

 thing can be more improper in this country, 

 than such treatment of tlie soil ; the object 

 here ought to be to render the soil as compact 

 as possible, and to retard the growth of the 

 crop in the autumn, to give it time to tiller 

 and gain strength before the frosts of winter ; 

 all which can be accomplished, by adopting 

 the new course of the grain-growing districts 

 in Europe, which would be peculiarly well 

 suited to this — it is as follows : 



The dung of the winter-feeding establish- 

 ment is occasionally removed, during the sea- 

 son, to a situation, generally to the field where 

 it will be required, and where it can be turned 

 up and heaped not more than three or four 

 feet in thickness, to facilitate its fermentation, 

 preparatory to its being spread as a top dress- 

 ing very early in the spring, on the young 

 clovers, when it is soon grown in and pro- 

 duces a three-fold quantity of hay for the 

 next winter's food: two crops of hay are 

 taken, and then the lay is turned down by a 

 deep and narrow furrow, the land being 

 thrown into reaches or beds, in width propor- 

 tioned to the wet or dry state of the soil ; and 

 upon this one ploughing the wheat is sown 

 early in the season and harrowed in. There 

 is still a sufficient quantity of manure con- 

 tained in the soil to bring the wheat crop to 

 full maturity ; for the clover, not having per- 

 fected its seed, has not exhausted more than 

 the grosser particles of the dung, which 

 would have been detrimental to the wheat 

 crop, rendering it too large, flashy and tender 

 in its autumnal growth, and fitting it for the 

 reception of the fly, and other diseases inci- 

 dent to a state of blight, to which it would 

 be particularly liable, especially if it were to 

 be attacked by frosts before it had been pro- 

 tected by a covering of snow; as also in- 

 ducing a redundant growth of straw the next 

 summer, which is equally obnoxious to the 

 yield of grain. 



Wheat, thus cultivated, will lie close to the 

 ground during autumn and winter, and tiller 

 and thicken, instead of exhaust itself in use- 

 less and premature growth, of perhaps a foot 

 in height ; its leaves of dark green will curl 

 on the ground, able to resist the frosts, and 

 not liable to be injured by a depth of snow, 

 never so great in depth, or of so long continu- 

 ance ; coming out from under it, small in ap- 

 pearance, but not lifted at the roots — as the 



