STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
855 
WHEAT MIDGE. 
with clover and grass. I select a spot a few paces inside of the 
south-east corner of the field. With shears I cut off the herbage 
smooth to the surface of the ground. I fasten down to the ground 
the mouth of a gauze net twelve inches in diameter, confining it 
by little slanting pegs driven into the ground. I heap a little 
ridge of dry sand around it, whereby no fly can crawl in or out 
under the edge of the net. I barricade it around with old frag¬ 
ments of rails, that no cattle may walk over and trample upon it. 
I go and inform the proprietor of what I have done, and why I 
have done it. He promises not to disturb the net, and hopes no 
mischievous boy will meddle with it. I think some flies .will 
hatch under this net; still, it may be that no larvae descended 
last summer in the exact spot which it covers. 
June 14. Going to the net, I see through the thin gauze that 
no flies have yet come out under it. 
June 16. The idea has been extensively entertained that a frost 
occurring just as the midge is about to appear, will kill it. Now 
I shall know if there is any truth in this conjecture. There was 
a pretty hard frost last night, cutting off beans and all other 
young tender vegetation. And to-day is so cold, after freezing 
out of my study this morning, I kindle a fire to make it comfort¬ 
able sitting there through the day. As nothing will hatch under 
the net in such weather, I do not visit it. 
June 18. Still cool. Nothing yet appears inside of the net. 
June 20. Last night was rather warm; so I was pretty confi¬ 
dent the midge would begin to hatch. And going to the net, 
after tea, I see two yellow flies resting on the gauze inside, which 
are unmistakably the midge. To-night is cloudy, with slight 
rain, and I see a single fire-fly sparkling in the dark air, the 
first I have seen this year. This is the best mark we have, to 
inform us when the midge flies are first beginning to appear. 
June 21. Cool and rainy. At sunset I find three more yellow 
flies in the net. I raise the edge of the net sufficiently to get one 
of them into a vial, and I destroy the others. The captured one 
I examine carefully, and am thus certain it is the midge which is 
appearing in the net. I sweep the wet clover with another net, 
and find it collects numbers of these flies, and the pocket magni¬ 
fier shows a large portion of them to be males. 
June 23. Mild, pleasant weather, and to-day warm, favorable 
to the hatching of insects. On going to the net, after tea, 1 find 
