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15. Burning and plowing up the wheat stubble.—This measure 
was originally proposed by judge Havens, and has been unani- 
mously approved of and strongly urged by several of the most 
intelligent writers since. Indeed, a slight examination can scarce- 
ly fail of impressing upon every one its utility, independent of 
the sanction of authority. Whoever will at or soon after harvest 
inspect the stubble of a field that has been badly infested by the 
Hessian fly, will find these insects in their flax seed state lying 
one, two, three or more, at the joints of perhaps half the straws 
of the field. What a trifling labor, or rather what a pastime will 
it now be to set fire to this dry stubble and hereby inevitably con- 
sume countless thousands of these destroyers. This point appears 
so plainly evident, that no one we think will hesitate in pro- 
nouncing this remedy decidedly the most important and valuable 
of all. But a thought breaks in upon us, of such fearful import, 
that fancying we see the burning brand extended, in an instant 
more to send a sheet of vivid flame, leaping, hissing, and crack- 
ling over the fated field, we involuntarily shout 
**Stop! or thy tread is on an empire’s dust!” 
of a truth, what a short sighted mortal is man, and how often are 
the words of the poet verified, that “a little knowledge is a dan- 
gerous thing.” Seeing his enemy chained to the stake, he ex- 
ultingly rushes at once to fire the faggots, and lo, a dozen of his 
friends are immolated upon the same pyre! Is it not a fact, that 
whilst by this measure we consume the Hessian fly by hundreds, 
we inevitably destroy its mortal foes by thousands? And that 
the very means which we thus resort to for averting a future ca- 
lamity are the surest means that could be devised for bringing 
that calamity upon us! If nine tenths of every generation of the 
Hessian fly are destroyed by three or four other insects, who can 
calculate the value of the services which these latter are yearly 
rendering us. And who, then, will be so inconsiderate and ruth- 
less as to destroy nine of these useful parasites, in order to ex- 
terminate one Hessian fly! Yet this must in most cases be the 
result of burning the stubble of the wheat field. We commenced 
our account of this remedy impressed with a belief that it was 
