GRAMINEOUS CROPS. 115 



Prevention. — (1) In those counties (Hertfordshire, Bed- 

 fordshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, etc.) where the 

 Hessian fly has been pretty active during the past three 

 years, it would be well for farmers, wherever possible, 

 to avoid sowing either barley or wheat late in the season. 

 Early-sown crops appear to resist the attacks better than 

 those late sown. (2) The stout stiff-strawed varieties of 

 wheat and barley resist the attacks of this pest better 

 than other varieties. Among the " resisters " may be men- 

 tioned the following : " chaff red," " square head," " stand- 

 up white," '' golden drop," " Rivett's red ; " and among 

 the barleys should be mentioned : " Kinver," " battledore," 

 " bere," and " awnless." The finer varieties of barley 

 {e.g.., " peerless white," " golden melon," etc.) have all 

 been infested in this country. (3) It is recorded that 

 wheat crops (which follow clover in a rotation) grown 

 upon a poor sandy loam, previously manured with fifteen 

 tons of dung per acre, followed by a top-dressing of two 

 cwts. of nitrate of soda and one and a half cwt. of salt per 

 acre in the spring, resisted the attacks of the Hessian fly. 

 On the other hand, a similar crop treated with the same 

 amount of dung minus the top-dressing of artificial ma- 

 nures "suffered severely from the attack of Hessian and 

 sawflies." (4) Corn and straw imported into this country 

 should be carefully examined for puparia (" flax-seeds "), 

 .and if found they should be burnt. (5) "In com fields 

 where ' seeds ' are not sown, the stubble should be cut as 

 high as possible, in order that the pupae may be left upon 

 it. Then at once after harvest the land should either be 



Great Britain ; Nowicki's paper in Verhandlungen der E. K. zoolo- 

 gisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, vol. xxiv. p. 355 ; Lindeman's 

 paper in Entom. NachT. xiv. p. 242 ; Enock in The Entomologist, vol. 

 xxi. p. 202. 



