336 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
also of the Joint worm fly were Constantin tlieir 
colors, and not liable to vary, it became evident 
to me that these insects were not varieties of the 
Massachusetts barley fly, but were distinct spe¬ 
cies. I accordingly named and described them 
as such, two years since, in the Journal of the 
N. Y. State Agricultural Society, vol. ix, p. 115. 
And to these is now to be added a fourth spe¬ 
cies, this in the rye, which I propose to name 
the Rye fly, Ewrytoma Secalis. 
These four insects all affect the growing 
grain in the same manner, and are closely alike 
in their size and colors. They resemble small 
ants, black and shining, one-tenth of an inch in 
length, or slightly over. In all of them the feet 
are dull white, with their ends black, and their 
knees are dull pale yellowish. They are readily 
distinguished from each other, on carefully in¬ 
specting the color of the shanks of their for¬ 
ward, middle, and hind legs, with a magnifying 
glass, which will show them to differ as follows: 
The Black-legged, or Massachusetts Bar¬ 
ley-Fly, ( Eurytoma Hordei, Harris,) has the 
shanks of all the legs black. 
The Joint-worm Fly, ( Eurytoma Tritici, 
Fitch), has the shanks of the forward legs dull 
pale yellow, the others black. 
The Rye Fly, ( Eurytoma Secalis , new species,) 
has the fore and hind shanks dull pale yellow, 
and the middle ones black. Of this I have fif¬ 
teen specimens now before me. The hind 
shanks are dusky and less bright than the for¬ 
ward ones, but are manifestly paler than the 
middle ones. 
The Yellow-legged, or New-York Barley 
Fly, {Eurytoma Fulvipes , Fitch,) has all the 
shanks, and also the thighs, of a brighter tawny 
yellow, or pale orange color. 
These insects, I have no doubt, pierce the 
green stalks of the grain with their stings, and 
msert then- eggs therein, one in a place, just 
above the lower joints, and from these eggs 
come the worms which we afterwards find there 
on dissecting the straw.* The males are much 
less numerous than the females, and are usually 
smaller in size, and have the abdomen or hind 
body oval and somewhat depressed or flattened. 
Hence I have doubted whether these insects 
rightfully pertained to the genus Eurytoma. I 
have never met with the species described by 
Dr. Harris, till three weeks ago, when several 
were gathered in a rye field in my neighbor¬ 
hood. In this species the abdomen of the male 
is strongly compressed, and it fully presents 
other characters of the genus Eurytoma , which 
are less evident in the other three species. Thus 
this point, which has given me much perplexi¬ 
ty, is now made more clear. 
I have only time and space to add, that these 
insects, or at least a considerable portion of 
them, remain in their cells in the straw through 
the Winter, to come out the following Summer, 
as soon as the grain crops on which they re¬ 
spectively prey are sufficiently grown to be a- 
dapted to their wants. These Rye flies, which 
we see already matured and coming out of the 
stalks early in June, probably insert their eggs 
for another crop in the same grain, the insects 
from which will be lying in the straw when it 
is harvested and threshed. The swollen por¬ 
tions of the straw are so hard and brittle that 
they mostly break off in threshing, and some of 
* Since the above notes were written by Dr. Fitch, we 
have received additional specimens from Mr. Steck, ac¬ 
companied by an account of further observations, which 
fully establish the correctness of Dr. F.’s views. The 
eggs wore readily detected with a microscope, within the 
excrescence on the stalk. Mr. Steck says he was in er¬ 
ror as to the eggs being deposited on the leaf.— Ed. 
them are broken into such small fragments that 
the fanning mill is unable to separate them from 
the grain. And probably the most feasible mode 
of combatting and destroying these insects, is, 
to burn the straw containing them. Is it not 
practicable, at harvest, to cut the grain so high 
up that these swollen, knotty portions of the 
straw will all be left in the field ? If so, by af¬ 
terwards burning the stubble, all the insects 
therein can readily be destroyed. A. Fitcii. 
Washington CoN. YJune 18, 1861. 
The Seed Cut. 
This apparatus is recommended by a subscri¬ 
ber as a convenient box for sowing seeds. It is 
in common use in some parts of England, and 
takes the place of a bag or bushel basket with us. 
