212 



NEW ENGLAND :faRmER, 



JANUARY 11, 1^37. 



[From the Albany Cultivator.] 

 THE CUT WORM AND HESSIAN PLY- 



The history ;iiul liahits of these devouring in- 

 sects, hitherto a mere matter of conjecture, con- 

 tinne an ohject of intense .solicitiitle to inquiring 

 farmers, and more especially the (iresent season, 

 inasmuch as their hopes and prospects of the corn 

 anil wheat crops, have been with little exception, 

 alike prostrated. American entomolofiy is in its 

 germ ; Mr Melslieimer, a Lutheran clergyman of 

 this State, may be regarded as the progenitor of 

 tiie science in this country ; he ptdilished a cata- 

 logue containing thirteen hundred and sixty na- 

 tive species of insects of one order or "roup, in 

 1S06 ; without descriptions or a historv of their 

 habits. Professor Say, has also been eni'nged for 

 many years in an unfinished work, describing 

 scientifically, the unnoticed insects of this coun- 

 try. Fortunately for the farmers, his occupation, 

 in its present extended march of improvement 

 embraces personages characterized by that n*lde 

 and disinterested zeal, which brings to the task an 

 ardor far superior to the sordid arid)ition of mere- 

 ly amassing wealth, too often at the expense of a 

 broken constitution and green old age. 



The cut worms are evidently the nnmerotis 

 progeny of some familiar insect. The question 



arises, to what species can they be attributed ? 



Some are led to conjecture, that they are propa- 

 gated by the order Coleoptera, or beetle; although 

 I have examined with some care, the several spe- 

 cies of the beetle tribe common in this country, 

 among which the pellet beetle is most numerous, 

 yet I have invariably found their larvas of pale yel- 

 lewish, or light brown color ; whereas the cut 

 worm is nearly black, and very difterent in its 

 habits. T!je conjecture, that the cut worms are 

 the larvfe of the beetle, or any oilier perpetual in- 

 sect, should be humbled by the single circum- 

 stance, that the cut worm is periodical in its de- 

 vastating visitations, and consequently can be the 

 progeny only of a periodical insect. 1 know none 

 of that character bearing a semblance of suspic- 

 ion, excepting the cicada stptembecem, of the or- 

 der hemiptera, genus cccada, and species of grilli 

 or grillus of hinn. (here very iin|!roperly misterm- 

 ed locu.st, for those visiting Europe and Africa, 

 whose history present a series of calatnities, in- 

 spiring allpeo|)le with sujierstitions horror.) The 

 American cicada is remarkable for its regular and 

 simultaneous reapfiekrance every seventeen years 

 in countless millions. They appeared here in 

 1817 and 18.34, several years succeeding each of 

 those dates, have been marked by the destruction 

 of the cut worin. .'\i)d as some of the cicada ap- 

 pear every year, we also find some, however few, 

 of the cut worm every year. It is ascertained 

 that the cicada deposite each from six hundred to 

 one thousand eggs, forming of course a numerous 

 progeny. 



This conjecture of mine, relative to the cut 

 worm, although strengthened by observation and 

 experience, yet should any of your observing and 

 enlightened correspondents offer nn idea more 

 plausible, the above shall be freely yielded not- 

 withstanding. 



Many practical farmers have prescribed reme- 

 dies to counteract the ravages of the cut worm, 

 stating the consummate success of t.ieir modus 

 operandi ; but it is matter of regret to know, that 

 an efiectual remedy is still wanting, to expel or 

 dislodge them when once in possession of the corn 

 hill. There are, however, preventivet, well wor- 



the the farmer's attention. The most efiectiial pre- 

 vention consists in ploughing sward ground inten- 

 ded for corn in autumn, previous to planting; but 

 if this be not convenient, a stubble field should be 

 chosen, if | loughed in the spring ; the rationale 

 or philosophy of the mode is simply this, the sod 

 beii/g turned np to the frost of winter, it becomes 

 so meliorated and consolidated by spring, (if well 

 ploughed) that there will be iiogreeii thingscarco- 

 ly of vegetiible kind left for the larvee of the in- 

 sect to subsist upon, and consequently they either 

 desert the field or perish. The same parity of 

 reasoning holds good for stubble ground, it being 

 also destitute of food, and thus affording the grub 

 no harbor. Another method, by means of which 

 I have entirely succeeded the present sjason, not- 

 withstanding the adjacent field of a neighbor was 

 wholly destroyed, it may not he amiss to notice. 

 The field was an old sod of timothy and clover. 

 Apprehending the danger of the cut worm, I de- 

 layed ploughing until aft r the first of JMay, to 

 give the grass a start, which grew strong, and was 

 ))longhed under, designing it as food for the cut 

 worms ; my expectations were realized, the corn 

 was scarcely touched by the worms, and the green 

 grass, consisting almost wholly of soluble matter, 

 from present a]qjearanees, will be no detriment to 

 the corn crop, but vice versa. 



The Hessian F\y, cecydoinia destructor of the or- 

 der diptera, Wiis perhaps never more destructive 

 m the midille states than the present season. — 

 There is a discrepancy in the opinions of writers 

 on the history and habits of this insect, which 

 amounts to vagueness. One more point, however, 

 appears settled concerning it, i. e. it is entirely 

 mistermed ; instead of its being an exotic, it was 

 never known in Europe, while its ravages were 

 felt in America long before the revolution. The 

 tipula tritici of Europe, is in modern nomencla- 

 ture, termed cecydomia tritici, but known to be 

 very different from our c. destructor in many res- 

 pects. 



