FARMERS' REGISTER—HESSIAN FLV. 



851 



SIMPLE METHOD OF DESTKOYING THE HES- 

 SIAN FLY. 



From the Canadian Courant. 



As the wheat crop, this season, has, in some 

 places, suffered considerable damage from tlie de- 

 structive effects of this insect, we are happy to be 

 enabled, by a valuable and obliging correspondent, 

 to publish the following directions for destroying 

 it: 



The Hessian Fly deposits its eggs on the wheat 

 ear before it is reaped ; the egg is so small as to be 

 invisible to the naked eye, but may be very dis- 

 tinctly seen with a microscope; sometimes one 

 grain of wheat will be observed to have several of 

 these eggs on it. They are attached to the wlieat 

 by a glutinous substance deposited around tliem by 

 the parent fly, by which they are held so firmly on 

 the surface, as not to be easily removed by the mo- 

 tion of reaping, thrasliing, &c. Shortly after the 

 seeds begin to germinate in the soil, the genial 

 heat of the season brings the young fly from its 

 egg in the form of a small maggot (as is the case 

 with all insects,) these little maggots deposit them- 

 selves at the root of the stalk, to the seed of which 

 the egg has been attaclied, between the stem and 

 the lowest blade or leaf, where they may be disco- 

 vered during the month of May and beginning of 

 June, quietly reposing ; here they remain until the 

 warmth of the season brings them to maturity, 

 when they commence eating the substance to which 

 they have been attached. It is not until this pe- 

 riod that those destructive effects are visible, by 

 the wheat becoming withered and blighted. This 

 accounts for the fact, that wheat which is attacked 

 by this insect, presents a healthy appearance in the 

 month of June, the month in wliich the embryo 

 fly begins to use food. 



Now it is evident that if the eggs of this fly can 

 be destroyed on the seed wheat, by any process 

 that will not also destroy the vegetative quality of 

 the grain, the ruinous effects will be avoided. — 

 This can be done by the following very simple pro- 

 cess : 



" Soak the seed wheat in water for twelve hours ; 

 spread it out on the barn floor, so as to allow the 

 superabundant water to escape ; then take fresh 

 slack lime, and mix it among the wheat in quan- 

 tity sufficient to have every grain covered with 

 the lime, taking care to stir the wheat well with 

 with the shovel, so that no particle may escape 

 coming in full contact with the lime, which, when 

 thus applied, will in a short time destroy the eggs, 

 and consequently preserve the grain from destruc- 

 tion." 



Our correspondent assures us that tlie egg, which 

 before the application of the lime appears clear 

 and transparent, afterwards becomes opaque, and 

 puts on the appearance of an addled egg. The ef- 

 ficacy of the above remedy has been established by 

 several experiments, one of Avhich we will here 

 relate. Wheat supposed to be infested by the Hes- 

 sian Fly, was taken, and one half of the quantity 

 treated with lime, and the other half was sown in 

 the same soil with the prepared, in alternate drills ; 

 the result was, that every stalk from the prepared 

 seed came to maturity and was productive, whilst 

 the alternate drills which had l)een sown with un- 

 prepared seed, were almost totally destroyed. 



The above remedy for so serious an evil cannot 

 be too widely circulated. We would recommend 



its translation into the French papers, and we 

 would thank the Cures of the country parishion- 

 ers, to have it made known at their respective 

 church doors after divine service.' 



[It is not because we have any crtnfidenc6in the 

 means of guarding against the Hessian Fly recom- 

 mended in the foregoing and the following articles^ 

 that we have selected them for publication — but 

 because we know that many among our readers 

 entertain similar opinions as to the origin of this de- 

 structive insect, and we wish to invite the expres- 

 sion of every opinion sustained by well attested 

 facts on a subject so important. The " wheat in- 

 sect," as it is called in the following letter, seems 

 to be a new destroyer of this crop, and though 

 now only known in the northern states, may, like 

 the Hessian Fly, overspread the south.] 



WHEAT INSECT AND HESSIAN FLY. 



From the Northern Farmer. 



Claremont, Sept. 7, 1833. 



Messrs. Editors, — Having suffered considerably 

 for two years past, from the ravages of this insect, 

 half of my crops, at least, having been destroyed 

 by them, I formed a resolution, that if it should 

 be possible, I would gain some more information 

 concerning them, than I had yet possessed. Ac- 

 cordingly, this season, I prepared a piece of ground 

 near my dwelling house, and sowed it with wheat, 

 that I might more conveniently make, at all times 

 and seasons, the minute observations necessary to 

 my design. 1 examined and watched, by daylight, 

 for the fly, which deposited the eggs of the wheat 

 insect on the ears ; but in vain. I could discover 

 the eggs, but nothing of the insect which deposited 

 them. I concluded it must be a work of darkness j 

 I therefore commenced a course of observations by 

 candle light. I now soon discovered the parent fly, 

 the cause of all this mischief to the wheat crop; 

 and had an opportunity to observe its habits, and 

 study its instincts. 



Soon after dark, the flies commenced, in great 

 numbers, crawling slowly up the stalk, from the 

 ground, and ascended to the top of the ear, where 

 they commenced depositing their eggs ; where a 

 single fly, in many instances, deposited sixty eggs 

 at a time. At the approach of morning, the flies 

 were again in motion, and descended slowly to the 

 ground, and disappeared. These flies are about 

 the bigness of the common house fly , but somewhat 

 longer, and more slender, and of a green color. 

 The ears of wheat, at this time, were only partial- 

 ly out of the sheath. 



Another important fact, which may throw some 

 further light on the habits of these insects, is, that 

 their ravages are most destructive on the borders 

 of the field. Though, in relation to small fields of 

 wheat, this may not be true, yet, from my own ob- 

 servation, as well as from information derived from 

 others, I am satisfied it is the fact in relation to 

 larger fields, so far, at least, as respects the present 

 season. This being the fact, it goes far to shoWj 

 that the embryo from which the fly is produced, in 

 the spring season, is preserved in the earth through 

 the winter, and, not like the eggs of the Hessian 

 Fly, attached to the grains of wheat; that the 

 worms remain in the soil of the wheat fields of the 

 last year through the winter , and as soon as hatch- 



