VOL. xxir. NO. sa. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



413 



m H:irris's Treatise on Insects Injur. ous to Vegetation. 



THE WHEAT-WORM. 



Our agricultural papers coiilaiii some accounts 

 an insect or of insects much larger than the 

 ggots of the wheat-fly, growing to the length of 

 ee-eighths of an inch or more, and devouring 

 : grain in the ear utter it is harvested. The in- 

 ts to which I allude, have received the name.s of 

 eat-worms, gray worms, and hrown weevils ; 

 1, although these difltireut names may possihly 

 er to two or more distinct species, I atn inclined 

 think that all of them are intended for only one 

 id 01 insect. Sometimes this has also been 

 led the grain-worm ; whereby it becomes some- 

 lat ditficult to separate the accounts of its histo- 

 and depredations from those of the Cecidomyia, 

 wheat-insect. It may, however, very safely be 

 lerted, tliat the wheat-worm of the western part 



New York and of the northern part of Pennsyl- 

 nia, is entirely distinct from the maggots of our 

 leat-fly, and that it does not belong to the same 

 Jer of insects. From the description of it pub- 

 hed in the sixth volutne of "The Cultivator," by 



Willis Gaylord, this depredator appears to be 

 caterpillar, or span-worm, being provided with 

 elve feet, six of which are situated near each 

 tremity of its body. Like other span-worms, or 

 iometers, it has the power of spinning and sus- 

 nding itself by a thread. Mr Gaylord says it is 



a yellowish brown or butternut color ; that it 

 it only feeds on the kernel in the milky state, but 

 io devours the germinating end of the ripened 

 ain, without, however, burying itself within the 

 dl ; and that it is found in great numbers in the 

 laff, when the grain is threshed. He says, more- 

 er, that it has been known for years in the west- 

 ■n part of New York ; and that it is not so much 

 e new ap|)earance of this insect, as its increase, 

 hich has caused the present alarm respecting it 

 The transformations and the appearance of this 

 .sect in its perfected state, have not yet been de- 

 :ribed. Mr Nath'l Sill, ol Warren, Pennsylvania, 

 18 given a somewhat different description of it. 

 n threshing his winter-wheat, immediately after 

 irvest, he found among the screenings a vast ar- 

 ly of tills new enemy. He says that it was a 

 iterpillar, about three-eighths of an inch in length, 

 hen fully grown, and apparently of a straw color; 

 tit, whin seen through a magnifier, was found to 

 3 striped lengthwise with orange and cream color. 

 8 head was dark brown. It was provided with 

 :gs, could suspend itself by a thread, and resem- 

 led a caterpillar in all its motions. 

 It appears highly probable that Mr Gaylord's and 

 [r Sill's wheat-caterpillars are the same, notwith- 

 anding the difference in their color. Insects of 

 le same size as these caterpillars, and of a brown- 

 h color, have been found in various parts of 

 [aine, where they have done much injury to the 

 rain. Unlike the maggots of the wheat-fly, with 

 'hich they have been confounded, they remain 

 epri'datiiig upon the ears of the grain until after 

 le time of harvest. Immense numbers of them 

 ave been seen upon barn-floors, where the grain 

 as been threshed, but they soon crawl away, and 

 anccal themselves in crevices, where they proba- 

 ly undergo their transformations. Mr Elijah 

 I'ood, of Winthrop, Maine, says that the chrysalis 

 as bei II observed in the chaff late in the fall. A 

 entlemaii, from the southern ))art of Penobscot 

 ounty, informs me that he winnowed out nearly a 

 ushel of these insects from his wheat, in the au- 

 jmii of 1840 ; and he confirms the statements of 



others, that these worms devour the grain when in 

 llie milk, and also alter it has become hard. 



Thi'sse wheat-worms, or wheat-caterpillare, as 

 they ouglit to be called, if the foregoing accounts 

 really refer to the same kind of insect, are sup- 

 posed by some persons to be identical with the 

 clover-worms, which have been found in clover, in 

 various parts of the country, and have often been 

 seen spinnint.' down from lofta and mows where 

 clover has been stowed away. A striking similar- 

 ity between them has been noticed by a writer in 

 the " Genesee Farmer." Stephen Sibley, Esq., 

 informs me that he observed the clover-worms, in 

 Hopkinton, New Hampshire, many years ago, sus- 

 pended in such numbers by their threads from a 

 newly gathered clover mow, and from the timbers 

 of the building, as to be very trouhle.soine and offen- 

 sive to persons passing tlirough the barn. He al- 

 so states, that if he recollects rightly, these insects 

 were of a brown color, and about half an inch long. 

 I am sorry to leave the history of these wheat- 

 worms unfinished i but hope that the foregoing 

 statements, which have been carefully collected 

 from various sources, will tend to remove some of 

 the difficulties wherewith the subject has been 

 heretofore involved. The contradictory statements 

 and unsatisfactory discussions, that have appeared 

 in some of our papers, respecting the ravages ol 

 these worms and the maggots of the wheat-fly, 

 miglit have been avoided, if the writers on these 

 insects had always been careful to give a correct 

 and full description of the insects in question. 

