84 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



only lately succeeded. It is the same way with pigeons. I found the 

 stock of nearly all the poultry fanciers mixed. 



Mr. Carpenter expressed himself in favor of crossing, particularly some 

 of the large China breed and black Spanish. 



Mr. John G. Bergen, of Long Island. — I have invariably traced the 

 disease called the gapes in chickens to feeding them corn meal recently 

 wetted. It should always be mixed a day before it is used; if not, it swells 

 in the chicken's crop, and causes the disease. I have pursued that course 

 for thirty years, and do not know that I have lost a chicken by the gapes 

 in that time; and I only clean my hen house once a year, so that the gapes 

 is not caused with me by not cleaning the roost. 



Mr. R. G. Pardee spoke of a Jersey lady who has very fine success in 

 raising chickens, who is very careful not to feed them meal recently mixed 

 Avith water. For young chickens she prefers crumbs of stale bread to any 

 other feed. This year she set a hen upon twenty-two eggs, and raised 

 twenty-two chickens; another upon eighteen and raised seventeen; another 

 upon fifteen and raised fourteen. It is a common fault with those who 

 keep poultry, that they try to keep too many sorts at the same time. It is 

 just as foolish for a person to try to keep all the varieties, as it is to try to 

 raise all the kinds of strawberries in one garden, I was in one the other 

 day where the owner had thirty kinds of strawberries. It would be much 

 better for him to confine himself to two or three of the best sorts; and it 

 would be much better for any person who keeps fowls to select the best 

 variety for laying, and keep no other. 



Mr. Weaver. — I do not think the Dorkings the best layers, but they have 

 some other good qualities which make them valuable. They are fair layers, 

 good mothers, grow to a good size, and are excellent for the table. 



The Hessian Fly in Iowa. 



Mr. Solon Robinson read a letter from D. W. Thynne, Lyons, Clinton 

 county, Iowa, with specimens of the larvaj of an insect which is destroying 

 the growing wheat crop in that State. He says: 



" I herewith send you for your inspection, and that of persons skilled in 

 the science, a specimen — say three or four of them — of a species of grub 

 that threatens to devastate this section of country, and leave us entirely 

 destitute of as promising a wheat crop as we have harvested in years gone 

 by. From the ravages already committed by this insect, hundreds of acres 

 are being plowed up for corn that promised a fair yield of wheat but ten 

 days ago. On entering the wheat field, the blighted stems are quite 

 discernible, as they are wilted, drooped and faded. On pulling down the 

 leaves, the insect can be found between the outer leaf and the stem, gen- 

 erally on the crown of the root. If some philanthropist, on seeing those 

 grubs, should publish a speedy remedy for their destruction, he will be the 

 means of saving countless acres of the great ' staff" of life.' " 



Dr. Trimble. — These specimens are very imperfect, but I believe they are 

 the larv» of the Hessian fly — an insect that has long been a dread to wheat 

 growers. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — The descriptiori of it given by the letter writer corres- 



