584 
DIPTERA. 
ety, that Miss Morris advises obtaining “ fresh seed from 
localities in which the fly has not made its appearance,” 
and that “ by this means the crop of the following year 
will be uninjured ; but, in order to avoid the introduction 
of straggling insects of the kind from adjacent fields, it is 
requisite that a whole neighborhood should persevere in this 
precaution for two or more years in succession.” “ This 
result,” Miss Morris says, “ was obtained, in part, in the 
course of trials made by Mr. Kirk, of Bucks County, Penn- 
sylvania, with some seed-wheat from the Mediterranean, 
in and since the year 1837. His first crop was free from 
the fly ; but it was gradually introduced from adjacent fields, 
and, in the present year (1840), the mischief has been 
considerable.” In other hands this course has proved of 
no use whatever. 
Not to mention other instances, the following appears 
to be conclusive on this point. About fifty years ago, 
Mr. Garret Bergen, of Brooklyn, New York, procured 
two bushels of wheat from the Genesee country, then an 
uninfected district, which he sowed in a field adjoining a 
piece seeded with grain of his own gathering. Both pieces 
were severely damaged by the Hessian fly, which could 
not have happened, in the same season, if the eggs of the 
insect are laid only on the grain. A few years ago he 
soaked his seed-wheat in strong pickle, and the crop was 
comparatively free from the fly. In 1839 he tried this 
experiment again, but not with similar success. In 1840 
he sowed without previously soaking the grain, and his 
crop was uninjured. He says, moreover, that he has uni- 
formly found the grain most affected in spots, usually near 
the edges of the field, where long grass and weeds grew, 
which afforded shelter and protection to the fly. This fact, 
he thinks, affords another proof that the egg is not depos- 
ited in the grain. I regret that my limits will not permit 
me to extract the whole of Mr. Bergen’s interesting re- 
marks, which may be found in number eight of the eighth 
