THE CULTIVATOR. 
201 
they seldom used them, and their disappearance is as 
sudden as their appearance.” 
This is not the fact in their history in this part of the 
country. Some here have asserted that they would take 
flight from our fields in July and August, and a new 
crop of them would come in September; but this has not 
been their history this season—they make their appear¬ 
ance in our wheat field the last of May, and the first of 
June, and continue therein and in our oat fields, until 
the grain is cut and secured, and they then march with 
all their forces and commence their attack on our corn¬ 
fields, where they continue until the cold weather com¬ 
mences, and then take flight to the woods, though you may 
discover them in our corn-fields sheltered in the boot of 
the stalk in the depth of winter, yet they rarely survive 
the winter. I have discovered them in July taking flight 
from our wheat and oat fields, and you may see thou¬ 
sands and millions flying to the woods, from which I am 
under the impression they never return, but they leave 
a new generation behind, which are more destructive 
than their progenitors. No person can have the faint¬ 
est idea or conception of the ratio of their increase un¬ 
less they study their history and movements. At this 
time there are myriads in our corn-field attached to the 
stalk, and they shelter under the boot or shuck of the 
stalk, and there multiply beyond conception, hundreds 
perhaps thousand attached to a single stalk. 
Some allege that the Chinch Bug takes shelter in 
stumps and broom sage, or old trees, during the winter, 
and commence their operations as soon as warm weath¬ 
er takes place in the spring. To prove beyond contro¬ 
versy that the Chinch Bug does not originate in this 
way in our wheat fields, I have known fields that had 
not a stump or any thing in them to protect them, and 
the wheat was very much injured by them ; and in fact 
our tobacco land is most generally seeded in wheat, 
where there was no appearance of a Chinch Bug; you 
might discover them as abundant and as destructive in 
lands of that description as you would in any other field. 
As far as my observation extends, (and I have been ex¬ 
amining into their history for twelve months) this in¬ 
sect perishes during the winter months; this I know to 
be a fact, as I seeded a field in oats this last spring, 
which was in corn last year, and examined minutely 
thousands of corn-stalks which had stood in the field 
during the winter, and you might discover thousands 
that had perished. I had the corn-stalks carefully col¬ 
lected and burnt, and I did not see a Chinch Bug in the 
field. You might discover the chinch in tobacco fields, 
entirely remote from any other field, and surrounded by 
woods, which was seeded in wheat, and I am told that 
the Chinch Bug was very destructive. 
The only alternative left for farmers and planters of 
this state, and all other districts ot country, to rid them¬ 
selves of this truly alarming and formidable enemy, is 
to abandon the seeding of wheat for two or three sea¬ 
sons, as I am confident it is the only plan by which we 
can subdue this insect. It is awful to reflect upon the 
consequences that must ensue to this portion of the 
union, if the ravages of this insect are not stayed. Not¬ 
withstanding the most propitious season which the farm¬ 
ing community have enjoyed for 20 years, we find since 
the fodder has been gathered and the tops cut, the corn 
crop has been seriously injured. 
Whether the position which I have taken is correct, 
that the ChinchBug has its origin with the Hessian Fly, 
remains for time to develope. This is the conclusion 
which some of the most intelligent part of the commu¬ 
nity have come to. I cannot in all my researches and 
examinations and inquiries, find any other cause by 
which this insect can come into existence. 
JAS. W. JEFFREYS. 
Red House, N. C. 
The Chinch Bug and Hessian Fly. 
Red House, N. C. Oct. 16th, 1839. 
Mr. Editor —A writer under the signature of Agri- 
cultor has replied to a communication of mine publish¬ 
ed in the American Farmer relative to the Chinch Bug. 
“Agricultor” wishes to know my meaning of the 
word “progenitor,” as used in my communication. My 
meaning was this : after the ChinchBug comes into ex¬ 
istence, it produces a new race, which in a short time 
arrives at sufficient maturity to lake wing and fly in 
swarms to the woods; and that those left behind are 
more destructive in their depredations than those who 
thus take wing. Their habits are very much like bees; 
they are very industrious, and are incessantly sending 
out a new race, or new swarms; those that are left are 
more destructive on account of iheir incapacity to es¬ 
cape. All those who have studied their movements and 
habits, and watched the various stages through which 
they pass, would confirm the position I have taken. 
Agricultor says: “and if so, they say it presents a 
very anomalous case in the natural history of animals, 
to wit, that of two very unlike parentages producing si¬ 
milar offspring.” 
In reply to this part of his communication I will in¬ 
troduce a new race of the insect tribe to prove that the 
insect does undergo various changes, and that unlike 
parents do produce similar offspring. Agricultor may 
think it strange and contrary to the order of nature that 
those large white grub worms could be transformed or 
turned to grasshoppers. But such is the fact. A gen¬ 
tleman of highly respectable standing in this country, 
(no doubt he was philosophizing like some of the Agri- 
cultor’s neighbors) who caught one of those long white 
cut worms and placed it in a box with some loose earth, 
and after it was confined for some days, he examined 
it one morning, and found it had changed or produced 
a grasshopper. Is it more strange for a cut worm to 
be transformed to a grasshopper, than that a Hessian 
Fly should deposite an egg which should produce a 
Chinch Bug ? Grasshoppers produce grasshoppers, and 
Chinch Bugs produce Chinch Bugs. 
