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Mapa, plates, charta, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one expoeure ere filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, aa many frames as required. The following diagrams Illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvant Atre flimAa A das taux de rAductlon diff Arents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul cilchA, 11 est filmA A partir de I'angie supArleur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en Ims, an prenant le nombre d'Images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes sulvants lliustrant la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■III m 5»l^j* ,i..»ip^miiii»nii, -•'"' "^ •, 1-4 -^ 2 3 -a .a CO O e' o S s 9J O -a a X 2 3 O ,J3 H Ph I -a •c o u s CO CO o .xi I )§ o bO # PRIZE ESSAY. ClIAFTEll i. Accounts of the ravages of dcatructlvo iiiHcctH, conintoii, 1, 2.— Reinndial mcaMuron not ruseaf and into all the land of Egypt, the laud was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies." (Ex. iU.)-« And the locusts went up over aQ the latid of Egypt, an^'iv^iii 4)t ihk'^ ' coasts of Egypt." (Ex. xO— " And I will restore to you the yean ^ th^ Jpff^ ^Uii < eaten, the cuikerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer wonii^ my great anny which I sent among you." (JpelU.) >,,l i inidid h i ^ 12 PRIZE essay: injury we occasionally suffer from the natural causes, because we have not always the opportunity of comparing our losses and troubles with those sustained by our fellow-men in less favoured countries than our own. It is obviously unjust to attribute to climate, geographical position or peculiarities of soil, the general appearance of destructive insects, which we have encouraged and invited by the best means in our power, or perhaps, which it was possible to devise. In the following pages it will be shown that we enjoy in Western Canada a singular immunity from insect 'lepredations, arising no doubt from our insulated position and humid climate. 9. I do not wish to under-rate the injury sustained by the country at large by the ravages of such insects as the Hessian fly, the wheat fly, and the wire worm, &c. ; but when it can be shown that we possess to c. considerable degre>.: the means of arresting the devastating progress of those we have suffered to make their home in our midst, and of so reducing their numbers as to render them comparatively harmless ; it cannot fail to be a matter of congratulation and thankfulness that insect enemies over which we cannot exercise control, neither trouble nor as yet threaten us, although the gradual approach of some of them from the South is a sufficient cause for anxious watchfulness and care. (See paragraphs 14 and 21.) 10. Our si»ter colony at the Cape of Good Hope, has been particularly subject to the di'eadful scourge of locusts, {Gryllu9 devastator,) whose invasions are invariably followed by famine in the region they devastate. The inroads of the locust are ap- parently periodical, according to Pringle, about once every fifteen years. In 1808 after having laid waste a considerable portion of the country, they disappeared, and did not return until 1824. They then remained for several years, but in 1830, took their departure. The proper home of the locust is yet a mystery. ^^"""v^^mmmfHi DESTRVCTIVE INSECTS. 13 Experience only tells us that at the Cape they come southwards from the north.(*) 11. It is well known that the locust sometimes multiplies in Europe to such a degree as to devastate provisions. Africa is rarely free from its ravages, and of their infinite multitude we have records from the earliest authors, fully confirmed by the accounts of recent travellers. In France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Russia, armies of locusts have appeared from time to time, and with such devastating progress that " the land is as the •Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wil- derness." North America is not exempt from the plague of insects, allied to locusts, and while in Europe they seldom pene- trate further north than latitude 43*^, their congeners have com- mitted great ravages as far north as Lord Selkirk's settlement, at Pembina, on the Red River, in latitude .54°, coming from the Western prairies. 12. The seventeen year locust, as it is popularly but erroneously termed, is an American insect of most singular habits and des- tructive character. Its appearance was first recorded abcnt Philadelphia in May, 171.5, and since that date "punctually at the same month every seventeenth year, now certainly for nearly one hundred and fifty years, has this extraordinary insect been known to make its visit. No causes have affected it during that period, not even so far as relates to the month in which it appears." <2) 13. This remarkable insect appears in different parts of the United States in separate broods, which have each their appointed year for assuming the winged state, and propagating their species. An entire brood hatches in a fevr dfl}'S time, and countless mil- lions of these large black flies (not true locusts) suddenly appear (1) Lake Ugasni. Page 286. <2) W. 8. W. Euschenberger, M.D., TI.8.N. 14 PRIZE essay: over areas occupying many thousand square miles. Dr. Fitch, State Entomologist of New York, says that three of these broods exist partly within the boundaries of the State, and there ap- pear to be six other broods in different parts of the United States. 