380 



The Hessian Fly. — Value of Land. 



Vol. XI. 



and Fruit Preserver invented by Mr. Kep- 

 hart, comprising five varieties, viz: Cider, 

 Bellflower, Favourite, Germantown, and 

 Newtown pippins, and deposited by Flack, 

 Thompson & Brother; and we recommend 

 a premium of three dollars for such fine spe- 

 cimens of fruit so beautifully preserved at 

 so late a period." 



Yours, &c., F. 



Philadelphia, July 3rd. 



The Hessian Fly. 



Dr. Fitch, of Salem, N. Y. closes his very interest- 

 ing inquiry into the history, character, transforma- 

 tions, and habits of this farfamed depredator, with the 

 following remarks. His patient investigations seem 

 to have fairly led him to the conclusions here announ- 

 ced, and it is altogether probable that the ravages of 

 this insect will remain, as they have heretofore been, 

 entirely beyond our control, further than may result 

 from a choice of ground and time of sowing. The 

 efficacy, however, of late sowing, we believe to be ex- 

 tremely problematical.— Ed. 



The Hessian fly — Cecidomyia destructor 

 of Say, is a European insect, and has been 

 detected in Germany, France, Switzerland 

 and Italy, where it at times commits severe 

 depredations upon the wheat crops. Its 

 ravages are alluded to so far back as the 

 year 1732, It was brought to this country, 

 probably in some straw used in package by 

 the Hessian soldiers, who landed on Staten 

 and the west end of Long Island, August 

 1776, but did not become so multiplied as 

 severely to injure the crops in that neigh- 

 bourhood, until 1779. From thence as a 

 central point, it gradually extended over the 

 country in all directions, advancing at the 

 rate of ten to twenty miles a year. Most of 

 the wheat crops were wholly destroyed by 

 it within a year or two of its first arrival at 

 a given place, and its depredations commonly 

 continued for several years, when they would 

 nearly or quite cease; its parasitic insect 

 enemies probably increasing to such an ex- 

 tent as almost to exterminate it. It is fre- 

 quently reappearing in excessive numbers 

 in one and another district of our country, 

 and in addition to wheat, injures also barley 

 and rye. 



There are two generations of this insect 

 annually. The eggs resemble minute red- 

 dish grains, and are laid in the creases of 

 the upper surface of the leaf, when the 

 wheat is but a few inches high, mostly in 

 the month of September. These hatch in 

 about a week, and the worm crawls down 

 the sheath of the leaf to its base, just below 

 the surface of the ground, where it remains, 

 subsisting upon the juices of the plant, with- 

 out wounding it, but causing it to turn yel- 



low and die. It is a small white maggot, 

 and attains its growth in about six weeks. 

 It then changes to a flax seed like body, 

 within which the worm becomes a pupa the 

 following spring, and from this the fly is 

 evolved in ten or twelve days. The fly 

 closely resembles a musquitoe in its appear- 

 ance, but is a third smaller, and has no bill 

 for sucking blood ; it is black, the joints of 

 its body being slightly marked with reddish. 

 It appears early in May, lays its eggs for 

 another generation and soon perishes. The 

 worms from these eggs nestle at the lower 

 joints of the stalks, weakening them and 

 causing them to bend and fall down fi-om 

 the weight of the head, so that towards har- 

 vest, an infested field looks as though cattle 

 had passed through it. 



Wheat can scarcely be grown except upon 

 a fertile soil in those districts where this in- 

 sect is abundant. The sowing should be 

 deferred until about the last of September, 

 the season then being past when the fly usu- 

 ally deposits its eggs. If at any time in au- 

 tumn the eggs of the insect are observed to 

 be profusely deposited upon the leaves, the 

 crop should be speedily grazed down by 

 sheep and other stock, or if this cannot be 

 done, a heavy roller should be passed over 

 it, that as many of the eggs as possible may 

 be crushed or dislodged thereby. One or 

 the other of the same measures should also 

 be resorted to in the spring, if the same con- 

 tingency occurs ; or if the worms are at a 

 later date discovered to be numerous at the 

 first and second joints of the young stalks, the 

 experiment may be tried of mowing as close 

 down as possible, the most infested portion 

 of the field. Where the soil is of but me- 

 dium fertility, a resort to some of the har- 

 dier varieties of wheat, which are known to 

 be in a measure fly proof, may be advisable. 



Value of Land. 



You ask why land in Maryland, Virginia 

 and South Carolina has so little value when 

 compared with that of England or of France. 

 To obtain an answer to this question we must 

 first determine what is the cause of value 

 in land. Of itself it certainly has none, 

 as can be seen in the fact that thousands and 

 tens of thousands of acres of the most fertile 

 lands in Texas have been given to individu- 

 als on condition of settlement, and that when 

 partially settled they could not be exchanged 

 for half as much as they had cost. Such 

 was the case with those granted to William 

 Penn, and to all others of the early settlers 

 of these United States, The lands of Iowa 

 and Wisconsin have, in part, attained a value 

 of $1 25 per acre, because of a great expen- 