Another case—How does Agricultor account for the 
Tobacco Fly depositing an egg on our tobacco, and af¬ 
ter some hours by the heat of the sun, the egg produces 
a cut worm nearly as destructive in its operations as 
the Chinch Bug. This last case is well known to every 
planter of the south who cultivates tobacco. 
Is it more strange that the Hessian Fly should depo¬ 
site an egg in the boot of the wheat and be brought in¬ 
to existence by the heat of the sun, than that a Tobacco 
Fly should deposite its egg on a tobacco leaf, and that egg 
should be transformed by the same cause to a cut worm ? 
I could adduce other cases in the insect tribe to convince 
Agricultor and his sceptic neighbors of unlike parenta¬ 
ges producing similar offspring. 
I will now reply to the first part of his communica¬ 
tion. 
Agricultor has called it a “ novel discovery, and if ve¬ 
rified by subsequent investigators of the mysteries of 
nature, the approach of a new era in the natural scien¬ 
ces, as far, at least, as the animal creation and procrea¬ 
tion may be involved.” 
I can assure Agricultor that the idea of the Chinch 
Bug being a descendant of the Hessian Fly is not novel, 
as it can be traced as far back as the year 1783. About 
this period the battle of Guilford, N. C. occurred. There 
is a gentleman now living in Orange co. N. C. who is 
venerable on account of his age and great worth, who 
well recollects that when the British army moved through 
that county, there was a part of the army which were 
called the Hessian soldiers. Immediately after this 
event, perhaps that year, the Hessian Fly or Hessian 
Bug destroyed their crops of wheat. They believed 
and do believe to this day, that those soldiers left the 
flies or bugs as they passed through the country. The 
Chinch Bugs continued to destroy their crops of wheat 
for several years, until they were compelled to abandon 
the seeding of wheat. This aged gentlmen says they 
finally disappeared after four or five years. 
After a period of 56 years the Chinch Bug has ap¬ 
peared in the same district of country, and upon the same 
tracts of land. 
I have no doubt that I could procure the testimony of 
fifty men of unimpeachable character, who believe lhai 
the Chinch Bug is the true descendant of the Hessian 
Fly. Agricultor may call it old fashioned stuff, but let 
him lay aside his books upon such subjects, and go and 
examine the operations of nature in these matters, and 
he will see great and strange transformations, proving 
that unlike parentages can produce similar offspring .— 
I am a plain homespun man, and draw my conclusions 
from the operations of nature. I should have been 
thankful, and no doubt this portion of the country would 
have felt themselves much indebted to Agricultor. to 
have given a better history of this insect, and given us 
his views relative to the best mode of preventing their 
depredations. We do not care for their genealogy—we 
wish to destroy them and not perpetuate their names. 
_ JAS. W. JEFF REYS. 
Of the Fallow. 
( Concluded .) 
After the land has been ploughed a second time, the 
question arises, whether the surface should be left in a 
rough furrow state or harrowed fine down? To this 
the reply is by no means difficult, since the rougher it 
is left, the greater is the surface exposed to the sun, 
rain, and wind, anl, as the object is to have the surface 
as dry as possible before being again ploughed, the rough¬ 
est state is then to be unquestionably preferred. 
When the land is once dry, to have it any longer ex¬ 
posed, unless waiting for a shower, is useless, since the 
clods and crumbs can be no more than dry if they re¬ 
main exposed for weeks in an arid season, for their af- 
Unities are at rest, as in paper or dry wood, decay or 
decomposition is prevented, and therefore no after en¬ 
richment is to be expected. If a good shower should 
come, it will prove of great value by falling on a dry 
surface, by causing a circulation, first of fresh water 
through the clods, and then succeeded by fresh air, as 
the former dessicates beyond what is chemically and me¬ 
chanically retained by the soil; but when again dry, no 
time should be lost in turning this surface under with 
the plough, and bringing up a fresh one to be similarly 
exposed; because more advantage will be gained now, 
by exhibiting a fresh surface to the sun, &c. than per¬ 
mitting it to remain unmoved. 
It is quite necessary for land to lie undisturbed after 
ploughing, for a certain time, before another takes 
place; as is the case when making bread, hay, beer and 
wine,* otherwise a fallow might be completed in a day, 
which is impossible. Now the usual period that inter¬ 
venes between fallow ploughings during the spring and 
summer months, is from two to five weeks, which expe¬ 
rience and the economy of a farm have decided to be 
sufficient and practicable; the appropriate rollings, &c. 
being of course applied when necessary, particularly if 
recently manured,f as the superficial dressings will as¬ 
* Likewise with a fire, wdiich requires, when endeavoring 
to get it up strong, to remain a time after every stirring, to 
allow of the requisite changes and combinations taking ef¬ 
fect. 
f Land should remain the longest after that ploughing 
which turned in the manure of a vegetable nature, but then 
sist in the general fermentation, therefore, in the decom* 
positionand combination of the vegetable materials witn 
the particles of the soil. 