It is described as a box twenty four inches long, 
about eight inches deep, each side to be ten 
inches wide at the widest part and diminishing 
to seven inches in the middle, the shape being 
oblong, rounded at the ends and deeply indent¬ 
ed on one side, to suit the curvature of the work¬ 
man’s body. The materials might be such as 
are generally used in making cheese boxes. On 
the outside is attached a nandle, like the nib or 
thole of a scythe stick, by which the left hand 
steadies the implement, and on the inside is a 
hook to receive a ring attached to a strap, or 
web, slung over the right shoulder, by which the 
seed cut is suspended. From this description it 
will be seen that the moon in its second quarter, 
with the horns rounded, gives one a good illus¬ 
tration of this vessel. It would be a very con¬ 
venient article for sowing grain broadcast, and 
the hint is worth considering by manufacturers 
of agricultural implements. 
Potatoes—Deep and Late Planting- 
Large Yield. 
A. L. Folger, Rush Co., Ind., writes to the 
American Agriculturist , that he last year plowed 
and manured well a piece of land for potatoes, 
letting it lie until the middle of May, when it 
was thoroughly pulverized with roller and har¬ 
row. Deep furrows were struck out with a 
shovel (or double mold-board) plow, and large 
potatoes selected and cut up into small pieces, 
were dropped in the bottom of the furrow, six 
inches apart. These were covered with the 
plow nearly a foot deep. They were cultivated 
by running the double shovel-plow between the 
rows, and hilled twice with the hand-hoe. As 
the result, a portion was measured off and dug, 
and the yield was at the rate of 688 bushels to 
the acre ! He asks if any one can excel that. 
[The account would have been more complete 
and satisfactory, if Mr. F. had told us what kind 
of a soil he had, its previous treatment, the kind 
and amount of manure used, and the kind and 
quality of the potatoes grown. All these items 
are needed to make such experiments fully in¬ 
structive to others. —Ed.] 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Steaming Soft and Frozen Corn. 
As last Fall was wet and quite unfavorable 
for ripening the corn crop in this section, I had 
considerable that was unsound, and consequent¬ 
ly not fit for market. In order to dispose of this 
to the best advantage, 1 bought four tliree-year 
old steers, the 12th of last Dec., to fatten. I 
made a tight box bound with hoop iron, large 
enough to hold one bushel of ears. In the bot¬ 
tom several half-inch holes were bored, and on 
the top of the same, inside of the box, I nailed a 
piece of tin, punched full of small holes. This 
box was set on a common kettle filled with wa¬ 
ter, and placed on the cooking stove. In two 
hours steaming, although the corn may be some¬ 
what mouldy, it will become soft, cob and all, 
and smell like fresh green corn. I steamed in 
the morning, and let it stand in the box to feed 
at night, and fed it a little warmed, and sprink¬ 
led with salt; and then steamed at night for use 
in the morning. 
I fed to the above number of steers two 
bushels of steamed ears of corn per day for sixty 
days, and never have had cattle do better when 
fed on corn meal. I have fattened more or less 
cattle for several years, and always feed all the 
grain or meal they will eat up clean. 
Niagara Co., N. Y SUBSCRIBER. 
The Hydraulic Ram. 
A subscriber asks the following questions. 
1. “ Will a spring, the water of which runs in 
a | inch pipe be sufficient to drive a Hydraulic 
ram so as to raise the water fifty feet within a 
distance of twenty five rods, with eight feet 
head ?” Ans.- —Here are all the conditions for 
the successful working of a ram. 
2. “ How much water would be discharged in 
24 hours in such a case ?” Ans. —This would 
depend upon several particulars not given in our 
correspondent’s letter, as the length of the dliv¬ 
ing pipe, and the size of the discharge pipe, etc. 
It would be abundant for supplying water to the 
house, for all the animals kept upon the farm, 
with a surplus for watering the garden. A driv¬ 
ing pipe weighing 2 pounds to the foot, and | 
inch bore would be stout enough, and a discharge 
pipe £ inch bore weighing 1 pound to the foot. 
3. “ What will be the cost of the ram, and is 
there any better way of raising water ?” 
This is undoubtedly the cheapest method of 
raising water yet discovered. Messrs. W. & B. 
Douglas of Middlesex Co., Conn., manufacturers 
of rams, can answer all questions in regard to 
the size wanted, price, etc. The smallest size 
costs about five dollars without the pipes. 
Commissioner to the World’s Fair. —The 
Secretary of the N. Y. State Agricultural Soci¬ 
ety has been directed by the Executive Com¬ 
mittee to correspond with the Government at 
Washington, soliciting the appointment of a 
Commissioner to represent American interests 
at the great Exhibition to be held in London in 
1862. This is done with a view to secure a rep¬ 
resentation of our agricultural, mechanical, and 
industrial interests at the Exhibition, 
