PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT 
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MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
motion” as authors have hitherto stated, hut by 
contracting and elongating their bodies. They 
consequently are unable to adhere to the sur¬ 
face of the straw when it is dry ; but when it is 
wet they move about upon it without difficulty. 
Hence they descend to the ground only when 
the straw is wet by heavy night dews or by 
showers of rain. If the stooked grain in a badly 
infested field be inspected upon a cloudy, show¬ 
ery day, myriads of these worms will be found 
crawling down the straw to the ground. If the 
finger approaches one of these worms, or other 
danger menaces it, with a skip it throws itself 
off to the ground so suddenly that the eye can¬ 
not follow and find it again; 
We will follow the history of these worms 
after they reach the ground. They crawl 
slightly under the surface, or under any dead 
straw or leaves lying on the ground, and there 
repose through the autumn, winter and spring. 
In this damp situation they remain soft and sup¬ 
ple as when in the heads of the growing wheat, 
and are capable of crawling away if discommod¬ 
ed at any time in their bed. In May they 
change to pupae. These pupae resemble the 
worms or larvae in color, size and form, but 
sculptured upon their surface the-wings and legs 
of the future fly can now be seen, in their rudi¬ 
mentary state. This pupa state of the insect 
lasts but about two or three weeks. It then ' 
writhes and bends, and thus crowds itself up to . 
the surface of the ground, when its skin cracks 
apart and the full-formed fly crawls out of it.— 
The insect does not moult or cast off its skin 
from the time it leaves the egg until it enters 
its pupa state, nor do I think the larva skin 
forms a case or envelope within which the pupa 
lies, but that the skin of the larva gradually 
changes and becomes the skin of the pupa, as it 
certainly does in our willow gall-liy (Cecidomyia 
Salicis .— Fitch.) I infer this from the fact that 
in those instances in which I have reared these 
flies from the larvae, the empty pupa skins were 
the only ones which I found remaining. 
The life of this insect, then, is made up of five 
distinct stages or periods, as follows :—1st. The 
egg. 2d. The active larva, during which the 
insect gets its growth and descends into the 
ground, this stage being passed through in about 
six weeks, say from the middle of June till the 
end of July. 3d. The inactive or dormant lar¬ 
va period, by far the longest stage of its life, 
extending from August until the following May. 
4th. The pupa stage, continuing about three 
weeks, in May. 5th. The perfect insect or 
winged fly, living I suppose about a mouth, in 
June and July, as it hatches from the pupa 
earlier or later. 
Let us now return to the worms in the heads 
of the growing wheat, and we shall find that to 
adapt itself to another state of circumstances, 
this insect appears to undergo a different kind 
of metamorphosis from that which Ave have de¬ 
scribed, presenting a diversity in its habits 
which is truly wonderful, and which has greatly 
misled writers in narrating its changes. 
A large portion of the worms in the wheat 
heads are later in coming to maturity than the 
others, so that at the time the wheat is harvested, 
they are still in it, awaiting the arrival of wet 
Aveather to enable them to crawl doAvn the 
wheat stalks and enter the ground. But no 
such weather occurring, they are gathered with 
the grain and carried into the barn, where, of 
course, no moisture afterwards wets the straAV, 
and they are consequently unable to crawl out 
and find their ay ay to the ground. We should 
expect that Avhen thus deprived of moisture for 
several months until the grain is threshed, they 
would dry up and perish, as other Avorms and 
caterpillars almost universally do when thus 
treated. But no, these vermin are as tenacious 
of life as John Barleycorn in Burns’ song.— 
But instead of remaining soft and pliant, like 
their felloAvs who have descended into the moist 
ground of the Avheat-field, these worms in the 
dry mow of the barn become stiff and wholly in¬ 
active, and their bodies losing a portion of their 
moisture by perspiration, contract, and thus ac¬ 
tually separate from the thin outer skin, Avhich 
forms a case or shell within Avhich the yellow 
worm is inclosed as in a little bladder-like bag 
or pod. This case or pod prevents the further 
escape of moisture from the inclosed worm and 
keeps the atmosphere around it so humid that its 
body remains soft and pliant; whereas, if with 
the point of a needle, this dry brittle case is 
broken apart and the Avorm is turned out of it, 
it soon dies and dries to a hard distorted yellow 
mass. The worm is now in the strictest sense 
what is termed an “inactive or dormant larva,” 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABLE CORPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS: 
H. T. BROOKS, Prof. C. DEWEY, 
T. C. PETERS, L. B. LANGWORTIIY, 
H. C. WHITE, T. E. WETMORE. 
The Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in A'alue, Purity 
and Variety of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor 
to make it a Reliable Guide on the important Practical 
Subjects connected with the business of those whose inter¬ 
ests it advocates. It embraces more Agricultural, Horticul¬ 
tural, Scientific, Mechanical, Literary and News Matter, 
interspersed with many appropriate and beautiful Engrav¬ 
ings, than any other paper published in this Country,— 
rendering it a complete Agricultural, Literary and 
Family Newspaper. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
.Y., 
HALLOCK’S CROSS-CUT AND CIRCULAR SAW-MILL. 
