208 
The eggs are deposited in the ground, to the depth of an inch or more* 
The young bugs make their appearance on wheat about the middle of 
June, and may be seen in all stages of growth throughout the summer, 
on all kinds of grain, corn and herds grass. This insect is apterous, or 
unprovided with wings, and is about three-twentieths of an inch long. 
In color and scent it resembles the bed bug. I have heard no. remedy 
suggested. 
Whether wheat will turn to chess is a question which has been so muck 
discussed to so little purpose that I have no idea I could add to the pre¬ 
sent stock of knowledge upon that subject. The vulgar are not yet con¬ 
vinced that such transmutations do not take place, while to science it 
appears as reasonable to suppose that oats turn to herds grass, or barley 
to red clover, as that wheat turns to chess. 
On the subject of the analysis of soils and special composts, much has 
been written and more said. This is, however, a problem not yet alto¬ 
gether solved. Seience has done much. It has accomplished important 
revolutions. But it has left still greater things unaccomplished, and 
whether its past triumphs have not been exaggerated is not a question of 
mere sciolism. When the scientific speculations of Liebig were first pub¬ 
lished, men dreamed that a new era had dawned upon agriculture. They 
thought that it was to be no longer a pursuit of arduous and doubtful 
endeavor, in which results impended on secret laws, on the adventitious 
changes of climate, on mysterious and inscrutable processes. They 
thought he had opened the hidden laboratory of nature, and exposed to 
art the application of means to extort from the soil what it had refused 
to pay. The enthusiasm was natural. The difficulties which science had 
encountered were great. If its victory was not complete, at least a cre¬ 
ditable advantage had been gained, and, while reason was afforded for 
congratulation in view of present accomplishment, a wide field was open¬ 
ed for future hope. 
The prospective are no less than past difficulties. There are a thous¬ 
and things, a knowledge of which would add greatly to the profit and 
certainty of labor, which science has striven for ages, and must probably 
strive for ages more, in vain to know. The operations of nature are 
mysterious. They are not open to the investigation of the curious or 
the thoughtful. It cannot be known how the blighted stalk revives under 
