20 COliN AND GliASS. 
In previous years, from and including tlie summer of 1873, when 
first noticed, the damaged florets in which the grain was entirely 
wanting have been from 80 to 40 per cent., entailing a loss of about 
three sacks per acre, or roughly £4 ; or as nearly as possible a loss 
on the Wheat of half a crop. It is remarked,—“ My neighbours 
would not at first credit my estimate of the damage, but on more 
careful examination they agree with me in its extent. There is no 
doubt that this neighbourhood has suffered more than most of late 
years, for (nowhere that I have been) have I noticed so much red 
and yellow chaff scale in the husk.” 
Prof. Allen Harker notices the Wheat Midge as being out in 
myriads egg-laying on the Wheat, at the Farm, Royal Ag. College, 
Cirencester, in the evening, at the beginning of July; and this precise 
date, together with Mr. Swanwick’s observations of the late appear¬ 
ance of the Midge relatively to date of flowering enabling the grain to 
be so far formed as not to be suitable to the maggot, is of much 
interest, as confirming what has been remarked both here and in 
American and Canadian husbandry. These show that where (by 
management of date of sowing on the other side of the Atlantic, and 
in this country undesignedly through influence of weather) the 
appearance of the Wheat Midge and that of the Wheat flower differ 
in date, we have much benefit. If, as above, the embryo Wheat is too 
much formed to be serviceable to the just-liatclied maggot, the 
creature starves ; if, on the other hand, the Wheat blossom instead 
of the Midge is late, we benefit just in proportion to the numbers that 
perished before our crop was ready for them to lay Their eggs in. 
Wheat-bulb Fly. Hylemia coarctata , Fallen.* 
Early in June of 1881 a communication was made by Mr. W. 
Creese, of Teddington, regarding loss which he had suffered for 
many years in his Wheat crop, by means of a maggot feeding in the 
young plant. 
The attack was observable early in March, or in mild seasons 
about the middle of February, at which time the maggot was so small 
as to be hardly perceptible. Its place of feeding was just at the base 
of the stem, where it remained for a short time and then moved off 
to another shoot, and by the beginning of June the maggots had 
usually disappeared. 
* Notes on this subject were given in the Report on Injurious Insects for 1881, 
but we were not able then to make out which of the Fly maggots present did the 
damage ; part of the life-liistory is therefore repeated. 
