52 
wheat fields, before the Hessian fly appeared in his vicinity; and 
as his crops were much less injured than those of his immediate 
neighbors, he attributes his escape to these causes. If there be 
any foundation for Mr. Smeltzer’s opinion, that certain varieties 
of wheat are fly proof, because their leaves grow horizontally in- 
stead of inclining upwards, assuredly by a repeated use of the 
roller every kind of wheat may be made fly proof. No doubt this 
measure is a judicious one, particularly on fields that are so smvoth 
and free from stones that almost every plant will receive a firm 
pressure by the operation. If resorted to, it should obviously be 
done at those times when the eggs are newly laid upon the leaves. 
After all, is not the efficacy of the roller, at least in part, owing 
to its loosening and dislodging the eggs from their position and 
causing them to drop to the ground, where the worm, hatching, 
is unable to find its way into the sheath of the young plant? This 
point merits investigation; for if there is any truth in the sugges- 
tion, sweeping the plants with a broom or some similar implement, 
will probably brush off much greater numbers of the eggs than 
passing a roller over them can do. 
5. Mowing.—Mr. Goodhue, of Lancaster, Wisconsin, in a com- 
munication in the fifth volume of the Prairie Farmer, suggests 
that the larve concealed within the bases of the leaves, may be 
destroyed by mowing the wheat, and feeding it to the stock. We 
deem this proposal a valuable one for exterminating the second 
or spring brood from a wheat field. In those cases where the 
worms are discovered in the month of May, to be fearfully nu- 
merous at the joints of the young stalks, there can be little doubt 
but that on smooth grounds the scythe may be so used as to take 
off almost every spear below where the larve are lodged; and 
that thus a second growth of stalks will be produced, quite free 
from these depredators. The following facts incline me to believe 
that on a fertile soil, wheat may be thus mowed, with little if any 
eventual injury to the crop. Portions of a field of my own, the 
past season grew so rank, that deeming it would become lodged 
and mildewed, by way of experiment a space in it was mowed 
down after the plants were two feet in height, and another after 