14. One brood inhabits the valley of the Hudson River. Its last appearance was in 1843, and it will appear again in 1860. A second brood is found in Western New York, Western Penn- sylvania and Eastern Ohio. It appeared in 1849, and it is very probable that the outskirts of the brood extend into Canada. It may be looked for again in 1866. The third brood, which came forth in 1855, extends from the Atlantic to the Ohio, and into Canada ; several individuals of this brood are said to have been taken near Toronto in that year, and it is quite certain that the loud note of a cicada was heard repeatedly in the woods west of the city in July of that year. Dr. Fitch, quoting a letter from Mr. Robinson, dated Pallchassie, May 24th, says, " I have heard the seventeen year locusts for ten days past, but they are not plenty here. At Park Hill, however, twenty-five miles south of this, in the Cherokee country, they are very numerous, and in these hungry times, occasioned by the severe drought of last year and this spring, the people (Indians) are glad to gather and eat them." 15. The great Pennsylvania brood before noticed reached from that State to Georgia ; another or fifth brood extends from Western Pennsylvania through the valley of the Ohio River, and down that of the Mississippi to Louisiana; it appeared in 1846 and will, therefore, make its re-appearance in 1863. A sixth brood assumed the fly state in 1854 around the head of Lake Michigan, and across Northern Illinois into Iowa. Other and minor broods are recorded to have made their appearance in different parts of the Union, but Dr. Fitch thinks that some of DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 15 them may have consisted of other species, mistaken for the true seventeen year locu8ts.(i) 16. In Ohio it is stated on the hest authority, that the grubs have been collected in such vast quantities, that they have been used in the manufacture of soap by the farmers in the localities where they are abundant. The number of them is" so immense that the ground is described as riddled by their holes. Dr. Hildreth says they dwell for 1 ti years and ten months in a grotto of their own construction, probably near the root of some tree, for they are forest dwellers, and derive their nourishment from the roots of trees, grasses and herbs. In 1846 a large number of these locusts emerged from the earth in Dr.|Hildreth's gar- den, in the branches of which the parent cicada had deposited her eggs in 1829. (^) In 18.54 this extraordinary insect was noticed as being more wide spread in many places in Illinois than it was on its previous visit. Fruit and forest trees wherever they had been planted on the prairies, were seventeen years- ago destitute of these insects, but in 1854 they came from the ground among such trees as abundantly as in the original timber lands. W) An enemy there lying concealed and preying for seventeen years upon the choicest treasures of the garden and field, must be en- titled to a place among insect scourges in the first rank. Canada is happily yet free from the destructive presence of this extra- ordinary depredator, but it is found in all the States of the Union surrounding her, warning us of its approach and visit. It appears to infect the oak, apple, poplar, and probably many other trees, for the purpose of depositing its eggs, for which object it punctures the small limbs and does incalculable injury. (1) For a most interesting account of this insect see page 38 of the first report on the noxious and otliei" insects of the State of Now York, Dr. Asa Fitch, 1855. (2) p. 216, Vol. 3, 2nd series. H. J. of Science. (3) Dr. Fitch's Report, page 43. 16 PRIZE essay: 80 weakening the branches it attacks, that, as in Wisconsin in 1854, every gust of wind suffices to break off many of the twigs at the point where the locust had deposited its eggs. Mr. T. W. Morris speaks of having seen the tops of the forest trees in Pennsylvania and Ohio, for upwards of one hundred miles, ap- pearing as if scorched by fire a month after this locust had left them. (1) 1 7. In some of the forests in South Carolina ninety pine trees out of one hundred have been killed by a small beetle. Great numbers of noble pines, three feet in diameter, and l.'iO feet high, stand with their naked arms stretched abroad, lifeless, like hundred and thousands of othert prostrate on the ground with- out any successors of their kind. <2) In the great timber region of the Ottawa there is a narrow strip of dead pines extending thirty miles up the river, no trace of fire or any other agent likely to have effected their destruction is visible ; their erect trunks stand in gloomy grandeur almost stript of their branches by long exposure to wind, rain and snow. Although no outward sign is visible of the destroying enemy, yet, no doubt the de- structive pine beetle has been the secret cause of their decline and death. (•') It has long been known that a beetle (Bostrichus typographus) has several times threatened the entire destruction of the forests in the Hartz Mountains. In 1783 a million and a half of trees were destroyed by this insect in the Hartz alone. As many as 80,000 larvae have been found on a single tree. 18. The palmer worm which visited New England and the eastern part of the State of New York with such unparalleled destructiveness in 1853, is common in Canada. In 1791 the (1) Dr. Fitch's Report. (2) Trans. Amer. Ins., 1846. (3) Belated to the writer by a very competent-eye witness, who spent seroral years with the Lumbermeu. DE8TRUCTIVK IN8KCT8. 