PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 119 



Curtis gives the following description: 



" A. granaria (wheat phmt louse) inhabits corn crops, having been 

 observed upon barley and oats, as well as upon wheat. In July and 

 August it is sometimes abundant on the ears of wheat, sucking the stem 

 and impoverishing the grain. The male is green; horns very long and 

 black; eyes and three ocelli black; disc of trunk dark; tubes slender, long- 

 ish and black; nervures of wings pale brown; terminal cell semi-heart 

 shaped; stigma long and green; hinder legs very long; thighs (excepting 

 the base), tips of shanks, and feet, black. Female often apterous (wingless), 

 dull orange; horns, excepting the base, eyes and abdominal tubes ^ which are 

 stouter than in the winged specimens), black; legs blackish, anterior thighs, 

 and base of tibite, more or less ochreous. Numbers of the apterous females 

 are often seen dead, and of a tawny or black color, upon the ears of wheat, 

 having been punctured by a parasite fly, named Aphidius avence, which 

 escapes when it hatches, by forcing open a lid at the end or side of the 

 body. Ej)hredrus planiator is a similar parasite, bred from the dead females, 

 which turn black when punctured. 



"We do not know that ^nj means have been devised for destroying this 

 aphis. Smoking, which proves effectual with many of the aphis family, 

 would be out of the question in the field. Slaked lime in a powder has 

 been recommended for dusting the wheat heads, as also chloride of lime." 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — The aphis first appeared and attacked my spring 

 wheat last year. One of my neighbors had a field of wheat ; every head of 

 the grain seemed to be covered with this insect, and the owner thought it 

 was ruined, but it yielded twenty-five bushels an acre. All crops in my 

 neighborhood are now infested, but farmers are not as much alarmed as 

 they were last year. 



Buggy Peas. 



Mr. George Soule, of Warren, Ohio, wants to know how to kill the bugs 

 in seed peas. 



Mr. George H. Hite, of Morrisania, said that his practice was to pour 

 boiling water over them, which cleared them of bugs. The peas were 

 plenty the following spring, and they grew very well. 



Sugar in Wine. 



Mr. Solon Robinson read a letter from Mr. C. S. Middlebrook, in relation 

 to this subject: 



" I have read the remarks you made at the Farmers' Club, in June last. 

 From them I understand you object to calling anything wine that has had 

 cane sugar added, while you approve of the addition of sugar to the grape 

 by cultivation. Prof Mapes objects to the prize being offered for the best 

 wine unless he can be assured it has no cane sugar. If he cannot discover 

 its presence, and the wine is made better by it, what is it but prejudice 

 that causes his objection? Will you, in justice to the other side of the 

 question, give the inclosed remarks of Liebig as prominent a place as you 

 have your own opinion? I have made domestic wines eighteen years, and 

 fully believe in Liebig. Either Liebig or you must be mistaken. At our 



