828 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
MIDGE. REMEDIES. HARDT SEED. LATE SOWING. 
the whole generation of these culprits, unless a part of them 
chance to be nurtured elsewhere than in the wheat. Impressed 
with this view of the subject, Hon. S. Cheever, A. B. Dicldnson, 
and other intelligent practical agriculturists of our State, have 
given to it their best t thoughts. On coming to learn from my 
previous Essay, that these larvae laid slightly under the surface, 
they have thought that by deep plowing they would be buried to 
such a depth that they would be unable to make their way up to 
the surface again. They accordingly have practiced this meas¬ 
ure, and are confident they have in this manner destroyed millions 
of these larvae, and have hereby materially diminished the de¬ 
structiveness of this insect on their lands. Now that we know 
these larvae do not lie naked in the ground, as wo have heretofore 
supposed them to, but wrap themselves in cocoons in which they 
remain closely bound up and fettered until they are on the point 
of changing to flies, it becomes still more probable that this mea¬ 
sure will be effectual, and that the pupa, on breaking out from 
the cocoon, being so illy adapted for locomotion as the insect is 
in this stage of its existence, will become exhausted and perish 
in its efforts to push itself upward such an unexpected distance 
to the surface. I am, therefore, more confident of the efficacy of 
this measure now than I have been heretofore. 
Of the other class of remedies, those which aim so to cultivate 
the crop as to resist or elude the attacks of this insect, it belongs 
to the practical agriculturist rather than to me to speak. This 
branch of the subject, moreover, has been so much canvassed 
among our farmers, and is so well understood by them, that no 
new information can scarcely be given them with respect to it. 
They all know how much their success in attempting to cultivate 
this grain, depends upon a selection of the hardiest varieties of 
seed, such as the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and sowing 
spring wheat so late that the most active period of this insect’s 
operations will be past before the crop comes into bloom. 
Brief summary of the foregoing account. 
J he Wheat midge (Cecidomyia Tritici, Kirby,) has been known 
in Great Britain for more than a century, and has occasionally 
been quite injurious to the wheat crops of that country. Within a 
few years past it has also been detected in the north part of Franco 
from the damage it was occasioning in the wheat crops there. 