17 orchards and forests of New England were overrun by this worm, and the leaves of the apple, oak and other trees devoured by it. In 1853 the trees everywhere assumed a brown withered appear- ance under their destructive attacks, looking ns though they had been scorched by fire. On jarring or shaking a tree hundreds would instantly let themselves down from among the leaves, by fine threads like cobweb, some dropping to the ground, others remaining suspended in the air. They continued in full force until 2.3rd June, when rain accompanied by heavy thunder caused them to disappear.(i) 1 9. The Aphis tribe, of which many species were so abundant and destructive in the neighbourhood of Toronto during the dry summer of IS.^ti, is in some countries a most dreaded and de- vastating pest. So wonderfully productive are the green plant lice that in five generations one aphis may be the progenitor of 5,904,900,000 descendants ; and it is supposed that in one year there may be 20 generations (Reaumer). In 1810 the Pea crop was almost entirely destroyed throughout Great Britain by an aphis. Indeed next to the locust the aphidse may be said to be the greatest enemies of the vegetable world (Kirby) . The won- derful fertility of this tribe of insects exceeds that of any known species, and elevates them to a position in the scale of pests and plagues which secures for them the second, if not in many tem- perate climates, the first place among insect depredators. A few weeks is sufficient to convert a handful of these viviparous and oviparous insects into countless legions, which taking flight, darken the air by their numbers. In 1834 a great flight of these insects was distributed by a strong wind over Belgium. In 1836 the inhabitants of Hull, England, were seriously incommoded by a host of them loading the air in numbers so immense aa (1) See 2nd Report by Dr. Fitch. 18 PRIZE E88AY : to fill the eyes, nose and mouth of all who were in the open air at the time of their visit.<') There are numerous species of aphis, forty-nine named species have been recorded by Stephens in his catalogue of British insects. They are found to infest most of our cultivated vegetables. Fortunately they have num- erous enemies, otherwise their wonderful fecundity would enable them to destroy every blade of grass and every green thing in our gardens and fields. 20. Mr. Curtis states that from one egg, in seven generations, 729 millions will be bred ; and if they all lived their allotted time, by autumn everything upon the surface of the earth would be covered by them. Dr. Fitch relates that " on the last day of October, 1854, it being a warm sunny day, after many nights of frost, I observed myriads of winged and apterous lice wandering about upon the trunks, the limbs and the fading leaves of all my apple trees, many of them occupied in laying their eggs. These were scattered along in every crevice of the bark, in many }>laces piled up and filling the cracks, and others were irregularly dropped among the lichens and moss growing upon the bark — every unevenness of the surface, or wherever a roughness afforded a support for them, being stocked with as many as could be made to cling to it." 21. The history of the chinch bug is probably not familiar to the majority of Canadian farmers, as this insect does not yet ap- pear to have crossed the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers ; but while it is to be hoped that many years will elapse before it finds a home in this country, there is reason to fear that sooner or later we may have to deplore, perhaps in a mitigated form, its advent in our midst. As allusion will be made to this destructive and (1) See Smoe on the potato plant, for numerous instances of the incredible numbers and d6structivene88 of various species of aphidie. DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. \9 disgusting in8ect,(i) in subsequent pages (paragraph ')2), the following account of its progress and dcstructiveness is submitted from Dr. Fitch's reports: — "The chinch bug has now multiplied and extended itself over all parts of Illinois and the adjacent districts of Indiana and Wisconsin, and has become a most for- midable scourge. The dry seasons which have recently occurred have increased it excessively. In passing through Northern Illinois, in the autumn of 18.54, I found it in myriads. In the middle of extensive prairies, on parting the grass in search of insects, the ground in some places was found covered and swarm- ing with chinch bugs. The appearance reminded me of that presented on parting the hair of a calf that has been poorly wintered, where the skin is found litcrallv alive with vermin. 22. Our western neighbours have for years past been congra- tulating themselves upon the security of their wheat crops, exempt from the midge and other insect depredators which were causing us such losses here at the east. But they now find that they have in the chinch bug a foe more formidable and destruc- tive even than the wheat midge, since it not only cuts off their wheat, but in many localities it takes the corn and other crops also. Although it is commonly only a strip of the outer edge of the field which they devastate, yet in several instances the entire field is invaded and swarms with them, so that no grain is developed in the heads, and some have set fire to their wheat fields to consume the hosts of these vermin which were gathered therein, with the hope of thereby lessening the numbers upon their farms the following year. The disgusting smell, moreover, which these bugs emit, is most loathsome and sickening to the labourers engaged in harvesting the wheat fields. Lilley's