574 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 25 
tack it in America, all being parasites. One of these 
was imported from Europe and successfully intro¬ 
duced into American wheatfields only a few years 
ago. The importance of these little friends of the 
wheat-grower is probably difficult to over-estimate, 
owing to the fact that often fully nine-tenths of the 
Hessian flies are destroyed by the parasites. One 
pi'ominent writer has said that but for its natural 
enemies the Hessian fly would render it impossible 
to grow wheat successfully in many sections of the 
United States. It is very often a curious experience 
with farmers that the fly will be excessively abund¬ 
ant one season, while the next it will seem to have al¬ 
most entirely disappeared. This state of affairs is 
usually due to the fact that so very few of the flies 
escaped the attacks of their natural enemies that the 
insect is in reality reduced in numbers almost to 
the point of extermination. Thus this wheat pest 
has its “ups and downs” from one year to another 
like many other insect enemies of the farmer. But 
one can rarely, if ever, depend upon natural enemies 
to control insect pests; man must usually step in and 
help in the warfare. In general, the enemies of the 
Hessian fly are effective only in limiting damage, and 
are useful where other preventives are neglected, 
but can never take, the place of active measures 
where immunity is desired. 
MEANS OF RELIEF.—It is practically impossible 
to save a crop once attacked by the Hessian fly. The 
best thing to do in such a field is promptly to apply 
in the Fall a fertilizer, like nitrate of soda, which 
the plant can get hold of quickly, and thus enable 
it to tiller sufficiently, oftentimes to yield a partial 
crop. The pest cannot be reached with any insect¬ 
icidal spray or application to the soil on the plant, 
hence all remedial measures are necessarily preven¬ 
tive against attack the following season. Some¬ 
thing can be done in the selection of varieties of 
wheat. Varieties which have coarser and stiffer 
stems, enabling them to stand and not break over 
when attacked, and varieties which tend to develop 
secondary shoots or “tillers” may prove helpful in 
resisting the attacks of the fly. Early varieties' 
seem to suffer less than later ones. Some of the so- 
called resistant varieties of wheat are Underhill, 
Mediterranean, Red Cap, Red May, Clawson, Volo, 
Forelle, Palestine, Polish, Common March, Diamond, 
Egyptian Imported, and several other bearded varie¬ 
ties. The treatment of the seed used can have no 
effect on the numbers of the fly, as there is no con¬ 
nection between the seed and the infestation of the 
field, as some suppose. The regular practice of a sys¬ 
tem of short rotation of crops, like corn one year, fol¬ 
lowed by oats one year, wheat one year, clover and 
grass two years, is of the utmost importance in avoid¬ 
ing damage by the fly. Oftentimes no other remedial 
measures are necessary, especially if several neigh¬ 
bors unite in such a rotation. Probably the most 
important measures available are those directed 
against the insect in its Summer resting period, or the 
early-issuing flies of late Summer and early Autumn. 
One of the earliest methods recommended is to burn 
the stubble after harvesting, thus destroying many 
of the insects in their Summer resting stage in the 
lower portion of the stems. If it Is practicable thus 
to burn over the stubble it will be best to defer burn¬ 
ing, if the weather be very dry, to allow the emerg¬ 
ence of as many of the parasites as possible, but if 
burning is to be adopted at all, it should be done be¬ 
fore Fall rains set in, or the field has grown up to 
weeds. If rains occur early, they will hasten the de¬ 
velopment of the flies, and it would be wise to burn 
the stubble in any case. If the wheat is thrashed 
before Fall, it would be well to burn all the screen¬ 
ings, as many of the “flaxseeds” may occur in them. 
The volunteer wheat which appears in the field some 
time after harvesting, should not be allowed to stand 
over a fortnight. In the North, where much Spring 
wheat is grown, it is said that this volunteer wheat 
is probably the principal means of carrying the insect 
through the Winter. Thus the stubble, whether 
burned over or not, should be plowed under and 
rolled as soon as practicable after the volunteer 
plants appear. All volunteer wheat around stacks 
or thrashing places should be plowed under also; 
merely cutting off and feeding out will not do; it 
must be buried deeply in the soil. A method which 
is often recommended, but little practiced, Is to sow 
narrow decoy strips of wheat about September 1. 
Some of the Fall brood of flies will be decoyed to 
lay their eggs on these strips, and their progeny can 
be destroyed by plowing under deeply the decoy 
plants; do not let the decoy strips stand more than 
four weeks, or but a few days after sowing the main 
crop. 
LATE SOWING.—In Winter-wheat regions the time 
of sowing in Autumn, in so far as the Hessian fly is 
concerned, a very important item. Early-sown wheat 
will naturally be exposed to the deposition of eg§s 
by the flies issuing in Autumn. Therefore, late sow¬ 
ing has been one of the principal resources against 
the fly, and has been generally adopted by farmers, 
and usually with success. To be successful the sow¬ 
ing should be late enough so that the plants do not 
appear above ground until the bulk of flies have 
issued and died, or laid their eggs on decoy strips. 
Just when to sow will depend much on the latitude 
and weather conditions. If the weather after har¬ 
vesting remains dry and hot, the Fall planting should 
be delayed as long as possible, while if moist condi¬ 
tions then prevail, the crop may safely be planted 
earlier, as the flies will have emerged and died earlier. 
In northern Indiana and southern Michigan observa- 
ADAM’S NEEDLE (Yucca Filamentosa). Fig. 200. 
See Ruralisms, Page 578. 
tions on the time of emergence of the flies indicate 
that farmers may safely sow wheat about September 
15, but farmers in southern Indiana and similar lati¬ 
tudes should delay sowing until after the first days 
of October. To make this method effective, neigh 
borhoods or counties should unite, and all sow about 
the same time, but the “perversity of human nature” 
usually results in some one sowing at the wrong 
time, and thus breeding a large crop of the flies 
for their more ambitious neighbors. A poor prep¬ 
aration of the seed bed may offset all advantages 
that might be gained by late sowing; there is much 
in this question of the management of the soil and 
the seeding. The above measures are all of them 
practical and entail little, if any, unusual expense. 
