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North Carolina, through which some Hessian soldiers passed in company 
with the British army, soon after the battle of Guilford. These facts 
would seem to leave little doubt of the truth of the common notion rela¬ 
tive to their appearance in this country. The head, antennae and thorax 
of this fly are black. The hind body is tawny, and marked with black 
on each ring, and clothed with fine grayish hairs. The wings are black 
or tawny, and fringed with short hairs ; the legs are a pale brown and 
the feet black. The body is one-tenth of an inch long, and the wings, 
when expanded, are about a quarter of an inch from tip to tip. 
Two broods of this insect are brought forth in the course of the year, 
one in spring and one in autumn. The lives of some extend to more than 
a year in length—patriarchs of vast and destructive hordes. The eggs 
are lain on the leaves of the young plant, in the creases between the 
little ridges, being ejected by the female through a tube, or sting, and 
having the appearance of minute reddish specks. In four or five days, a 
small reddish maggot is hatched, which crawls down the leaf and works 
between it and the main stalk, to the first joint. It there remains with its 
head downward, a little below the surface of the soil, and never moves 
till a transformation is effected. As it grows in size, and becomes plump 
and firm the pressure imbeds it in the stem, and it appears to derive nu¬ 
triment by the suction through its pores of the sap of the young plant. 
One of these maggots is not fatal, but two or three will entirely destroy 
the plant. They come to their full size in five or six weeks. The skin 
then gradually dries, and loosens itself and falls off, the insect still re¬ 
taining the grub form. In this state it exists, and the transformation to 
a fly gradually proceeds. Some six months after the egg is laid, the 
winged insect appears, and be takes itself to depositing new germs for fu¬ 
ture generations. The first deposit is made in Otober, the second in May. 
This is the history of the Hessian fly. A remedy, or preventive has 
not, thus far, been discovered. Various means have been tried, and have 
proved partially or temporarily successful. Fresh seed from localities 
which the fly has not visited, is generally safe from their attacks for a 
year or two. Late sowing in the fall, after the time at which the eggs 
are deposited, is a remedy as against the insect, but subjects the crop to 
the danger of winter-kill. If cattle graze on the fields in the fall, they 
will destroy a great many of the eggs—perhaps it might be added, and 
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