August 25, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
175 
milk owing to a scarcity of green food for their cows, yet 
failing to avail themselves of a means so simple and sure. 
About the cost? Of course, we take that fully into 
account, and a little consideration will show that the 
outlay for manure, water cart, and due provision for 
water storage is both wise and profitable. 
We desire also to call especial attention to the value 
of Lucerne, and we do so with feelings of regret and sur¬ 
prise that its value as a forage plant is so little recognised. 
Here is a plant of most easy culture, a hardy perennial, 
quickly established, and rooting so deeply down into the 
soil as to be literally drought proof, continuing to yield 
growth after growth throughout such a hot dry summer 
as this is, and yet fields of it are few and far between. 
Why this useful and invaluable plant is so much neglected 
passes our comprehension. We have known it intimately 
for upwards of thirty years, and yet even now farmers 
generally cannot be aware of its real value as green or dry 
forage for all the live stock of a farm. It should always 
be sown in drills so as to be kept clean by a horse 
hoe, and be heavily manured every spring. So kept 
clean and fed it may be left down from six to twelve 
years. The first piece we remember was grown specially 
for horses, and so valuable was it in the opinion of a 
certain noble lord that the soil between the rows was 
regularly broken up by digging forks every winter. It 
was mown four or five times between spring 2 nd autumn, 
and the gross bulk per acre must have been many tons. 
Since then we have seen it growing both in rows and 
sown broadcast, and have invariably found it answer best 
in rows, the broadcast plots becoming so foul with weeds 
as to be comparatively worthless after the third year. For 
sheep folding it answers admirably, being as sound and 
wholesome for them as Sainfoin, and they can be taken 
upon it again and again for a full bite, when the other pas¬ 
tures are brown and bare. It is usually sown in early 
spring, and then affords one or two crops before growth 
ceases; but there can be no reason why it should not be 
sown as late as July or August if due care be taken to 
have the tender growth eaten off early in October. 
A calcareous subsoil is considered best for it, but so 
far as our experience goes we have reason to suppose it 
will answer in most soils. Far better is it to devote a 
field or two to so useful a crop as this than to waste land 
upon such a worthless plant as Prickly Comfrey. Let it 
not be thought, however, that these remarks are meant 
solely for the speculative or fanciful amateur. It is to 
the practical farmer, keen to turn every foot of his land 
to account, that we say Lucerne is a plant that should 
have a leading place among forage crops, and take rank 
with the best of them. We have shown cause why it 
should do so, and are very sure that no one will have 
reason to regret following our advice in this matter. It 
is as green food in summer that we value it most especi¬ 
ally in a time of drought, but there can be no doubt that 
as hay it is highly nutritious for horses. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME EARM. 
That much of the plant of young layers has been destroyed by the 
drought there can be no doubt, and much Clover will have to be sown 
immediately after harvest to make good such losses. We have even 
heard inquiry made for Sainfoin seed for immediate sowing. Our own 
young Sainfoin has withstood the effects of the drought very well, but 
we are anxious about some permanent pasture sown in spring with corn. 
The plants came up well enough, but it has been a difficult matter to 
see any of them for the last month on the heavy land, and where the 
surface has contracted and cracked much many plants must be lost. 
The clearance of corn from the land will be followed as quickly as 
possible by the preparation for sowing green crops for late autumn and 
early spring use. Trifolium incarnatum is already sown. Where this 
has not been done let not a day be lost in doing it, for late sown Tri- 
folium is generally a failure. It is because we have had such failures 
in our own practice more than once that we warn our readers to sow 
quickly or not at all. For Trifolium to pass through winter in safety 
there must be a strong sturdy plant covering the surface in October. 
If the plant is so small as to be seen with difficulty, the crop may be 
considered a failure. Select a clean stubble, wffiich if left long should 
be cleared by harrowing, then sow the seed broadcast, and pass the 
harrows over again once or twice. If the surface is so coarse as not to 
cover the seed, well crush it with a light Barley roller, and finish with 
another turn of the harrows. Where enough rain has fallen to moisten 
the surface to a depth of a few inches stubble Turnips should be sown 
extensively. No doubt the roots from such sowingsi will be small, 
but they will prove very useful for sheep and lambs in early spring 
before the Rye is ready. On one of our farms the Swede plant is 
numerous enough, but is so backward that the lambs will be turned 
upon it to consume what growth there is at once, and the land will be 
ploughed for early Wheat sowings. Other land, which was prepared 
for early white Turnips, could not be sown at all, and will also be' 
turned to account for Wheat. Sowings of Rape and Mustard made now 
will probably afford a useful supply of green food late in autumn for 
the flock. Any such crops will enable us to save the grass for the 
lambing. Lamb tups should be procured not later than the first week 
in. September. They are low in price this season, excellent animals 
being sold for £2 apiece. 