The machine represented above, originated 
and manufactured by E. D. IIallock, of this 
city, is becoming a very popular “ labor saving 
institution” among our farmers. Its advantages 
are readily apparent, and combining in one 
machine the circular and cross cut saws, it is 
used for a variety of purposes, such as sawing 
into stove wood both the bodies and limbs n f 
trees, cutting stave and shingle bolts, slitting 
fence stuff, lath, Ac., &c. A large number have 
been sold, and the purchasers speak well of 
their capacity and economy. Further particu¬ 
lars in regard to construction, «fcc., are given in 
our advertising department. 
THE WHEAT-MIDGE 
BY DR. ASA FITCH. 
A brief account of the Wheat Midge, from the 
pen of Prof. Deavey, appeared in the Rural 
New-Yorker last August. Thinking a more 
full and particular history of this insect would 
be acceptable, I had intended furnishing such 
a history ere now ; but other pressing engage¬ 
ments have prevented. As this and every other 
insect which depredates upon wheat cannot but 
be a topic of perennial interest in “ the Genesee 
Country,” as we used formerly to designate 
your section of the State, I suppose what I may 
have to communicate will not be regarded as 
out of season, although it be presented in the 
depth of winter. 
The Midge or fly appears in our wheat-fields 
in the month of June, often in incredible num¬ 
bers. In size, color and form, this fly, to the 
naked eye, closely resembles the little bright 
yellow worms Avhich every wheat-grower has 
repeatedly seen in the heads of his wheat on 
parting the chaff from the kernels. By imagin¬ 
ing a pair of small, delicate, glasfey wings placed 
towards the forward end of one of these worms, 
the reader will have a very correct idea of the 
appearance of the fly. It also has long, slender 
legs and horns, but they are so minute that the 
eye scarcely observes them. These flies avoid 
the light of the sun, and lurk during the day 
time low down among the Avhcat stalks, coming 
forth upon the wing only by night and upon 
cloudy days. Go into an infested wheat-field 
in the evening, with a lantern, and you will 
find a swarm of these flies, everyAvliere dancing 
up and down along the heads of the wheat, in¬ 
tently engaged in selecting the kernels upon 
which to deposit their eggs. They are all 
females. The males are very rare, and have 
never been found, I believe, except by the Ger¬ 
man naturalist, Meigen, and myself. Having 
discovered a kernel the chaff of which is not too 
old and hard, the fly alights upon it and pierces 
the chaff Avitli her sting or OA'ipositor, which is 
a slender tube resembling a fine hair. This she 
protrudes from her body, insinuating it through 
the chaff until its point reaches the germ or 
young soft kernel. She then leisurely pasies her 
eggs one after another through this tube, thus 
dropping them upon the surface of the germ or 
embryo seed. The same fly probably visits sev¬ 
eral kernels in this manner upon successive even¬ 
ings, until her Avhole stock of eggs is disposed 
of, by which time she, having completed her 
labors, has become so exhausted that she is often 
unable to Avithdraw her ovipositor from the 
chaff, and thus dies. These dead flies may fre¬ 
quently be found thus suspended by their tail¬ 
like ovipositors, to the outer scale of the chaff. 
From the eggs thus introduced into the heads 
of the Avheat groAV the little bright orange-yel¬ 
low worms, or maggots, Avhich is the correct 
term for soft Avorms like these, having no dis¬ 
tinct heads or feet. Every one is familiar with 
the appearance of these Avorms as they lie inside 
of the chaff upon the surface of the kernels.— 
No description of them is therefore necessary. 
They subsist upon the nutriment Avhich the 
kernel should receive, Avhich causes the latter 
to remain dwarfish, or to be wholly abortive 
when a number of maggots are nourished upon 
one kernel, as is often the case. These mag¬ 
gots get their growth about the time the wheat 
is ripe. They then crawl out of the chaff and 
down the wheat stalks to the ground. As they 
have no feet, they crawl, not by “ a wriggling 
“The farmer’s study,” says Prof. Nash, “is 
not to avoid labor, but to make labor pay well ; 
and nothing is better established than that the 
labor of saving manure, —of increasing its quan¬ 
tity, and improving its quality,— is the most 
profitable that he can perform or employ.” 
(4.) The value of manure depends largely 
upon the state in which it is applied to the soil 
—and consequently upon the state in which it 
is kept while it remains in the barn-yard, ma¬ 
nure cellar or shed. In general the dung-heap 
is an evil, and Stockhardt, remarking upon 
this subject, says “ the shorter the interval dur¬ 
ing which manure remains thereon, the less dan¬ 
ger is incurred by the farmer of losing its most 
