No. 7. 



Cecidomyia, or Hessian-Fly. 



239 



in the several states of egg, larva, and pupa, 

 or only of the latter, I am not prepared to 

 say. The winter was peculiar. Snow fell 

 in abundance, before severe frost set in, so 

 that during a winter of intense cold the 

 ground was scarcely frozen. The fly was so 

 far preserved, from the circumstances of the 

 season, as to become numerous to excess in 

 the spring crop. Many pupffi undoubtedly 

 perish when exposed to the rigours of a se- 

 vere winter, which would be protected under 

 the snow ; and this may account sufficiently 

 for their abundance. 



" Sometimes, when very few insects can be 

 found in the fall wheat, they become quite 

 numerous in the spring. I have never seen 

 the larvffi in early spring — only pupae — yet, 

 later in the season larvae become very com- 

 mon. The eggs of these were probably de- 

 posited by flies which proceeded from the 

 winter pupte. The spring larvae pass through 

 the pupa state between the first and middle 

 of the sixth month." 



Some intelligent and observing farmers 

 think that there is a midsummer brood, in- 

 habiting some of the grasses and later grains 

 between the June crop and the time of sow- 

 ! ing wheat ; but multiplied observations have 

 ! only confirmed me in the opinion expressed 

 i four years ago, that the eggs are deposited at 

 various seaso7is of the year, according to 

 circumstances, and that the duration of their 

 several stages of existence depends upon 

 season and temperature. These views ac- 

 cord well with the want of uniformity, so 

 often observed in the habits of the insect. 



Doctor Coates speaks of " the absurdity of 

 planting Hessian-flies for the benefit of the 

 next year's crop." It is indeed an absurdity, 

 which is only equalled by that of the man 

 who planted a piece of beef, for the purpose 

 of raising a crop of oxen from it. But where- 

 in does the absurdity consist — in the idea, 

 or in the practice ? — in the farmer sowing 

 his wheat, or in Doctor Coates and Miss 

 Morris believing that the eggs of the C. de- 

 structor are sown with it — that they vege- 

 tate with it — and that they grow up to the 

 perfect state together ? There is no absurd- 

 ity in planting peas — bugs and all — but it 

 might be absurd to believe that those bugs 

 grew, like the peas, and produced another 

 crop — that unless the bugs were planted, the 

 peas would not produce other bugs, and thus 

 perpetuate their race. 



My friend B. O. had a piece of ground 

 prepared and sown early in the ninth month 

 last, with Mediterranean wheat; but his seed 

 ran out, leaving a narrow strip unfinished, 

 which he sowed, at the same time, with the 

 common red kind. For a time they both 

 flourished well ; but before " the end of Oc- 

 tober," he told me that the Mediterranean 



wheat looked very fine, and covered the 

 ground completely, while the red wheat had 

 almost entirely disappeared — was eaten up — 

 leaving the ground bare. 

 New-Garden, 1st Month, 25tli, 1841. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Cecidomyia, or Hessian-Fly. 



Sir, — I informed you at p. 139 of the 

 Cabinet for November, that I had turned down 

 a crop of wheat, and re-sowed the land, be- 

 cause I found that it had already been at- 

 tacked by the fly. I can now say, I am well 

 satisfied with the step which I then took ; for, 

 when the snow left it, a few weeks ago, it 

 had a good appearance. 



There are now three theories before the 

 public respecting the cecidomyia, or Hessian- 

 fly : " Vir" says they are the effect of disease 

 in the plant -r- Tycho Brahe considers them 

 the cause — and Miss Morris would make it 

 appear that the farmers are guilty of sowing 

 a crop of flies with their wheat! — the seat 

 of the disease being in the grain itself — 

 I wonder which is correct — and if there be 

 yet more theories to be brought to light? 

 For myself, I doubt whether Miss Morris's 

 theory will find many converts, for some 

 time to come ; and the idea which Dr. Coates 

 broaches, about planting Hessian-flies for the 

 benefit of the next year's crop, is as new to me 

 as the proposal of " Vir" to retard the growth 

 of the wheat in the autumn, to harden it. 

 But by the Dr.'s article it would appear that 

 we have all been mistaking an insect which 

 destroys the Hessian-fly, for the fly itself! 

 But if the thousands, and ten thousands of 

 nits, eggs, larvse, and pupee, which I last fall 

 turned down with the plough, were not the 

 Hessian-fly, but the ceraphron, then have I 

 been, up to the present moment, most won- 

 derfully mistaken ! I have often taken up a 

 bunch of wheat full of these nits, or eggs, 

 and, upon their emerging, have found them 

 to be the insect described by Dr. Coates, 

 which, " when its wings are pinched off, 

 bears a great resemblance to a minute black 

 ant;" and this I have always believed to be 

 the insect which causes all the mischief, be 

 it ceraphron or cecidomyia — Hessian-fly or 

 ichneumon ! Please, Mr. Editor, give us all 

 the light you can upon the subject, and oblige 

 your subscriber, 



J. G. 



As rust and decay rapidly consume the 

 machine that is not kept in use, so disease 

 and sickness accumulate on the frame of in- 

 dolence, until existence becomes a burden, 

 and the grave a bed of rest. 