Before the third ploughing is entered upon, a heavy 
roll or a light one, according to circumstances, should be 
passed over the field across the furrows, and this imple¬ 
ment alone will effect, generally speaking, all the requi¬ 
site pulverization at the least expense of culture & tread¬ 
ing. This act of pulverizing displaces the previous po¬ 
sition of the particles of the soil, and brings others into 
contact, thus highly favoring fermentation. If the roll 
be unable to accomplish the present intention, the har¬ 
rows or the scarifier, or both, may of course be em¬ 
ployed. 
Suppose the third ploughing to be completed, the sou 
will now present to the eye and touch a great improve¬ 
ment in its color, its state of pulverization, and in its 
inexhaustible moisture beneath. If turnips are to suc¬ 
ceed the fallow, and the fourth or fifth ploughing is to 
be the last, then, before this takes place, the surface of 
the field should be reduced to the finest tilth by the har¬ 
rows and roll, when the land and weather are favorable, 
that the seed, when sown on the subsequent plough fur¬ 
row, may be deposited in and surrounded by an entire 
mass of close yet permeable soil, from being finely pul¬ 
verized, of from six to ten or more inches in depth.—• 
This is the very object of the husbandman, because, a 
body of earth in the above condition is the one, experi¬ 
ence has ever found, most congenial to the infant germi¬ 
nation and future growth of the turnip, and which, ac¬ 
cording to seasons, will attain in consequence the limit 
of its development and produce. 
The benefit of the fallow process may be summed up 
in these words: that it replenishes the soil with fresh 
air and fresh water, improves its powers of composition 
and decomposition, strengthens its affinities for the pro¬ 
ducts of vegetable and animal substances, renders it 
easily permeable to the roots of plants, and restores, by 
the general pulverization, its valuable property, inhe¬ 
rent in rich soils, the absorbing and retaining of mois¬ 
ture and air from the atmosphere.— Bland’s Principles 
of Agriculture. 
Important Facts. 
We observe with astonishment and regret, the con¬ 
clusive evidence which appears in every direction, that 
the business of agriculture does not receive the atten¬ 
tion due to it in this country, but it is treated with abso¬ 
lute neglect, compared with other pursuits. This ought 
not to be, and the inhabitants of this country will yet 
learn, that they have committed a gross error by aban¬ 
doning the cultivation of the soil, for less independent 
and more precarious modes of obtaining a livelihood. 
Who has ever heard of such a state of things as now 
exists here? We have a soil as fertile as any that the 
sun ever shone upon, a country almost boundless in ex¬ 
tent, and so cheap, that any man may purchase a farm 
with the proceeds of a few months labor, yet we are ac¬ 
tually importing for consumption, immense quantities 
of agricultural products from foreign countries! A peo¬ 
ple, thinly scattered over a land unequalled in fertility, 
and exhaustless in its resources, are buying their bread, 
at enormous prices, from countries so overburthened 
with inhabitants, that political economists have feared 
that the earth would fail to produce sufficient to support 
them. Such an extraordinary and unnatural circum¬ 
stance should excite attention, and awaken the inquiry 
as to its cause. 
The fault, as we have seen, is not in the soil, nor is 
the country overrun with inhabitants. It is, therefore, 
evident that the cultivation of the soil is neglected, oth¬ 
erwise we should be exporting agricultural products, 
but it is easier to show the fact, that agriculture is neg¬ 
lected, than to find a sufficient reason for this neglect. 
We apprehend, however, that it will be found to spring 
in a great measure, from the same causes which have 
produced much evil in this country, and the bitter fruits 
of which we are now reaping. The first and chief of 
these causes, is the inordinate thirst for wealth, vhich 
pervades every class of society, and induces men to 
abandon their legitimate business to engage in some 
wild, hazardous speculation, in the hope of becoming 
suddenly rich. It is also too often the case that the 
farmer becomes tired of the moderate and gradual accu¬ 
mulation of property by the products of his land, and 
leaves the cultivation of it to engage in the business of 
commerce or manufactures. He finds out his egregious 
mistake when it is too late. The property he had accu¬ 
mulated is often squandered and lost in consequence of 
his ignorance of his new business, and he again sighs 
for the cheerful and independent mode of life which he 
has abandoned, when it is out of his power to resume it. 
We have in our mind numberless instances of this kind, 
where industrious and prosperous farmers have been 
lured to their ruin, by being induced to lay aside the 
implements of husbandry, and engage in the universal 
scramble after sudden wealth. 
There is another great error prevalent upon this sub¬ 
ject, and that is, the business of agriculture is generally 
looked upon as less respectable than that of commerce 
manufactures, or the professions; and wealthy farmers, 
should be well dressed with the scarifier, harrows and roll, 
and the dressing repeated, then ploughed up again, to air the 
soil, for the foul matter to escape, and to imbibe fresh. This 
exposure might, continue for a week or two, of course de¬ 
pending on the weather, then the manure ploughed under 
again, to remain some time, and to receive the proper dress¬ 
ings. If any seed or corn is to be sown, let it be generally 
on that ploughing which turns the manure in well beneath* 
