218 



Hessian Fly. 



Vol. V. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Hessian Fly. 



Dear Sir, — I had not intended to trouble 

 you again on the subject of fly in wheat ; but, 

 from the tenor of the article on " Bliofht," by 

 Vir, in the December number of the Cabinet, 

 I think it necessary to say a few words in 

 reply. I did not understand " Vir" as saying 

 that the course which he recommends, as a 

 preventive of the fly in wheat, was new in 

 Europe ; I meant that it is new in fhis coun- 

 try. He says, in his last communication, " in 

 Europe it is not the custom to complain of 

 the fly, as it is here ; and they believe thoy 

 are right in attributing their security to the 

 system of sowing wheat on a clean and unex- 

 hausted soil." Now if I am rightly informed, 

 the Hessian fly, as we term it, is not known 

 in Europe at all, or at least, not in England 

 or Scotland ; neither is the curculio known 

 in Europe, which is the sole cause, and not 

 the effect, in these United States, of thousands 

 of bushels of plums, peaches, pears, apples, and 

 other fruit being full of worms, and dropping 

 to the ground, annually, before maturity. 



Although the Hessians have the honour 

 of first introducing the fly to this country, 

 yet, as we have no accounts of its being found 

 in that part of Europe, they must either have 

 brought it from some other country, or be 

 innocent of the charge. Vir considers all 

 this of minor importance, however, when 

 compared with the theory that the Jly is the 

 effect, and not the cause, and which, ibe says, 

 Tycho attempts to ridicule, by asking if he 

 does not consider bots in horses, and worms 

 in children, exceptions to the principle that 

 the fly is the effect, and not the cause of dis- 

 eased wheat. 1 likewise stated, in my for- 

 mer communication, that, on this principle, 

 we might explain all manner of diseases, in- 

 cident both to the animal and vegetable 

 kingdom. As this was a neio theory of dis- 

 ease, to me, I naturally felt somewhat incre- 

 dulous. But whether corn is diseased pre- 

 vious to the ravages of the cut-worm, or the 

 peach-worm, or borer, is the effect of disease 

 in that tree, Vir doth not say. My belief is, 

 that in both these cases, as well as the fly in 

 wheat, the insect tribe are the cause, and not 

 the effect of the disease, and ultimate death 

 of the plant. That my opinions on this sub- 

 ject have not altogether been imbibed from 

 books, I am willing to admit ; personal expe- 

 rience, and close examination, have had a 

 considerable share in drawing my mind to 

 this conclusion. 



Vir asks, " if I have ever witnessed those 

 flights of countless millions of flies, as there 

 must be about the time of harvest .'" I answer. 

 No; but very different have been my experi- 

 ments, in regard to hatching the eggs, or nits. 

 I have repeatedly taken up plants of wheat I 



with nits, (I did not wait till harvest-time, 

 however, when in all probability the fly 

 had emerged, leaving nothing but the shell, 

 for your correspondent to experiment upon ; 

 in that case the eggs may remain in statu 

 quo for ever) and, by placing damp earth in 

 the bottom of a phial, and on this the wheat- 

 plant containing the eggs — tying a bladder 

 over the top, pricked full of holes with a pin, 

 and placing the phial in a warm room, I have 

 never failed in hatching the fly, in a few 

 days ; and Vir can easily try this experiment 

 at any time, fall, winter, or spring. It is an 

 easy matter to become acquainted with the 

 parent insect, but more difficult to under- 

 stand its habits, and more difficult still to 

 apply a preventive. I have no Scotch 

 neighbour to set me right on the loonder I 

 express, whether "the principle of keeping 

 the plant small, to harden it, would apply to 

 the animal as well as the vegetable, by re- 

 tarding tlie growth of our young cattle, that 

 they might become hardened, and capable of 

 enduring our winters with less protection, 

 &c. ; but as our cattle are not destined to 

 stand the exposure of Scottish hills, or Penn- 

 sylvania hills either, during the winter, I 

 shall make no further comments on this head, 

 but pass on to the next paragraph, which 1 

 think it necessary to quote entire. Vir says, 

 " How stands the case 1 we find the com- 

 plaint of the ravages of the fly to be in many 

 parts of the country — universal — and those 

 who are suffering are inquiring if any one 

 can inform them the cause of the malady, or 

 point out a remedy; and your correspondent 

 himself admits the extent of the evil : as soon, 

 however, as a remedy is proposed, one that 

 has been found effectual elsewhere, he is the 

 first to cry out against it, and do all in his 

 power to bring it into derision. Why, man, 

 it is you who complain. Why say a word 

 about it; why not follow up your old course, 

 and be silent V 



Does your correspondent suppose that any 

 new course he may recommend must of ne- 

 cessity meet the approbation of all who are 

 suffering from the evil complained of? Or, 

 does he suppose that my observations on his 

 article were for the sole purpose of opposition ? 

 If so, 1 can assure him, he is mistaken. When 

 a remedy, however, is proposed for an evil, 

 that has been found effectual elsetvhere, as 

 he says, but where that evil does not exist, 

 we may, at least, be allowed to doubt its 

 preventive powers where that evil does 

 exist. If his remedy will not bear scrutiny 

 on paper, agriculturists will, I fear, be slow 

 to put it in practice. It was for the purpose 

 of inquiry, on concurrent testimony of the 

 efficiency of the plan, that I replied to the 

 article on the Fly, in the August number of 

 the Cabinet. If the course which he recom- 



