47 
any of the insects which invade our crops, any more than there is 
against those diseases which attack our persons. Still, believing 
this, we also believe that there is no noxious insect but what, when 
we closely study into its habits we can invariably discover some 
one or more ways of opposing it, by which we can with certainty 
to a great extent, if not entirely shield ourselves against its dep- 
redations. Thus is it with the insect under consideration. There 
is no remedy with which we can “doctor” it away—no charm 
with which we can say to it, “vanish, presto: ” yet there are 
measures, which employed, will guaranty fair crops, when if not 
resorted to, no wheat will be gathered. Of this fact we are well 
convinced, both from personal observations, and the concurrent 
testimony of a cloud of witnesses. 
A consideration of the various remedial measures which have 
been proposed, is therefore a subject of surpassing interest to every 
cultivator of the soil. We shall hence proceed to review them in 
detail, treating first of those, which, after a careful consideration 
of this topic, we regard as the most important. 
1. A rich soil.—This is a safeguard which has been strongly 
urged by almost every one who has written upon this insect. In- 
deed an inspection of different fields of wheat in a district where 
this enemy is present, cannot fail to impress upon the observer the 
utility and importance of this requisite. Other things being equal, 
the crops on impoverished lands invariably suffer the most. Hence 
those on sandy soils, which retain the strength of fertilizing agents 
less than other soils, have in numerous instances been remarked as 
most severely devastated. A striking contrast, even, may very 
often be perceived in different parts of the same field. The sum- 
mits of the knolls and ridges, situations where the soil is the most 
meagre, almost invariably show the greatest amount of damage; 
whilst the intervening hollows, to which the fertilizing matters 
are washed from the surrounding acclivities, sustain a compara- 
tively slight if at all sensible injury. Yet the latter situations are 
the very ones which insects of this family are known to be most 
prone to frequent, being more low, shady, and damp. There can 
be no doubt, therefore, but the fly is as numerous in the hollows 
