34 
CORN. 
“ I went down to Drem, in the centre of East Lothian, and spent 
a whole day traversing the country between that and Dunbar. In 
twenty-seven fields of Barley, which I looked into, I easily detected 
the work of the insects, and found them in the usual place on the 
straws in twenty-one of the fields. In four more of them, after a 
little careful hunting, I found a few specimens of straw infested with 
the ‘ flax-seeds,’ and in only three fields did I fail to find the insect, so 
that it may be said to be ‘ general ’ on the Barley in that district. I 
had little time to spare for a close search in the Wheat fields, but kept 
a watch on them as I passed along, looking into a good many, but not 
going far among the growing corn. In only two fields was I able to 
find the insect, and that on very few stalks next to Barley fields, which 
were rather badly infested. On the whole, I do not think it exists on 
the Wheat in the district to any serious extent. I am certain it is far 
from being so evident on the Wheat as it is on the Barley. The worst 
spot I saw did not contain more than a dozen infested straws to the 
square yard , carefully measured and counted. In fact the infested 
straws (or rather broken or bent straws, clearly infested with the 
puparia) seldom exceeded half a dozen, and on each straw the ‘ flax¬ 
seeds ’ varied in number from one to five; generally two or three. 
“ So far as I could judge from the appearance of the heads and the 
grains of corn, neither had suffered in size or quality from the attack. 
The straw was bent, and to that extent ‘ damaged, ’ but not more so 
than we see it often after a heavy storm of wind and rain ; and the 
loss from the storm in most instances would be far more than the loss 
from the Hessian Ely in this instance. So far as I can judge from 
what I saw in the Drem and Dunbar district, I believe the com¬ 
paratively little damage done is owing to the late period at which the 
‘ fly ’ began to multiply, and to attack the crops. The great heat we 
had in June would naturally give it a good start, but the Barley had 
nearly reached maturity in the end of July, before the attack began in 
earnest, if I may so term it. If this surmise is correct it is possible 
that our cold and raw or wet springs may always be effective in 
keeping the ravages of the insect within bounds in this country, by 
keeping back the attack to so late a period in the season as to make it 
comparatively harmless. 
“ I do not hear of this insect being found at a high altitude nor in 
wet districts, but of course it has hardly been long enough in the 
country to spread over all the parts where it may be able to exist. In 
several fields, in the upper parts of this county, I have failed to find 
the insect after the most careful inspection. The attack seems at 
present to be confined to the low-lying districts in the East of 
Scotland, and in proximity to places where it might have been readily 
imported from countries abroad infested with the ‘ fly.’ ” 
