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produce over half a crop, and many fields are reported as already 
nearly destroyed. Naturally some allowance should be made for the 
apprehensions of those whose fields are thus ravaged; but there 
is no doubt that the crop through this section is materially 
damaged by these destructive pests .’'—Battle Creek Journal. 
Mr. T. F. Miller, of Richland, brought into our office Monday 
morning a handful of wheat (taken from a farm on the prairie) 
that is literally alive with the insect. He says that, in his opinion, 
nearly every field in Richland is so badly affected that there cannot 
he half or even a third of a crop. The dry weather has stopped 
the growth, and the wheat is more affected on that account. We 
hear the same report from other parts of the county. Grain is 
also suffering for want of rain .”—Kalamazoo Gazette. 
The following extract, from the New York Cultivator and Country 
Gentleman, will give the condition of affairs in West Virginia: 
“Since reading your article making known Mr. A. S. Packard’s 
request, in the issue of November 15, I have had occasion to make 
a business trip through Hardy, Hampshire, Mineral and Grant 
counties, and find upon examination that there is not a single field 
which is not more or less damaged by the fly. The early-sown 
wheat, having luxuriant growth, does not seem to be entirely 
destroyed, but has the appearance of mixed yellow and green. I 
find, upon close examination, it is filled with the fly. Other fields, 
sown after corn-cutting, show a greater amount of damage; one in 
particular, a limestone upland, was scarcely tinted with green, the 
fly having already consumed nearly the whole of it. My course 
from this point was north and west. I find that the farther north 
I travel the more damaged is the wheat. In this (Hardy) county 
the damage, so far, appears not to be material. Some crops of 
early-sown wheat were considerably shortened last year, the first 
year in many that we have felt the effects of the fly. One farmer, 
whose wheat seemed already a failure, asked me what he should do. 
I advised when the land was dry, or hard frozen, to put all the 
sheep he could get upon it, and keep them there until they had 
eaten it off as close as a sheep could nip, as the only remedy. I 
thought that the sheep could do no worse than what must be 
eventually done by the fly, and it might save the crop. He asked 
me if I thought the insect would be ‘wholesome for the sheep.' 
This I could not answer, but refer the query to you."—R. M. W., 
Moorefield, W. Va. 
A correspondent of the same paper thus records the injury done 
by this insect about Syracuse, N. Y.: 
“Wheat sown early, from the 1st to the 20th of September, lias 
made an extraordinary growth. The fine weather was favorable; 
besides more care has been paid to good culture than before. The 
seed also has been selected, cleaned and graded with greater care, 
showing much progress. From appearances now, it will result in a 
loss. Whole fields, a-nd parts of others, are turning yellow, showing 
the ravages of the fly to a larger extent than I ever before witnessed. 
It begun to turn yellow on knolls, or where the plaster rock came 
near the surface, and was thought only the effect of dry weather, 
but now it has extended all over early-sowed fields. Should the 
