1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 67 



north-easterly part of New Hampshire, I found the ravages 

 committed by this insect most extensive ; and, in some cases, 

 fields, which promised an abundant yield, were cut up for litter. 



These facts were seriously alarming, but an observing and 

 experienced farmer in the interior of New Hampshire, informed 

 me, that he had in two instances, prevented the ravages of the 

 fly, by the application of lime, as I shall presently explain. 

 Another farmer had tried this method with success, and showed 

 me in a field of rye a perfect demonstration of its efficacy ; the 

 part, which had been limed, was free from the insect, while that 

 part of the same field, to which no lime had been applied, had 

 been severely injured by it. Soon after this publication, a dis- 

 tinguished friend of agriculture in New York, expressed his 

 distrust of the efficacy of this preventive. But this was with- 

 out having fully tried it, and a few months before his lamented 

 death, he gave me to understand that his views on this subject 

 were somewhat changed ; and that he had received so many 

 testimonies from farmers, entitled to the highest confidence, of 

 its efficacy, that he could not gainsay them. 



The evidences, which I have received in the course of my 

 inquiries, being the result of the experience of several trials, 

 leave no doubt that the preventive, if not infallible, may be re- 

 lied on with strong confidence. The preventive consists in 

 giving the grain a thorough coating of newly slacked lime, 

 just as it is coming into flower, and while it is wet with dew 

 or rain. It may be necessary to repeat this ; but one applica- 

 tion has proved eflectual. 



The fly is seen at a certain season, hovering over the field 

 in thick multitudes. It is supposed he then deposites the germ 

 of the maggot, which in the form of a little yellow worm, resem- 

 bling a pepper-grass seed, are found afterwards in the heads of 

 the wheat after having entirely destroyed the grain. It may 

 not be easy to account for the operation of the lime. Whether 

 by its caustic properties it destroys the egg, or whether it pre- 

 vents the fly from alighting on the grain, or in what other way 

 it operates, are interesting inquiries, which close observation 



