34 
CORN AND GRASS. 
On the 30th of July, Mr. D. Taylor, of Daleally Farm, Errol, N.B., 
who has reported on the pest at intervals since his first observation of 
it in Scotland in 1886, wrote, in reply to my enquiries, that some 
spots were pretty sorely attacked; “ but generally speaking, for I went 
out and made a thorough inspection of Wheat and Barley last night, 
the number of attacked stalks in a square yard 1 find to vary from two 
in thick well-grown Barley to, say, ten in a shortish thin crop. The 
Wheat being stronger is not so broken down, say from two to five in a 
square yard. But one fact here, and I would like if others would re¬ 
port their experience : I find that in the thin weakly crops growing 
under cover of trees, or say in a sheltered situation, as much as (well, 
putting it inside the mark) forty per cent, are broken down ; in fact, this 
seems to me to be the very hot-bed as it were, or happy hunting-ground of 
this Cecid. It is, however, only part of an end rigg or headland, but 
it shows where amongst all the others the situations in which they 
most delight are.” 
On the 29th of July, Mr. Francis Percival, of Thornhaugh, 
Wansford, Northamptonshire, forwarded samples of Hessian Fly infes¬ 
tation in Barley, mentioning that he found it was eating the straw in 
two and doing much damage. 
The straw I found to be very poor, with one puparium or “ flax¬ 
seed ” on each stem, and the straw bruised or broken away close to the 
point of infestation. 
During the past season several instances have been sent of straw 
which was (or had been) infested, being much injured above the point 
where the maggots had fed, the stem being broken or torn into ribbons, 
or bruised in a way which did not seem at all attributable to effect of 
Hessian Fly attack, even if several maggots had been present, much 
less where there was only one. The only explanation that suggests 
itself appears to be that of small birds, or possibly insect-feeding mice, 
tearing at the spot to get at the “ flax-seeds.” But at present I am 
without any evidence as to the cause of the injury, and it would be 
very desirable to make this point out, for the state of things does a 
good deal of harm. 
At the same date, that is, the 29th of July, Mr. Edm. Kiley, 
writing from Hessle, near Hull, reported the Hessian Fly infestation 
as not present in that neighbourhood, and as not amounting in any 
case to as much as one per cent, near Goole, where he had examined 
the infested crops. 
Mr. Riley wrote :—“I have not yet seen any here, but at Goole, 
where we found it three years ago, you could find it in several fields a 
fortnight ago. The damage is so immaterial that I thought it not 
worth while mentioning it. The Wheat in that district (warp-land) 
grows so strong that you find it when the stem is not broken down. 
