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evening, and sprinkled several of the heads with tolerably fresh air- 
slaked lime, until they were white with the powder adhering to them ; 
thus applying it far more profusely and effectually than can be accom¬ 
plished by any “ sowing” of this substance. With the light of a lan¬ 
tern, these heads were now closely watched, and the flies were ob¬ 
served to hover around and alight upon them as freely, and insert their 
ovipositors with the same readiness that they did upon the contiguous 
heads that were not thus treated. I deem this experiment sufficient to 
put to rest the much mooted question with regard to the utility of lime 
as a shield against the wheat-fly. 
A yet more prominent, and much more plausible mode of enabling 
the wheat to escape injury from the fly, is, sowing the seed at such 
times as will prevent its being in blossom at the period when the in¬ 
sect appears. With this view, it is recommended to sow winter wheat 
much earlier than was ordinarily done, that it may be so far matured 
the following season at the time of the appearance of the fly, as to be 
invulnerable to it; and spring wheat, so late as not to be in blossom 
until the fly has finished depositing its eggs. This plan has been much 
relied upon, on both sides of the Atlantic, and I have been heretofore 
disposed to regard it as probably the most feasible of any—though by 
avoiding Scylla we are in danger of Charybdis—for early sown win¬ 
ter wheat invites a return of the Hessian fly, and late sown spring 
wheat is almost certain in this vicinity to be attacked by “ the rust” 
(Puccinia graminis). Numerous instances, moreover, can be adduced 
which tend much to support the utility cf this measure. One of these, 
as strong as any that has come to my knowledge, I may here state. 
In a field of spring wheat of my own, raised in 1843, every kernel in 
the top of almost every head was entirely destroyed, whilst the lower 
two-thirds or three-fourths of the ears were wholly uninjured. I could 
account for this only by supposing that these heads were just begin¬ 
ning to be protruded from their sheaths as the operations of the fly 
were closing for that year ; and hence confidently inferred that if that 
wheat had been sowed a few days later, it would have escaped entire¬ 
ly, or a few days earlier, it would have been entirely destroyed. By 
a reference to my Farm Book, I find this crop was sowed April 26th, 
and cradled August 10th, but no note was taken of the time when it 
was in blossom. I must confess, however, that my observations the 
present season have greatly diminished my confidence in the time of 
