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corn, excepting what may be done to kill the young 

 maggots or " flax-seeds " by dressings ; for this purpose 

 the use of lime, salt, or soot have been recommended. 



In regard to infested straw taken off the field, I am 

 informed by Mr. John Marten (quoted previously) that 

 it is found to answer well to stack this carefully after 

 threshing, well built up square and firm, like a hay- 

 stack, instead of throwing it anyhow ; thus a very great 

 proportion of the flies which come out of the " flax-seeds " 

 are destroyed, simply because they are not able to get 

 to the outside of the stack. 



It is dimcult to see how, except on a broad scale, by 

 arrangement like the above we can manage to meet the 

 difficulty of attack spreading from infested straw. In 

 any common way in which it is used it is open to letting 

 the fly escape from it, and it is impossible without very 

 severe loss to destroy it. The method of saving the 

 straw which places the greater amount of it in a con- 

 dition in which it cannot spread attack, whilst being 

 stored for gradual use, seems worth consideration. 



With regard to chaff and rubbish from the threshing, 

 we do not as yet know what amount of " flax-seed " is to 

 be found in them, and we need report from competent 

 inspection, so that we may know with certainty what 

 amount of "flax-seeds" are to be found in them. It 

 will be eminently desirable that infested chaff should 

 be mixed with wet manure, or destroyed as may be 

 most convenient as rapidly as possible. 



One of the most important remedies or means of pre- 

 vention of damage is hearty growth, which will carry the 

 young plant through moderate attack, or, if part perishes, 

 will carry the other shoots on ; and another is the 

 choice of hard-stemmed wheat. 



The evidence now coming in points to the possibility 

 of the " flax-seeds" being loosened, and more observa- 

 tions will shortly be sent in ; but meanwhile (see p. 16) 

 it is of the utmost importance, in threshing infested 

 crops, that the siftings taken from immediately below the 

 machine should be burnt. 



