CHAP. III. 



PESTS OF THE WHEAT CROP. 



945 



results until the new kind has undergone a satisfactory comparative 

 trial. 



Wheat is liable to the attack of numerous insect pests. The roots 

 are infested by wire- worms and leather- jackets ; the stems and leaves 

 suffer from the ravages of the gout fly, the corn saw fly, the wheat bulb 

 fly, and the Hessian fly ; whilst the ears and grain are preyed upon by 

 the grain aphis, the corn thrips, and 

 the orange-coloured maggot of the 

 wheat midge. The Hessian fly 

 (fig. 440) attacks both wheat and 

 barley (fig. 441), but it has not 

 hitherto proved anything like so 

 destructive a pest in Britain as it 

 has in North America and on the 

 European continent. Our illustra- 

 tions of this and of several other 

 pests are taken from Miss E. A. 

 Ormerod's " Manual of Injurious 



Fig. 440. Hessian Fly. 



Cecidomyia destructor (the small figures 

 shew the natural size). 



Fig. 441. Barley-stem attacked by 

 Hessian Fly. 



1, bent down ; 2, showing the chrysalids, or 

 " flax-seed " stage. 



Insects" (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co.), which valuable treatise 

 we unhesitatingly recommend to the notice of cultivators who wish to 

 know the best practical means for the prevention and remedy of insect 

 attacks. 



BARLEY. Greater skill is required to grow barley than to cultivate 

 any other of the cereal crops. The chief object should be to secure 

 a perfectly uniform mature sample, for without uniformity it is 

 impossible for the maltster to convert the barley into malt to the best 

 advantage, that is, so that he may get it into such condition that the 

 brewer may be able to obtain the maximum quantity of saccharine 

 matter from it. To ensure uniformity of sample, every operation from 

 the time of feeding off the crop of roots, which probably precedes the 

 preparation of the land for the barley, until the grain is finally sacked 

 up to go to market, must be carried out with this view : a mistake 

 at any period may spoil the crop. 



Barley commonly follows roots or potatoes, but it may follow almost 



3 P 