When the f]y first made its appearance in Long 

 Island, in 1776, its ravages threatened the total 

 abolition of the culture of wheat. An alarm was 

 excited in England, that the fly would be impor- 

 ted in cargoes (d' wheat from this country. After 

 the subject had occnpieil the privy council and 

 Royal Society for some time, during which, de- 

 spatches were forwarded to his majesty's ministers 

 abroad, and expresses were sent to all the custom 

 houses, to search the cargoes, a mass of infornm- 

 tion was collected and published, which, instead 

 of affording any correct information, served only 

 to prohibit ths importation of American grain. 



It is to be doubted whether tlie fly ever was, or 

 ever will be, the primary cause of failure of the 

 wheat crop. The season was the primary, and 

 the fly merely th : secondary, cause of failure the 

 present year. There are suflicient quantities of 

 seed-wheat infected every year by the fly, to pro- 

 duce a great devastation, if aidjfl by the season. 

 There were still fields in this region, the present 

 season of failure, which by good soil and culture, 

 grew on undiminished by the warm drought of 

 May. I harvested one field of twelve acres, low 

 land, which, from facts alreaily ascertained, will 

 average upwards of thirty bushels an acre ; when 

 in an adjacent field of high southern asjiect, 

 (which bore on much of its surface less than half 

 the quantity of snow which lay on the former, all 

 winter and much later in the spring than the lat- 

 ter, which I note as an evidence that the wheat 



pant is never injured by snow, while the rye suf- 

 fers much, it is remarkable to see writers not 

 name the drought of May as the main or chief 

 cause of the failure,) though sown of the sama 

 seed precisely, yet there were not ten bushels to 

 the acre, being infested with the fly, while the 

 field above was entiri ly free. The field which 

 failed looked very fine in the spring after the snevv 

 disappeared, but was exceedingly injured by the 

 drought in May, and never recovered, giving the 

 larvce of the fly advantage of the sun and air to 

 complete its transformations, and juepare it for 

 destruction. Discoveries deduced from micros- 

 copic observations, as well as other reasons, com- 

 bine to establish the fact, that the fly deposites its 

 eggs within the glumes of the florets of the wheat, 

 in June ; and if the wheat be sown too eaily, the 

 larvsB may injure the wheat plant in the fall ; and 

 again, if sowed very late, the growth will be fee- 

 ble in the spring, and extremely favorable to the 

 transformation of the fly. In May, the young in- 

 sects are easily discerned by the naked eye, (hav- 

 ing grown from the nits de[)0sited in the grooves 

 of the wheat grain,) lodged in the bulb of the 

 plant, between the radicles and culm, or plumula, 

 in the pupse state, and soon after form chrysalis, 

 after which, they being now in the perfect state, 

 the young fly by means of its ovipositor, escapes 

 through the bulb of the plant, nearly even with 

 the surface of the ground, when the stalk, from 

 the injury thus sustained, falls to the earth, or 

 hangs pendantly over the adjacent grain. The 

 wheat grain, at that season, is generally in the 

 mil.-vy state, and the whole injured, by preventing 

 the maturing process, is of course valueless. W'hen 

 the flies are very numerous, their devastation may 

 be compared to that of a hail storm. If the hab- 

 its of this insect heclosely pursued, it will be found 

 that they are closely confined to the fulfilment of 

 the object of their destiny. After it escapes from 

 its terrene abode, it exercises its sexual privileges, 

 seeks the propagation of its species, and then, like 

 all insects, in all probability, dies. 'Jo recapitu- 

 late, if the eggs of the fly be not deposited on the 

 grain of wheat, so as to be sown with the wheat, 

 how can the pupa be formed in the bulb of the 

 root, completely encased by the ;;laiit in its growth, 

 forming, as it were, a close cocoon about them ? 

 This fact must he obvious to every one who has 

 examined the plant at the proper season ; this sin- 

 gle circumstance admitted, makes null the conjee- , 

 turc, that the fly is harbored about the stackyards, 

 in the stubble field, &c. I never knew a heavy 

 crop, or a field promising a heavy cro]) in the 

 spring, and free from other causes, to be injured 

 by the fly ; hence, if wheat fields continue luxu- 

 riant up to the season in which the fly commits 

 its dejiredation, they are never injured ; but if the 

 wheat, prior to that season, be retarded in its 

 growth, or shows the premonitory indications of 

 a light croj), then the fly may be expected to appear. 

 I have a remedy to suggest for the grievance ; 

 our efforts must be renewed to improve our lands ; 

 confine wheat growing to wheat land, instead of 

 straining soils never adapted to wheat,_to produce 

 it, and too often unaided by the only restoratives. 

 Whereas, if land, intended for wheat, be properly 

 cultivated, and sown in the most approved season, 

 after being well prepared by rich fossil and putres- 

 cent manures, there will be no other safeguard re- 

 quired against the ravages of the fly. 



\VM. TENN KINZER. 

 Sj)ri7ig Lawn Farm, Penn. Aug. 20, 1836. 



