No. 150.] 
363 
some similar implement, will probably brush off much greater num¬ 
bers 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 larvae concealed within the bases of the leaves, may be destroyed 
by mowing the wheat, and feeding it to the stock. We deem Ibis 
proposal a valuable one for exterminating the second or spring 
brood from a wheat field. In those cases where the worms are dis¬ 
covered in the month of May, to be fearfully numerous 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 larva; 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 waj of experi¬ 
ment a space in it was mowed down after the plants were two feet 
in height, and another after the heads had begun to put forth. 
Though not so early in ripening, the appearance of these two patches 
at harvest, indicated, so far as a single experiment could do, that 
wheat might be mowed at the former period without any diminution 
of its productiveness, whilst at the latter, both the straw and heads 
would be of a more slender and feeble growth. 
6. Fly proof wheats .—That there are any kinds of wheat which 
are perfectly “ fly proof,” (to use a common and expressive term,) 
as has been [sometimes stated, we wholly disbelieve. At times 
when the fly is so excessively numerous as to attack barley and rye, 
it is not probable that any of the cultivated species of the genus 
Triticum can entirely withstand its attacks. But that there are * 
kinds of this grain, that escape with little injury, when other kinds 
are almost wholly destroyed, is a well established fact. What the 
peculiar properties possessed by these varieties are, that render them 
thus singularly invulnerable, has nevir been investigated with that 
degree of accuracy, which so interesting and important a subject 
well merits. Mr. Worth supposes that fly proof wheats must have 
smooth leaves, affording no grooved or channelled surface to hold 
