1S36.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



341 



What egg? I would ask. He has not attempt 

 ed to shovv or to make it probable that the egg ol' 

 the Hessian Fly has ever been seen on the grain 

 oC wheat, or on any other grain. If it can be 

 shown that the grain waa ever its resort, then it 

 Avill be conceded, that it always tvas and always 

 ivill be its resort ; if the blade, the same: reason 

 may be variable, but insiinct never changes — the 

 ^'cnrculuP^ will take his fniii, the "aphis'''' his 

 leaf — tiicy will |)erish rather than violate the laws 

 ol their nature, their |)!iysical and innate charac- 

 ter. The eggs seen may have been the eggs of 

 other insects. I have lor some years observed a 

 small, gaunt blue fly, very simiiar to the house 

 fly, but much smaller, operating upon the head of 

 wheat when nearly ripe, and apparently depositing 

 cgff?. I have found upon these heads, afterwards 

 examined, and within the capf^ule, small larva- 

 which had consumed a portion of the grain. These 

 are, possibly, hum the fly the northern States 

 are complaining of; and the eggs the gentle- 

 man has seen on the grain, may have proceeded 

 from the same source. They have never appeared 

 here in sufficient numbers to excite alarm, and 

 ihey certainly are not the product of the Hessian 

 fly. Having already shown that the head, or 

 gr.ain of the wheat cannot possibly be the place of 

 deposite lor the Hessian fly, I will proceed to veri- 

 fy "ly promise in a manner which I hope will be 

 satisfactory to make it conclusively certain, that 

 the blade of the plont is the place of deposite for 

 the egg. I shall annex the authority, because 

 thereby aresponsibilit}' is offered; and consequent- 

 ly, an additional sanction given to the verity of the 

 facts. This is the more necessary, because of the 

 importance of all lads, regarding this important 

 subject matter; and especially such as may pre- 

 serve the farmer fi-om a fallacious confidence in a 

 proposed remedy, which must inevitably disap- 

 point his hopes, lull him into false security, and 

 possibly suspend his further enquiries into a sub- 

 ject, whose vital importance requires incessant and 

 united prosecution. 



On the seventh day of "Maif^ last, (a warm 

 day, so noted on my agricultural diary,") I observed 

 in an outer corner of one of my wheat fields, a 

 cloud of insects, on the wing, swarming like bees, 

 over a spac^ of a few acres of the young wheat. 

 Attracted by their dense and glittering appearance, 

 increased, no doubt, by the bright solar rays re- 

 flected from them. I rode up to the swarm, whose 

 elevation reached from the ground to about fifteen 

 feet. I caught several, and found them to be the 

 Hessian fly. On that day week, (also a warm 

 and bright day, the intervening days had been 

 generally, cool,) I took a microscope to the field, 

 and pulling up several bunches of the wheat with- 

 in the sphere of their flight, I discovered on many 

 of the blades of every bunch, and on their upper 

 surface, and a few inches from their insertion into 

 the stem, airglutinated eggs, and larva? invisible to 

 the naked eye until the point was indicated by the 

 instrument, when they might be seen in diflerent 

 stages o( forwardness or progression to maturity : 

 some white, in which no insect could be discerned 

 upon breaking thein — some yellow, in which in- 

 sects were found — and others, from which they 

 Avere recently released, and lying at the mouth of 

 the shell, yet motionless, apparently, and with 

 their heads turned downwards, as if to make their 

 way as soon as they could move to the base of tiic 



blade, at which, finally, the loo visible fiittened, 

 and grown larva, and chrysalid, give woful eviden- 

 ces of the source of their lile and nutrition, and of 

 the decline and death of the great object of our 

 care and attention. 



Having made these observations, I extended 

 my researches through the apparent sphere of 

 their operations, and found it equally infested: 

 these few acres became entirely naked ; and it is 

 remarkable that no other part of ihejfield aflbrded 

 any vestige, then or afterwards, of the fly. Upon 

 the remainder, I grew a heavy crop of straw — the 

 grain was destroyed by the general, and subse- 

 quently disastrous scab. Many of the chrysalids 

 I have brought to maturity, leaving no doubt of 

 the identity of parent and offspring. 



From the whole premises — "from fiicis" — "fi-om 

 reason" — Irom "analogy" it is clear, that the leaf 

 of the plant, and not tlie head or grain is the fit 

 and actual nidus of the Hessian fly — it is there 

 that it is deposited, hatched and matured: and 

 [)robably in several successive generations from the 

 first suitable stage of the autumnal wheat, until, 

 by its growth it is rendered too coarse for the func- 

 tions of the tender ofl'spring, when, no doubt, they 

 renew their deposites, perhaps sparsely, on other 

 tender plants, their next preferences, till tlieir favo- 

 rite growth of the coming autumn, shall complete 

 the cycle. 



The general character of the instinctive flicuify, 

 in other insects, better known, for the preservation 

 of their broods, under the influence of which, they 

 seek a nidus, in or near which, their progeny, 

 when hatched, may be nourished — the fad, ne- 

 ver I believe denied, that the larva of this fly has 

 always been found at ot near the base of the leafy 

 and never on or in the grain, or the head — the 

 fact, that the grain or head does not exist at the 

 time of the "il/a^" deposite — the fact, that the 

 larva of this fly does not consume anj' part of the 

 grain or head, nor leave any trace of even a tran- 

 scient existence in that portion of the plant — the 

 fact, that if the egg were deposited there, the 

 grain, when thrashed, undergoing its necessary 

 heat, would, "as with the moth" or wheat weevil, 

 vivify its incumbent, occupying so delicate a shell, 

 which is alledged by these theorists to be after- 

 wards brought to life by a less degree of heat, in 

 the earth, after the cool season of seed lime — the 

 fact, that if deposited and hatched on or in the grain, 

 it must in its tender larva stage feed there or perish, 

 and the fact, that it does not feed there and does not 

 perish; all thesefacts undeniable, together with those 

 stated, as coming under my late observation, can 

 leave no reasonable doubt, that the place of depo- 

 site for the egg of the Hessian fly, is the leaf— and 

 not the grain or head, and demonstrate the abso- 

 lute futility of the brining and liming remedy, so 

 confidently and earnestly relied on, and recom- 

 mended for many years ; and to the present mo- 

 ment reiterated with ejaculations of surprise, "that 

 so simple and infallible a remedy, (see Farmers' 

 Register, vol. I.,) should not be generally circu- 

 lated and adopted (or the good of mankind." 



Finally, I may remark, that I used this process 

 of brining and liming for three years, not lor the 

 "fly," but for the smut (Ze charbon') a stinking, 

 contagious pest, very different from the black 

 head, {la nielle,} which latter is, withus, generally 

 and improperly called smut: of the Ibrmer, we 

 have hud but lillle ; yet, lor a few years, by some 