 Had this been done, a crawling worm or caterpil- 

 lar, of a brownish color, three-eighths or half of an 

 inch in length, probably provided with legs, and 

 capable of suspending itself by a silken thread of 

 its own spinning, would never have been mistaken 

 for a writhing maggot, of a deep yellow color, only 

 one-tenth of an inch long, destitute of legs, and un- 

 able to spin a thread. When the transformations 

 of the former are known, and the insect is obtained 

 in its winged or perfected state, it will undmibted- 

 ly turn out to be a very different creature from the 

 tiny, orange colored wheat-fly. Until its trans- 

 formations are ascertained, it will be of little use 

 to speculate on the means to be used against its 

 ravages. 



Cutting Grain Early. — We are satisfied that 

 grain is very often left too long standing uncut in 

 the field. The risk of injury from storms is in- 

 creased — it does not handle so well, either in cut- 

 ling, binding, loading, or stacking — and shatters 

 out more. The opinion is pretty well established, 

 that when wheat or rye is cut early. — we mean be- 

 fore the grain is entirely hard, it makes quite as 

 much, and whiter flour, than if left till the usual 

 time. Since writing the above, we happened to 

 read it to an experienced miller, who is also a 

 good farmer. He says he is well satisfied that 

 early cut grain — that which is apparently quite 

 gr^ien — will really yield more flour, and is worth 

 several cents a bushel more than that which is suf- 

 fered to stand till the berry is thoroughly hardened. 

 — Farmer's Cabinet. 



BUTTER M.\KING. 

 A writer in the Fanner's Cabinet, concludes a 

 long review of the processes of butter-making in 

 ditferent countries, as follows. This writer says 

 that the milk and water is best worked out of but- 

 ter by the hands, and ho states that the Goshen 

 butter-makers clothe the hand with linen, which 

 absorbs the butler worked out, and prevents a con- 

 tact between the hand and the butter : 



" On the whole, then, though good butter, that 

 will keep sweet at least a year, may be put down, 

 without washing, during any pari of the grass sea- 

 son, yet we have sufficient evidence that most far- 

 mers of the interior fail to do so. The two car- 

 dinal conditions to ensure the best butler, are — in 

 mak\ng, expel the butter-milk ; in packing, frxciude 

 the (lir. The first is accomplished most certainly 

 by thorough washing with cold water ; the second, 

 by packing close in new casks, containing fifty to 

 one hundred pounds each, and made of white oak ; 

 the salt should be fine and of the best quality. The 

 butter should always stand twelve to iweiilyfour 

 hours after salting, and then be worked over, using 

 the linen clolh under the hand, til! all the salt wa- 

 ter, now collected in small drops, is absorbed : now 

 pack, and when the cask is full, add an inch of dry 

 salt, and head up ; or, if pickle be preferred to cov- 

 er the surface, boil and skim it first, and apply it 

 when cold ; keep in a cool place. It seems not 

 material to the keeping of butter, whether sugar 

 be added or not : saltpetre should never be used. 

 Though to make butter of the highest flavor, cream 

 should stand in Buniiner but twenty four honrg, it is 

 generally considered sufficiently often, if kept in a 

 cool place, to collect it three times in a week." 



Good Mviee. — Bury neither corn nor potatoes 

 dei'p ; both should lie on an easy bod, for the first 

 shoots tend rlownwnrd when the soil will perniil 

 them. When the earth is moist enough, an inch 

 of covering pressed down with the hoc, is belter 

 than more. — Selected. 



Zinc Vessels fur Milk. — The following extract 

 will show the danger of the practice of keeping 

 milk in zinc bowls, a ciisinm wliich has lately be- 

 come very prevalent in England, these articles be- 

 ing sold with the recommendation of producing a 

 larger quantity of cream, owing to galvanic action : 



"I would scarcely have believed," says Dr. 

 Elaines, of Berlin, " that zinc vessels could again 

 have come into use for holding fluids used for ali- 

 mentary purposes, as Vauquelin proved, forty years 

 ago, that such were certain, after a short time, to 

 hold a considerable portion of zinc in solution, and 

 this is poisonous. I have found by experi'^nce 

 that a solution of sugar, which had stood only a 

 few hours in the summer, in a zinc vessel, con- 

 tained a consideracle amount of zinc salts. It has 

 been often stated that the cream will separate 

 more easily from milk, if the latter be kept a short 

 time in a zinc vessel. As, however, it is known 

 that milk will turn acid much sooner than a solu- 

 tion of sugar, it is the more to be apprehended that 

 some zinc will he dissolved, and such milk will be 

 the more noxious, as it is well known that even a 

 small amount of zinc will cause violent spasu'odic 

 vomiting." 



Currying Cows. — Cows should be curried as 

 often as horses, particularly when they are shed- 

 ding their hairs. Independent of other consequen- 

 ces, it lends to prevent them from licking them- 

 selves, bv which they too olten swallow the hair 

 and receive injury. — Selected. 



Camphor for Cut Flowers. — .\ very small quan- 

 tity in water greatly exhilarates the flowers. 



