246 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
August. 
The Rice Weevil. 
Eds. Country Gentleman —I send for your inspec¬ 
tion a specimen of “ Tuscan beardless Barley,” with 
the curculio weevil to match. I received this seed in 
a bag from the Patent office two years ago. By some 
oversight it was not put in the ground, but remained 
in the bottom of the seed chest in a warm, dry place. 
This spring in overhauling the seed chest, the bag of 
beardless barley turned up in the situation or condi¬ 
tion of the portion I send you. 
In the Cyclopedia Londinensis, vol. 5, page 480, this 
weevil is described, and shown in fig. 8 of the ad¬ 
joining plate. The text calls it the “ Granary Cur- 
culio ” or “ Weevil ,” and adds, “ wherever these in¬ 
jurious species are discovered, the granary should be 
strewed all over with boughs of elder or henbane, 
which will destroy them.” J. B. St. John. Niagara 
county , June 27. 
The vial sent by our correspondent contains a wee¬ 
vil to nearly every grain. It is not the Calandra 
granaria or granary weevil, but the C. Oryzce or rice 
weevil, another of the Curculionidse, very destructive 
sometimes to the rice of the East Indies and the wheat 
in Southern Europe. The climate here is too cold for 
them to do any injury to a crop. There were probably 
a few of the eggs in the seed obtained by our corres¬ 
pondent, which hatched, and have continued since to 
multiply and reproduce themselves in the warm shel¬ 
ter where the grain was put. This insect is similar in 
the transformations it undergoes to those of the C. 
granaria , but the weevils are rather shorter and not 
so smooth. Morton’s Cyclopedia of Agriculture de¬ 
scribes both—vol. i, p. 371. 
-- 
Cheap Shades—Transplanting Corn. 
Messrs. Editors —Enclosed I send a pair of shades, 
such as I use in my garden and fields to shade cabbage, 
beets, and other transplanted plants. The stems can 
be made of any suitable length, and if the paper is 
oiled they will last several seasons. I like the one 
made with a small tack best, though the other answers 
a good purpose, and is made with less trouble. The 
shades I send are taken from a large number which I 
prepared for use. They will answer a good purpose 
for corn ; the surplus plants in one hill being taken to 
fill blanks in another. Our farmers here generally ri¬ 
dicule the idea of transplanting corn, but my experi¬ 
ence leads me to believe that it will pay to do so. I 
make a mixture of fresh cow dung and loam, and di¬ 
lute with water until it is about as thick as molasses 
in cold weather. The corn plants are taken up with a 
trowel, and placed in the mixture, where they remain 
until set out. When set out they are shaded with a 
paper shade a little larger than those I send you. 
They require no water or other attention, and the loss 
will not amount to five plants in a hundred. I omitted 
to say that I set them out with a dibble or round stick, 
which enables me to bring the earth close round them. 
I prefer to set them out immediately before or about 
two days after a rain. Will you please suggest to 
your numerous readers to try the experiment, and re¬ 
port the result when the corn is ripe. J. I. Shipman. 
Our correspondent sends two shades—one a square 
piece of paper, with a fold in the middle inserted into 
a split in the top of the stick, and there held in posi¬ 
tion The other piece of paper has a fold across the 
middle both, ways, by which means six thicknesses 
of it come where the two folds cross; here a tack is 
driven througn into the top of the stick, and this kind, 
he says, he prefers to the other. The ‘’stick” is mere¬ 
ly a bit of wood four or five inches long, sharpened at 
bottom to stick into the ground, and having at top the 
paper shade five or six inches square, as above de¬ 
scribed. Eds. 
-- 9 - 
The Wheat Midge. 
A correspondent of the Rural New-Yorker of 22d 
of May, dating from Monroe Co., N. Y., says : 
“ As it is a matter of serious contemplation with the 
farmers of the. Genesee Valley whether the wheat midlge 
will remain permanently among us or not, it becomes im¬ 
portant to know, as far as possible, how long they may be 
expected to bring ruin and desolation to our wheat crop.” 
And he asks: 
“ How long have they already been infecting districts 
and localities visited by them before us ? Is there a reason¬ 
able prospect that they will show us the cold shoulder and 
take their final exit soon? Or shall we be compelled, 
(against our will and interest too,) to change our system of 
farming altogether, or may we hope for a better time 
coming.” 
Judging from our long acquaintance with the wheat 
midge and its ravages, we can offer the writer of the 
above, no hope “ for a better time coming,” and think 
it will be a long time before the midge will give the 
wheat growers of Monroe county the “cold shoulder, 
and take their final exit.” It is now about twentj'-five 
years since it first made its appearance in New-Hamp- 
shire, and its ravages were greater on our wheat crops 
last season, than on almost any previous year ; they 
being much more abundant on the “ hill farms” than 
ever before known, while - in the valleys many fields pro¬ 
duced little more than the seed sown. But from their 
first appearance among us till now, they have every 
year damaged the crops of spring wheat, some years 
to greater extent than in other seasons. 
Says the late Dr. Harris, in his Report on Insects : 
“The country over which it has spread, has continued 
to suffer more or less from its alarming depredations, the 
loss by which lias been found to vary from about one tenth 
part to nearly the whole of the annual crop of wheat ; nor 
has the insect entirely disappeared in any place till it has 
been starved out by a change of agriculture, or by the sub¬ 
stitution of late spring wheat for the other varieties of 
grain.” 
Very early sown spring wheat sometimes escapes the 
ravages of the insect, it having become too far advan¬ 
ced before the annual appearance of the fly—so too, 
very late sown, that sown as late as the 25th of May, 
generally escapes the midge, the fly having disappear¬ 
ed before the grain is in blossom ; but there is greater 
liability to rust, mildew, blight, &c., on the very late 
sown wheat, than on that sown early. 
About six years ago sofne of our farmers began to 
sow winter wheat, and they were successful. The 
quantity sown each successive year has greatly increas¬ 
ed. When sown from the 20th of August to 15th of 
September, on suitable ground, and properly manured 
and put in, we scarcely know of a failure to reap good 
crops; and of such in no instance have we known any 
injury to them from the midge. Why the midge should 
ruin your Genesee Valley winter wheat and leave ours 
unscathed, is a mystery not bo easily solved. Our win¬ 
ter wheat gets the start of the midge ! Why don’t 
yours 7 
Last year we had three small fields of winter wheat 
on different varieties of soil, but all did well, getting a 
return of about twenty fold for seed sown ; also had, 
within a short distance, a field of spring-sown wheat. 
At harvest time the grain would average four and a 
half feet high—heads at least five inches in length— 
neither rust or mildew touched it, yet the yield was 
only seven pecks to the bushel of seed, in consequence 
I of the depredations of the midge. L. Bartlett 
[ Warner, N. II., June, 1858. 
