218 
to do fifty years ago, so that our wheat will get a strong root and 
a large top to go into the winter with. I hope this suggestion will 
stir up some scientific man, like Professor Eiley of Missouri, to 
investigate the habits of the fly as thoroughly as he has the locust 
or the Colorado Potato-beetle, for I think the country has suffered 
quite as much from the Hessian-fly as from all other pests put 
together. If this brings out the desired information, I shall be well 
paid for this my first contribution to your valuable paper, which I 
have read with great pleasure for the last ten years. 
Caleb T. Fuller.” 
Jackson County, Michigan. 
“In reply to your request for information in regard to the Hes¬ 
sian-fly, I will state that only a few of the earliest sown pieces are 
affected in this and the adjoining county of Trimble. Wheat in 
general looks remarkably well, has tillered finely, and there is at 
least 15 per cent, more than an average acreage sown. 
S. E. Hampton.” 
Carroll County, Kentucky. 
—[Cultivator and Country Gentleman. 
We may, then, conclude that, on the whole, late sowing is the 
best general remedy, but still a part of the wheat should be sown 
early as a decoy to draw off the flies and induce them to lay their 
eggs in the early-sown grain, that the later sown portion may escape 
their attacks, and then farmers should plow under and resow the 
fields of early grain. Hence we indorse the following excellent ad¬ 
vice, which was first suggested by Dr. Fitch, and reiterated by Pro¬ 
fessor Cook, as follows: 
“Let all, without exception, sow a narrow strip about each field, 
to be sown early in September, or even in August. From the fact 
that the flies are already in waiting, that the outer edge of a field 
is almost always the most injured, except that the field grew wheat 
that nourished flies the preceding year, and that such fields suffer 
most, one may expect this early-sown narrow rim to receive nearly 
all the eggs. Leave the balance of the field till we feel it is dan¬ 
gerous to wait longer, at least till after the middle of September, 
then sow it, after which plow deeply under the early-sown strip, that 
is if it is stocked with insects, which may be easily determined by 
examination, and resow it. We should thus kill two birds with one 
stone —save our crops, and destroy the pest.” 
Advantage of high culture .—Many farmers advocate high culture, 
sowing a less breadth of wheat, and cultivating the ground, using 
fertilizers. This is all important, as the stronger and more luxu¬ 
riant the growth of the young wheat, the better able will it be to 
withstand the weakening effects of the maggots; while high culture 
will carry a partly infested field of wheat through, when the same 
grain grown on a poorer soil would succumb. The value, then, of 
good farming, conducted on scientific principles, the forcing of the 
plant by fertilizers, and the rotation of crops, is so self-evident that 
we need devote no more space to this subject, except to add the 
following remarks by practical farmers: 
