362 
[Assembly 
watch the young wheat, as soon as two or three blades from each 
root appear ; and if the fly is discovered profusely depositing its 
eggs, sheep or other stock should at once be turned upon it, in such 
numbers, if possible, as to eat down the crop in a few days. The 
eggs will thus be destroyed, and the favorite nidus of the fly for 
continuing this deposite, will be effectually broken up : it will thus 
be compelled to resort to other quarters. The same process may 
also be repeated in the spring, if found necessary. No injury to 
the crop need be apprehended from its being thus grazed down, if 
the soil is of due fertility — it soon and entirely recovers from this 
operation. Moreover, if the soil is poor and impoverished, the fly 
will be sure to injure it far more than what the sheep will do. We 
cannot, therefore, but regard this as a most judicious and important 
measure, if seasonably resorted to. The intelligent wool grower, 
will scarcely require to be informed, that sheep taken from their 
ordinary walks, should at first remain upon the rank feed of the 
wheat field but an hour or two of a day. 
4. The roller— Passing over the grain with a heavy roller, is a 
remedy in commendation of which several writers concur, supposing 
that many of the eggs upon the leaves will thus be crushed. Col. 
Morgan was in the habit of both rolling and grazing his 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. Smellzer’s opinion, that certain varietes of wheat are fly proof, 
because their leaves grow horizontally instead 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, par¬ 
ticularly on fields that are so smooth 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 wmrm, hatching, is unable to find its way into the sheath 
of the young plant 1 This point merits investigation ; for if there 
is any truth in the suggestion, sweeping the plants with a broom or 