THE HESSIAN FLY (CECIDOMYIA DESTRUCTOR). 
The British farmer has been talking of the Hessian fly ever since the 
period of the American Revolution in the days of good King George, 
and it is hard upon him that the insect should actually appear on these 
shores now, at a .time when the agricultural interest is so depressed, 
though it is Queen Victoria’s Jubilee year. But it was observed to occur 
in more than one locality last year, though' some entomologists had a 
doubt whether another species had not been mistaken for this notable- 
fly ; for in the same group of insects are several, also foes of the cereal 
crops, and in appearance, or even in habits, not unlike the much- 
dreaded pest. We may accept it, however, as an incontrovertible fact, 
that up to the year 1886 none but straggling specimens occurred in, 
England (if any), though the insect has been known as one of the most 
destructive amongst the “ blights of the Wheat ” for just a century. It 
should be stated, perhaps, that the appellation of the “ Hessian fly ” 
arose from a notion that the German mercenaries brought the plague- 
into the United States, but this w r as proved to have been impossible. 
From 1786 onward, however, the Hessian fly has caused enormous 
destruction of corn in the American Continent, and extended itself over 
a great part of those regions where grain is an important crop. It has 
been conjectured that the primitive habitat of the fly is on the borders 
of Europe and Asia— i.e., about the shores of the Mediterranean, but 
this appears to me very unlikely, seeing that it was first found to be 
doing mischief in America, and I would rather assign it to that country. 
In Europe there is no record of its occurrence until 1834, in Minorca, or 
possibly 1833, in Hungary ; it is reported from France, Austria, and 
other countries now, the South of Russia being the last where it has 
caused alarm, but in the Old World as yet the injury done is trifling 
compared with the New, and all the researches of the American scientists 
and the persevering efforts of growers have failed to put an effectual 
check on its yearly propagation and ravages. 
Having thus touched briefly upon its general history I proceed to- 
describe the s'ructure and habits of this fly, called in science, very aptly, 
Cecidomyia destructor, and we have the advantage of Mr. Meade’s, 
examination of British-bred specimens, as recorded in the “ Entomolo¬ 
gist.” The perfect insect has the head and eyes black and hairy, the- 
antennae are rather long and brownish, the proboscis small and pink, the- 
thorax black, with two red streaks running from the neck to the base of 
the wings, the abdomen reddish brown, with regular black spots, which 
coalesce in some specimens, the legs pink, sprinkled with blackish hairs, 
the wings, transparent as usual, are also hairy. In the male flies the 
wings are longer and appear of a reddish tinge, and the legs are paler, 
but the females, on the whole, are the larger, and they seem to be more 
abundant than the males. The number of eggs laid by each female has 
been variously stated between ten and fifty ; probably the small estimate 
is nearest to the average, if the size of the egg is correctly reported. 
Like the larva of all flies, the maggot of the Hessian fly is legless, but it 
has just below the head a curious process or appendage, which the 
American observers call the “ breastbone.” It is found in several species 
of Cecidomyia ; the use is not known positively, but no doubt this in 
some way aids the larva in acquiring its food, the mouth organs being 
somewhat feeble. This maggot is oval and glossy, with the head not 
very discernible ; its skin dotted over by a number of tiny tubercles, in 
colour white or greyish. To the chrysalis or pupa the name of flax-seed 
is familiarly applied, from its likeness to that object. This, however, is- 
really the cast-off integument of the maggot, forming a puparium, in 
which the true pupa lies to await its transformation to a fly. This- 
puparium is brown, spindle-shaped, flattened, and each end is bluntly 
pointed. This pupa stage is of special importance, for the puparia are 
hidden in the stalks of the cereal, solitary often, sometimes two or three 
together, and it is by this agency the species travel from one district or 
country to another, as the flies themselves do not take long journeys. 
In most places where the Hessian fly has been under notice two 