Where clover is to follow wheat it, of course, pre¬ 
cludes the burning of stubble or the destruction of vol¬ 
unteer plants, but it necessitates the rotation of crop, 
and decoys can be sown and the seeding delayed. It 
the mcintosh peach, fig. 201 . 
See Ruralisms, Page 578. 
is hardly possible for a farmer to become so situated 
that he cannot carry out some of these measures, and 
if this were done generally and every year, the Hes¬ 
sian fly would, in all probability, become of so little 
importance that it would cease to enter seriously into 
the problem of successful wheat growing. One 
prominent entomologist who has studied this pest 
for nearly 15 years, says he is satisfied that four- 
fifths of its injuries may be prevented by a better sys - 
tem of agriculture. _ m. v . slingerland. 
I do not let a chance escape to tell my friends what a 
good paper you publish, but I guess they think I want 
them to subscribe for my own benefit. I lend them my 
papers; but they close their fist over their $1. Well, they 
lose a good many dollars by keeping that one. I am 
thankful I am not “penny wise and pound foolish” in this 
respect, anyway. ■*- 
Connecticut. 
A YARD OF BELGIAN HARES. 
Confessions of a Ci*y Farmer. 
Last week we pictured a family of Belgian hares— 
father, mother and children. We are now able to print 
the following breezy and interesting statement: 
The picture was taken as my boy was playing with 
them, and the result was good enough, I thought, to 
be enlarged. I began to raise Belgian hares eight 
years ago at the suggestion of a Flemish farmer, 
whom I had hired to run my place. His praise of 
them, the good prices that he said were obtained for 
them in London, and the ease with which they could 
be raised, captivated my enthusiasm as a newly-made 
farmer, and I looked around for some parent stock to 
start the business. This I found on a poultry farm 
somewhere near Worcester. Mass. The man had 
bought at a high price a pair of imported hares, and 
had tried to raise them, but with so little success 
that he was willing to part with the last family he 
had for very little money. There were five in the 
lot, about seven weeks old, and as he could not pick 
out a pair I took the bunch, and brought them home. 
They were installed in half barrels, having a one- 
inch hole at the bottom and a slatted cover, and a 
litter of pine needles three inches thick. This was 
changed often. 
When the little things were three months old, the 
largest buck and the two nicest does were separated, 
(and the remaining pair put in a pie). At six months 
old they were bred, and then began the fun. One 
doe left her nest when the young were only three 
days old; the other brought three out of seven, and 
one of these never reached maturity. This was 
not very encouraging. Still my man said he was 
confident tnat he would be more successful in the 
future; so it went on for perhaps two years, without 
my interfering. The few animals that reached full 
size were strong, large and fine eating. My children 
found so much pleasure with them when I moved to 
the farm in the Summer that I resolved to study the 
matter, and I built a warm structure on a dry spot, 
with a concrete floor slanting to a gutter, and abso¬ 
lutely rat-proof—away from the cackling hens or 
noise of any kina. Hares have long ears, but not 
for music. Then I put up single-course brick parti¬ 
tions, three feet high, three feet wide and three feet 
apart—the front closed by a wire netting, a hinged 
top of the same. Inside of these squares I put up 
in brick also, a small room or box 14 inches inside 
measure, having an opening on the darkest side—and 
a removable cover of wood to facilitate cleaning 
Over this the mother takes refuge when her progeny 
are strong enough to eat, but still are too exacting. 
This is for the breeding pens. When weaned the lit¬ 
tle ones were put in larger spaces, 30 or 40 together. 
When a doe is ready to make her nest, give her some 
straw and she will make it herself, and cover it with 
her own hair. In hot weather she uses nothing else, 
but in no case will she allow you to help her. She 
must never be disturbed in any way except by her 
regular attendant, who must be quiet and slow-mov¬ 
ing in feeding and going about. 
It is well after two or three days to investigate and 
see whether there is a dead one in the nest. Two or 
three does should be bred at the same time, and the 
young ones dividec up between them, as often one will 
have four or five and the other nearly a dozen. I 
think six enough for one mother, and it does pay to 
dispose of anything over that number if show stock 
or breeders are raised. Oatmeal, as cooked for the 
table, milk warm from the cow, roots, lettuce or any 
thing to induce milk should be given the mother, 
but when the young ones commence to run and eat 
great care should be taken to throw in the pen noth¬ 
ing with the dew on it, or that may be wet. All 
the drink they should have must come from green 
food or roots. To be sure that this is observed I 
insist that the morning feed should be housed the 
night before. With these precautions and strict 
cleanliness I have raised 99 per cent of those born 
alive. We used to eat two or three pairs every week 
the year around, and occasionally sent some to our 
friends. But after six years of farming I found that 
it was harder to keep a farmer healthy when one 
is not on the place the whole year than to keep rab¬ 
bits under the worst condition. The trouble with 
the farmer is he invariably develops a case of big¬ 
beadedness—and this is contagious—his wife gets it 
—the children are affected by it and the hired help 
is led to think I have nothing to say about the farm, 
but pay the bills—and two years ago, when, after all 
the crops were planted, I was asked for an unreason¬ 
able raise in wages I turned Mr. Farmer, his wife 
and family and other help on the road, sold all my 
stock and tools, and now let a man in rent free, 
provided he looks after my own house and all the 
fences. In the Summer, I buy all my milk and 
vegetables from him, and am $1,500 a year better 
off! But—there is a but to every comfort—and when 
