258 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



JSifolr'^ I^ble. 



Aqency in New York. — C. M. Saxton', Agricultural Book Pub- 

 lisher, No. 152 Fulton street, New York, is agent for the Ge.vest-;k 

 Farmkr, and subscribers in that city who apply to him can have 

 their papers delivered regularly at their houses. 



AOK.N'CY IX CiN'cix.VATl. — R. PoST, No. 10 West Third street, Ciu- 

 cinnati, is agent for the Genesee Farmer, and subscribers in that 

 city who apply to him can have their papers delivered reguhxrly at 

 their houses. 



TiiK Wheat Fly, or "Weevij.." — Tliis insect has 

 caused great alarm in Western New York within the last 

 six weeks ; nor are we able to indicate tlie probable exteiit 

 of the injui'v done to the staple crop of our enterprising 

 farmers. The damage, however, is so large that many 

 will abstain from wheat-culture for a few years, until the 

 pest shall have passed by. In a recent visit to Cayuga 

 county, where the fly has prevailed longer than it has in 

 the Genesee valley, we found the brown Mediterranean 

 wheat nearly exempt from the attacks of this depredator, 

 while the different varieties of white wheat were nearly 

 destroyed. Plump Mediterranean weighs some four or 

 five pounds more per bushel than either the white flint, 

 blue stem, or Soule's wheat, and the flour of the former is 

 .'stronger" — that is, it will imbibe per 100 pounds more 

 water, and yield more bread than the flour of white wheat 

 — and therefore bakers in cities, who sell bread by weight, 

 like it. It has, however, a thick, hard bran, and the flour 

 is comparatively dark colored. It is better than no wheat, 

 but farmers in this region will reluctantly engage in its 

 cultivation. Kollar thus describes the wheat midge : 



" The Mlieat Midge, or Weevil. ( Tipula tritici, Kirby. 

 Cecidomyia tritici, Latreille.) — When wheat is in blossom, 

 it is sometimes attacked by a small fly of an orange-yellow 

 color, which lays its eggs by means of a long retractile 

 ovipositor in the middle of the blossom. When the eggs 

 are hatched, the larvae prevent the fructification of the 

 grains, probably by eating the pollen, and thus frequently 

 destroy some part of the harvest. The perfect insect has 

 a distant resemblance to the common midge, but is smal- 

 ler, being scarcely a line [one-twelfth of an inch] long. 

 The body is an orange-yellow, the wings clear and trans- 



CECIDOMTIA TRITICI. 



parent like water, and hairy at the edges; t!>e eyes are 

 black, the auteunce necklace-shaped, longer than the thorax, 

 find the feet rather long. 



" The larvffi jump on being touched ; they have no feet- 

 are of a citron' color, wrinkled or warty at the side edges ; 

 the head terminates in a point, and the posterior end is 

 truncated. The pupa is slender, pointed at both endn, and 

 of a reddish color. 



"The extraordinary smallness of this insect, botli in its 

 larva and perfect state, with the circumstance th.it the de- 

 struction of the wheat takes place when it is in blossom, 

 and that not all the ears on one and the same field are 

 attacked, allows of but little that can be etfectcd by human 

 aid against tins enemy of grain. The safest and almost 

 only certain means of diminishing such an evil for the next 

 year, consists in not sowing wheat again on the same field, 

 nor in its neighborhood ; for in all probability the pupa; 

 lie in the earth.* and will only become flies next year at 

 the season when the wheat is in blossom." 



Cattle From Texas. — Mr. James Gilchrist, of Fan- 

 ning county. Texas, lately delivered and sold 130 head of 

 fat cattle in the city of New York. This drove started in 

 April. 18.5:{, and consumed four months in reaching Illinois, 

 where they wintered, and were then driven to Marius, Ind., 

 and thence by cars to Cleveland, Erie, Dunkirk, and by the 

 way of the Erie road. This made about 1500 miles on 

 foot, and (100 miles on the railroad. The expense from 

 Texas to Illinois was about $2 a head, the owners campiing 

 out all the way. From Illiiiois to New York, the expense 

 was §17 a head. The drove came 500 miles through the 

 Indian country ; the owners purchased a part from the 

 Clioctaws. Part of the route was through the Kansas 

 Territory. 



The top of the drove, says the New York Tribune, are 

 good quality of beef, and all are fair. A lot of twenty- 

 one, short 8 cwt., sold to Weeks at $30, and a good many 

 others sold at 18c. These cattle are generally 5, G and 7 

 years old, rather long-legged, though fine-horned, with 

 long taper horns, and something of a wild look. Some oi 

 them are the descendants of a most excellent breed of cat- 

 tle for the South, originally imported by the Spaniards, 

 and generally known in all the South-western States af 

 Spanish cattle. It is said that the meat of this description 

 of cattle is fine-grained and close, somewhat like venison, 

 and apt to be a little tough cooked in the ordinary way, 

 and therefore not so good to eat fresh as that of cattle ol 

 a more dome.stic character. This wiU be somewhat changed 

 by purchasing them young and feeding them two years as 

 well as this drove has been fed one year. 



The owners are two youug men, who are entitled tc 

 considerable praise for their enterprise, as well as bringing 

 the first drove of cattle from Texas to the New York 

 market. They first earned the money to purchase, .and 

 have done nearly all the work themselves, and will make a 

 handsome thing of the enterprise. 



The Practical Mechanic's Journal. — For solid 

 learning and science in illustration of the mechanic arts 

 probably no other work excels the Practical Mechanic's 

 Journal, which is got up at no inconsiderable expense in 

 England, and republished, with an " American Depart- 

 ment," by Stringer & Towxsekd, New York. It is really 

 cheap at £3 a year to any one who has a taste to study the 

 principles of Mechanical Science. Civil Engineering re- 

 ceives much attention, while no branch of mechanics ap 

 l)ear8 to be overlooked. 



» Acnording to M. GoRRiE (Magazine of Natural History), aX\ 



the l.Tjva; h.ave quitted the cars of wheat and descended to the 

 eMrlli by tlie first of Aujjust, going into the ground to about the 

 depth of half an inch, where it is probable tliey pa.'vs tlie wintsr in 

 the pupa atate. 



