336 FIELD CROPS FOR THE COTTON-BELT 



pinkish purple color. The seed-head consists of a cluster 

 of small bulbs varying in number from twenty to a hun- 

 dred. These bulblets get into the grain and greatly reduce 

 its quality. They can be separated at the mill by artifi- 

 cially drying the wheat, and then by passing it through the 

 ordinary cleaning machinery. 



412. Insect enemies. A large number of insects 

 feed on and injure growing wheat. Among the most im- 

 portant insect enemies of wheat in the cotton-belt are the 

 Hessian fly and the chinch-bug. 



413. Hessian fly (Cecidomyia destructor). The Hes- 

 sian fly is a small, dark-colored, mosquito-like gnat about 

 one-eighth inch long. There are four stages to each gener- 

 ation as follows: (1) egg, (2) maggot or larva, (3) pupa, us- 

 ually spoken of as the flaxseed stage, and (4) the mature 

 winged insect. The eggs are usually deposited on the upper 

 surface of the young leaf or in case of the spring brood they 

 are "sometimes thrust beneath the sheath of the leaf on the 

 lower joints." The eggs hatch into small pinkish larvae 

 which find their way down to the base of the leaf-sheath. 

 Many plants are completely killed in the fall when the larvae 

 begin to devour the diminutive culms before the plants 

 have begun to stool. In the spring the injuries produced 

 at the base of the first two or three leaves will cause many 

 of the plants to fall before the grain is ripe. This insect 

 is probably the most injurious insect enemy of growing 

 wheat in the cotton-belt. It is especially prevalent in the 

 Piedmont sections of North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Georgia, and Alabama. The principal preventive meas- 

 ures are as follows: (1) Late planting of winter wheat. 

 This is undoubtedly the most practical means of preventing 

 damage as wheat sown after the first frost will usually 

 germinate after the Hessian fly has disappeared. (2) 



