A N D 11 O U T I ( V L T U 11 A L 11 E Ci I S T E R . 



PUllLISHKD BY JOSEPH BllECK * CO., NO. 52 NOUril M.VllKKT STllEKT, (Aooicultui.al WA»BHou.K.)-ALLIiN PUTNAM, liDlTUU. 



BOSTON, WEDNKSDAY EVENING, JUNE 15, 1842. 



cnn. so. 



N . E . FARMER. 



>ini M.irrit'1 Report on thn Insocu ofMiutehuKlta 



blijjliled li<l(l, IB iKit iilVeclccl tliuroby in tlifi kU^UI- 

 est ilnjrcc; tlio si;C(l (c^t's) <" porpetiioto llio dis- 

 ' ensc rrom year to year, i.s loilyeJ in llie straw, 

 I H'liicli, when hitched, nro the worins" before men- 

 tinned. Dr. Andrew Nichids, of Danver.i, »tBtcs, 

 that these worms are ahoiil one tenth of un inch in 

 len<:th, and of a yellow or straw color; an<l that, 

 in the month of Novemher, they appr^arad to have 

 paused to the clirysaiis stale. They livo through 

 the winter unch.Tnijed in the straw, many of them 

 in IhestnbhI.! in the field, while others arc carried 

 away when the ■rrain i.s harvesleil. When the 

 barley is threslied, nnnierniig small pieces of dis- 

 eased straw, too hard to be broken by the flail, will 

 Train. Some of these may 



INSECTS IN BARLEY STRAW. 



n the years l!?'25l and IS;W, several commnnica- 

 L-re published in the eiyhlh volnm-J of Fi?. 

 ^ " New England Farmer," respecting n 

 of barley straw, produced by the punctures 

 nsecic The first account of this disease that 

 en under my notice, is contained in an es- 

 l from a letter, dated Ati<jnst I(!th, lg->!», from 

 Hon. John Merrill, of Nowburyport, to .Mr 



nden, wherein it is st.atcd that the barley in be found among the 

 neiahborhood of Newburyport, yieliled only a | be separated by the winnowin;; machine, but many 

 small crop; on some farms not much mon' others are too large and heavy to be winnowed 

 1 the oeed sown. Most of the stalks were out, and remain with the grain, from which they 

 d to have a number of small worms within , can only be removed by the slow process of pick- 

 11, near to the second joint, and had become in^ them out by hnnd. 



lened in the part attacked, Irom the interrup- [ In the winter of 1829, Cheever Newhall, Esij. 



f the circulation of the sap. Daring ."several ■ furnished me with a few pieces of diseased barley 



previous to this date, the barley crops, in va- straw, each of which contained several small whi- 



s parts of Essex and Middlesex couiitie.-J, were j lish niaggets. Since that time this afloction of the 



c or less injured in the some way : and, in.iome barley has not again fallen under my notice, though 



■s, the cultivation of this grain was given up J have reason to think that it continues to prevail 



rsequence thereof. It was suppo-sed that the in many parts of .Massachusetts. The following 



^is producing this disease, were imported from I account of my observations on the insects in the 



nen, or some other port in the north of Europe, barley straw, was published in the New England 



inio liarley that was sown in iho vicinity of > Farmer, in July, 18.'W. Fjacli maggot wa.i iiiibed- 



bury, three or four years before 182; I. The 1 Jed in tlie thickened and solid substance of the 



ns or maggots were found by John .M. Gour- stem, in a little longitudinal hollow, of the shape 



E.--]., of Weston, Mass., to bo transformed to j of its own body ; and its presence was known by 



I flies, which were thought by some persons to | an oblong swelling upon the surface. In some 



le same as the Hessian flies. In the soiiimer , pieces of straw tile swellings were so numerous as 



-?oI, myriads of those flies were found alive in ■ greatly to disfigure the stem, the circulation in 



V beds in Gloucester ; the straw having been , which must have been very much checked if not 



1~n from the fields the year before. An opinion . deslroyod. Early in the following spring, these 

 at time prevailed, that the troublesome humors | maggots entered the pupa or chrysalis state, and 



ewith many persons were then afflicted, were 

 sioned by the bites of these flies; and it is 

 il that the straw beds in Lexington, being 

 1 to be infested with the same insects, were 

 rally burnt If any inconvenience really arose 



on the fifteenth of June, the perfected insects be 

 can to make their escape through minute perfora- 

 tions in the straw, which they gnawed for this pur- 

 pose. Seven of these little holos were counted in 

 a piece of straw only half an inch in length. The 

 sleeping on these beds, it is far moro likely I insects continued to release themselves from their 

 vo been occasioned by the bites or stings of | confinement til! the fifth of July, after which no 

 ilical insecta, than by those of any insect like I more were seen. Much to iny surprise they proved 

 lessian fly. That vast numbers of parasitical to be minute, four-winged Ichneumon flies, which 



are parasitical, or prey, in the larva state, on the 

 bodies of other insects. I had hoped to have ob- 

 tained the true culprits, the cause of the disease, 

 supposing that the latter were allied to the lies- 

 e disease in it begin to be visible by a sudden ' sian fly ; but these little insects, while in the larva 

 k ill the growth of the plants, and the yellow ; jtate, had destroyed them all, and, having finished 

