the Ravages of Slugs, Grubs, $c. 73 



to sow it with cole seed, on one furrow, to be eaten clown by sheep. 

 The treading of the sheep will effectually destroy the worm, and 

 the wheat may be sown with safety in November. But the sim- 

 plest mode of destroying wire-worms is, to delay ploughing till De- 

 cember ; for if the land is then ploughed, they would be exposed, in 

 a torpid stale, to the frost, and the inclemency of the season. 



That the reader may be induced, to pay more attention to this 

 branch of the inquiry, it may be proper to state, that according to the 

 most accurate calculation that has hitherto been made on the subject, 

 no less a quantity than 60,000 acres of wheat, in England alone, are 

 annually, either greatly affected, or completely destroyed, by this 

 noxious animal *. 



4. The WJteat Fly. But of all the injuries to which wheat is 

 liable, perhaps there is none more to be dreaded, or which is likely to 

 be more severely felt, than that which is occasioned by a species of 

 fly, whose depredations have been felt in other countries, as France, 

 and America, as well as Great Britain f . 



1. France. The depredations of insects in the district called the 

 Angoumois in France, are well known. They began their ravages in 

 one particular canton. They successively spread through the whole 

 of that district, and afterwards penetrated into the neighbouring pro- 

 vinces, particularly those which had any settled intercourse in corn 

 with the Angoumois. Grains that have appeared quite perfect, have 

 each contained one caterpillar. This is soon transformed into a but- 

 terfly, which becomes the stock of an innumerable line of caterpillars. 

 It is thus that so deplorable a calamity spreads so quickly. But it 

 requires a combination of several causes, (which fortunately does not 

 happen very frequently), to favour the increase of these little animals, 

 otherwise they would soon overrun any kingdom, and destroy the 

 food of its inhabitants J. 



2. America. The celebrated Hessian fly in America, is another 

 instance of the destructive effects of insects. It got the name of The 

 Hessian Fly, because it was supposed to have been brought over in 

 the straw-beds and baggage of the Hessian troops employed in the 

 American war, who were first landed, an. 1776, in Staten Island and 

 the west end of Long Island. It was there where the insect first 

 made its appearance, and thence it spread into the southern district 

 of New York, part of Connecticut, and Jersey. ID the countries 

 which it ravaged, the destructive powers of this insect are represented 

 as in the highest degree alarming. In some districts, it is said to 

 have so entirely cut off the produce, " that able farmers had not got 

 



* See Trans, of the Linnaean Society, vol. ix. p. 1 58. 



f A valuable paper on the wire-worm will be found in the Stockholm Trans- 

 actions for the year 1777. 



\ M. de Hamel du Monceau has written a work, entitled, " Histoire d'un 

 Insecte qui devore les grains de 1' Angoumois, avec les moyens que Ton peut 

 employer pour le detruire." Paris, 1762, 514 pages in 12mo. This work 

 details the advantages of all the methods hitherto proposed, for preventing the 

 ravages of weevils, moths, and every other species of vermin that attack corn. 



