724 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ON HILL SIDE DITCHES. 



the outer end of the grain, -vvhere they may be 

 seen with a good microscope or optic glass ; some- 

 times fo the number of" six or seven on one grain. 



They remain there till the grain is sown. The 

 warmth necessary to produce vegetation is suiB- 

 cient to animate the insect. It bursts its shell and 

 enters the shoot, where it lies in a torpid state till 

 the next spring, except in some instances when 

 wheat is sown early, the fly commences its rava- 

 ges in the fall : when this is discovered, the best 

 method is to turn sheep upon it and pasture it short, 

 either in the fail or in the winter. 



The most effectual way fo check the propaga- 

 tion, is in preparing the seed before sown, which 

 should be in the following manner : — Put your 

 seed into a hogshead, tub or vat, and cover it with 

 water; let it stand ten or twelve hours; then put 

 off the water, i)ut the wheat upon a barn floor, and 

 sprinkle lime over, and with a shovel, mix it till 

 it is well covered with lime. Let it remain in that 

 state about twenty-four hours, and the eggs will 

 be destroyed without any injury to the seed. 



The following brief sketch of the observations 

 which led to the discovery abovementioned, is 

 given, thatall who wish to be satisfied of the truth 

 of it, may have ocular demonstration of the fact, if 

 they will take the trouble. On viewing several 

 grains of wheat in a nucroscope, something resem- 

 bling the eggs of insects was observed upon them ; 

 twenty grains were selected with those appearances; 

 they were put upon some raw cotton and a little 

 earth in a tumbler of water, and observed every 

 day ; and on the day the grain opened and put 

 forth its tender fibre, the insect burst from its shell 

 and was not to be seen. 



Ten days after, five of the grains with their 

 roots and blades, were taken from the glass and 

 carefully examined. In three of tliem the insects 

 were found. The other fifteen remained, and over- 

 spread the top of the glass. They were preserved 

 till spring, when, on examining, every stalk had 

 an insect in it, some two, and one had four. 



Twenty other grains were selected, and the 

 lime applied for twelve hours. It was then washed, 

 and the color of the eggs was changed, and being 

 put into a glass, in like manner as the other, the 

 wheat grew, but the eggs did not produce. The 

 roots were transplanted and grew well, and ten 

 bushels of wheat, limed as above, produced a good 

 crop, while the neighboring fields suffered mate- 

 rially, and some were almost wholly destroyed by 

 the fly. Jl farmer of Bucks Co. Pa." 



The fact stated in the above communication, in- 

 duced me fo believe it probal)le, that the egg of 

 the fly might be deposited on the soft grain ; and 

 an occurrence eight years past, tended, as I think, 

 to strengthen this notion. Having sowed a small 

 part of my wheat in September, ten days after its 

 appearance, being struck Avith its unhealthy ap- 

 pearance, I discovered, on examination, the mag- 

 got of the fly to abound, frequently six and eight 

 to a spire; and by actual measurement, found at 

 the least, one-third of the maggots two inches be- 

 low the surface. At that time I considered it im- 

 probable, that all the eggs, producing these mag- 

 gots at such a depth, had been deposited on the 

 leaf or stalk, and that the maggots had crawled 

 down thus low. A confirmation of this notion is also 

 derived from a fact communicated by an intelligent 

 and highly respected acquaintance, viz. that he has 



seen a chrysalis (in the " flaxseed state,") in the 

 interior of a grain of wheat. 1 however admit 

 that many, very many of the eggs are deposited 

 on the growing wheat : but they may derive their 

 origin from the preservation of eggs deposited in 

 the soft w heat grain ; and if so, any mode of destroy- 

 ing them in the grain, prior to seeding, will be 

 found highly beneficial. Being but an indolent 

 farmer, I have only once tried the plan of the 

 Pennsylvania farmer ; but neither soaked the 

 wheat as long, nor suflered the wheat mixed with 

 lime to lay as long as the receipt directs ; but the 

 fly did not abound in the croji from this seed, to 

 the extent of former years. 



The 6lh No. also contains two articles on wee- 

 vil, and I briefly state flicts within my own know- 

 ledge, which seem clearly to prove, that the eggs 

 of both species, are sometimes deposited on the 

 growing grain. Many years ago, my father had 

 planted a few grainsof wheat of different varieties, 

 to test their respective merits; and the product, 

 when gathered, being rubbed out, was tied up in 

 paper, deposited in a barrel of leaf tobacco about 

 ten inches below the surface; and when taken out 

 for seeding, one paper, I well remember, contained 

 black weevil. I have several times selected from 

 the field and rubbed out, on the same day, fine 

 looking heads of wheat, in order to improve the 

 crop by selected seed — tied up the grain in paper, 

 deposited in a drawer of a desk placed in my din- 

 ing room, and never unlocked but by myself, and 

 yet the gray weevil has been often found in these 

 samples. I have also frequently seen the shucks 

 of flint corn perforated by the gray weevil, when 

 standing on the stalk, in the month of October. 

 I will venture to state one more fact as to cheat. 

 My father-in-law, Col. John T. Woodford, re- 

 moved to Kentucky in 1S20, where he purchased 

 a tract of land, containing a timothy meadow. In 

 the fall of 1832, he visited me, and related, after 

 hearing a conversation on this vexed question, the 

 following fact. This meadow had been in timothy 

 from 1817, had never iTeen seeded in wheat from 

 that period, had been grazed in the fall and winter 

 regularly by cows, and had every year brought 

 fine crops of hay, untd 1831. In this year, the 

 meadow was indeed capricious, for it brought 

 cheat, and he said a greater growth of wheat 

 was never seen by him. In 1832, however, it 

 quietly returned to its old habits, and brought a 

 very heavy crop of timothy. 



Your readers will of course decide for them- 

 selves as to the cheat controversy ; for myself, I 

 have long been of opinion, that the Deity provided 

 seed, "each after its own kind," and that when 

 circumstances are favorable, or the reverse, that 

 seeds vegetate, or continue dormant. 



JOHN TAYLOK. 



Caroline, March 30th, 1834. 



ON HILL SIDE DITCHES. . 



To the Editor of the P'armers' Register. 



Having just returned home from a small jaunt 

 of eighty or an hundred miles, I find my table 

 covered with many newspapers and several peri- 

 odicals. Amongst them is the Farmers' Register; 

 upon looking into the table of contents of which, 

 I was directed to a piece headed " On hill side 

 ditches, to prevent the washing of broken land." 



Knowing the great utility of these ditches, from 

 an experience of four or five years, and being ex- 