 •of their lower leaves. If the butts of the I iheir appointed task, and undergone their transfor- 

 r are now examined, they will be found to be malions, now made their escape from the straw in 

 ularly swollen and discolored between the the winged form. The scientific name given to 

 nd and third joints, and, instead of being hoi- I this newly discovered parasite, was Eunjtoma hor 

 are rendered solid, hard, and brittle, so that rfji, go called from //orJeum. the Latin name for 

 item above the diseased part is impoverished, barley. It is very much like the parasite (Etirylo 

 ai seldom produces any grain. Suckers, how- \ ma dtslructor) oC the Hessian fly, described by Mr 



ts, closely resembling the Eurytoma dcstruc- 

 ome out of the diseased straw, will be shown 

 after. Mr Gourgas observes, that when the 

 V is about eifhl or ten inches high, the effects 

 I 



, shoot out below, and afterwards yield a par- 

 :rop, seldom exceeding one half iho usual 

 itity of grain. " It is evident," sayi .Mr Gour- 



Say, but is rather larger, of a jet black color, ex- 

 cept the legs, which are blackish, with pale yellow 

 joints. The head and thorax are somewhat rough. 



"that the soundness of the grain raised in a < md slightly hairy; the hind body ii smooth and 



polished. The femalo i.s ihirteon hundredtliH of an 

 inch long; the male is rathci smaller. Il often 

 moves by little leap.*, but the hindmost thighi are 

 not thickened. This minute insect is to bo rcck- 

 ned among our friends, being appointed, by an 

 ll-wiso and provident Creator, to check the in- 

 crease of the destrudive fly thai attacks onr bar-^ 

 y. Though disappointed in iny atlempts lo ob- 

 tain the lalter in its perfected slate, I hail with 

 pleasure the appearance of its mortal enemy. 



Although the barley-fly has not yet been seen 

 by inc, there does not exist the sinullest doubt in 

 my mind that it is a two-winged gnat, like the 

 Ilcssian-fly and wheat-fly. Any one who will 

 compare the history of the two latter with what is 

 kiioivn of llie barley inHoct, will arrive at the same 

 conclusion, floth the Hessian fly and the barley 

 insect attack the culms or straw of grain, which 

 they injure to a great e.\tent ; and both have a 

 simiUr r.nir-wingcd parasite npijropriated to them. 

 In addition to this Rtatcinent, the following conjec- 

 tures, in dcfimll of facts, may be oflered. It is 

 probable that the barley-fly is a species of Cecido- 

 myiit, distinct from the Hessian and the wheat flies. 

 That il is of the same genus may be conjectured 

 from its attacking similar kinds of plants, and from 

 its having a similar parasite. The maggots of the 

 Ilos.^ian fly live between the sheathing bases of 

 the lower leaves of the culms of ihe wheal; but 

 the barley insects are found wiiiiin the stems them- 

 selves, and lie concealed beneath the thickeoed 

 epidermis or outer skin of the straw. Upon this 

 essential difference in the mode of attack, I ground 

 my belief that the two insects are not identical ; 

 and this conjecture is still further strengthened by 

 the fact, that the parasite of the barley insect is not 

 the same species as that of the Hessian fly. The 

 barley midge (Cecidnmyin ) rercd.Uiij ol I'luropo, is 

 said to be very injurious in some. parts of (iermany, 

 to barley and spelt, in the straw of which the lar- 

 viE live in considerable numbers together, and by 

 their attacks cause the stems to become warty, 

 notched, and crooked, and afterward* to perish. 

 Bui till! accounts given of this kind of insect by 

 the Baron Kollar and others, do not entirely agree 

 with the liltle thai is known respecting our insect. 



We have reason to believe, that the maggots of 

 the barley-fly renmin in the straw during the win- 

 ter, and that they take the winged form in the 

 spring, in season to lay their eggs on the young 

 barley. Il is therefore important to prevent them 

 from completing their transforinalioiia. This may 

 be done by burning the stubble, which contains 

 many of the insects, in the autumn ; by destroying 

 in the same way, all the straw and refuse which 

 is unfit lor fodder ; and by keeping the grain in 

 close vessels over one year, whereby the insects, 

 which are disclosed from the small heavy pieces 

 of straw remaining unwinnowed from the grain, 

 will perish without an opportunity to escape. 



The insects that attack the musk-melon, it is 

 said may be readily destroyed by strewing a little 

 lime and soot over the plants. Sulphur is the best 

 remedy for the red spidei a hich attacks them. 



