Notes on the Cultivation of Tobacco. 
729 
seed,' found in the stems of wheat and barley plants. It may, therefore, be 
assumed that this insect will be of a double brooded habit in this country, as 
it is in America and Canada, and will attack wheat jilants in the autumn, 
and wheat plants and barley plants in the sprins; and summer. 
"The fly, as it has appeared lately in England, corresponds exactly with the 
descriptions of American entomologists, and eminent English authorities have 
pronounced it to be the Hessian Fly, Cecidomyia destructor (Say). It re- 
sembles a tiny gnat, being about the eighth of an inch long. Its body is 
brown, with the head and fore part of the body of a rather darker colour. 
The wings are grey, or smoke-coloured, and have long fine fringes around 
them, with peculiar veins characteristic of the Cecidomyiic. Its long horns, 
or antenna}, are like strings of beads. 
" As soon as the wheat plants are up in the autumn the flies will lay eggs 
upon them. Larvae, or little white maggots (Fig. 2), will be hatched from 
them and attack the plants, living on them until they turn to pupaj (Fig. 3), 
in which form they will pass the winter. Flies will come from these pupa; in 
the spring and deposit eggs upon wheat plants and barley plants. Larviv 
proceeding from these eggs will injure these corn plants in the manner observed 
recently near Hertford, Inverness, Pi^rth, and in Essex, and elsewhere. 
" Farmers, and espf cially those who are in or near districts that were infested 
this year, should watch their wheat plants in October and November, and 
examine them for larva3 between the stems and the blades. Should larvsv; be 
found, dressings of soot, or of soot and lime, or of guano, would check their 
operations. Wheat plants upon which larva? are seen in the autumn, or upon 
which pupa; are found in the winter, should be fed closely down by sheep in 
the early spring, if possible. Heavy rollings with ring or ordinary rollers 
would be advantageous. 
" It is most important to burn infested stubble or to plough it deeply in at 
once, to prevent the flies from being generated. In the case of ' seeds' where 
stubble is much infested it should be brushed off with poles, or even with 
scythes in bad cases, and collected as closely as possible for burning by means 
of ' dew rakes.' 
« CHARLES WHITEHEAD." 
" Uth September, 1886."' 
XXVIII. — Notes on the Cultivation of Tobacco in the North- West 
of Europe. By H. AI. Jenkins, F.G.S., Secretary of the Society 
and Editor of the " Journal." 
In 1782 the cultivation of Tobacco in England was finally 
prohibited by law, but after the lapse of rather more than a 
century, experiments are now being made with a view to ascer- 
tain whether, under the altered conditions of marine transport 
and the more refined taste of smokers, English-grown tobacco 
can compete in flavour with that imported from warmer climates, 
and thus realise a price which will make its cultivation and 
curing remunerative to the growers. The following are the 
regulations issued by the Ti'casury under which the experiments 
are allowed to be made : — 
VOL. xxir. — s. s. 3 b 