reaping machine, made at Elgin, Illinois, has small deep boxes sunk in the plat- (Xi In 1856 tho chinch bug injured spring wheat in Fayette County, Iowa. '20 PRIZK K88AY : form for the raker nnd three binders to stand in, that they may not have to stoop to their work as they woidd if standing on the platform. As the machine is in operation, the feet of the men standing in those boxes become buried among the insects and fine chaff which fall into them. The men are so annoyed by these vermin thus covering their feet and crawling up their legs, that they many times stamp to shake off and crush the tor- menting things ; and whether dead or alive, when thus heaped together in masses, such a stink arises from them, as, when wafted by the air it happens to come full in one's face, is the most loathsome and nauseating of any thing that can he imagined. 22. (a) It is difficult to arrive at accurate conclusions respect- ing the annual cost of maintaining destructive insects. In France, where great efforts are constantly made to diminish the numbers of these terrible foes to the agricidturist and public ■economy, upwards of four hundred thousand pounds have been paid out of the government chest in one year to armies of men, women and children, for their labours in extirpating these pests. This large outlay occurred during a season in which destructive insects prevailed to an unusual extent, threatening the country with famine. It has been said on very excellent authority, that the damages done by insects in France alone amount on the average to 4^.50,000,000. This sum, immense as it appears to be, is actually approached in some years in the United States. The damages done by the wheat midge in 18.54, exceeded, un- doubtedly, ^16,000,000 throughout the Union. When to the injuries committed by the terrible pest just named, those of the chinch bug, Hessian fly, wire worm, and the hosts of insects preying upon fruit trees are added, ^^30,000,000 would not cover the cost of their maintenance in that year. The quantity of human food annually consumed by insects in France, is equal to OBSTRVCTIVB INSECTS. 91 the entire consumption of the nation for a period of five weeks, and two species alone are computed to consume annually more than three millions of men. 0) The celebrated curculios, and the ' terrible ' Angoumois moth, so dreadfully destructive in 1 7()0, are among the wheat pests of France. 22. (b) The progress and increase of insects destructive to cultivated crops in the United States, is a subject of the utmost importance to agriculture. So many threatening and uncon- trollable circumstances govern their increase on this continent, that the danger of short harvests arising from their depredations is year by year growing more imminent, and will some day come upon the country with a blow as sudden as it will be terrible. The immense area occupied by cultivated crops, the almost total absence of rotation, and the remarkable character of some of the indigenous insects which have already proved seriously destruc- tive in the middle States of the Ohio and Mississippi valleya, all threaten a calamity which will be felt from Maine to Mexico. As I propose to enlarge upon this subject in a future chapter, further remarks are at present unnecessary. (Chapter VIII. On the cultivation of wheat in the United Stat'^s.) 23. The food of insects embraces the utmost variety the animal and vegetable world can offer. Some species are restricted to particular plants, and if these fail, the race may for a time dis- appear. (^) Insects appear to be the instruments designed to arrest the excessive growth and increase of certain species of plants, and it is probable that there is not a species of plant, which does not furnish nutriment for one or more tribes of insects, either in their larvse state or in their perfect condition, whereby it is prevented from multiplying to the exclusion of others. (1) M. Delamane. (2) Carpenter. ^^^L.^lt^i'^V'-' ••''* ii^A^^.i-. wmmmmmf 22 PaiU BMAYt 24. Not lew than two hundred kindi of oaterpflUra «re aup- poied to feed upon the oak ; and upwards of 60 different species of insects are known to live upon the nettle, which is so repug- nant to quadrupeds that few will touch it, yet such is the rapid increase of this vegetable, that if it were not for its insect de- predators it would soon annihilate all plants in its neighbour- hood. The naturalist, Wilkc, tells us that every plant has its proper insect allotted to it, to curb its luxuriance and to prevent it from multiplying to the exclusion of others. The peculinrity of the agency of insects consists of their power of suddenly multiplying their numbers to a degreec which could only be accomplished in n conHidcrable lapse of time in any of the larger animals, and then as instantaneously relapsing without the inter- vention of any violent disturbing cause into their former insig- nificance. (') Many instances of this sudden increase and cor- responding disappearance a few days or weeks after, will be noticed in the following pages. 25. The wind seems to play a very important part in the dis- tribution of insects over wide areas and in particular directions. A wind from the coast of Africa drove such myriads of flies upon the fresh paint of H. M. S. Adventure, then 100 miles from land, that not the smallest point was left unoccupied or uncor- ered. The Hessian fly, and particularly the wheat midge, both select low and sheltered places for their depredations. Elevated and exposed fields are not unfrequently untouched in the midst of the greatest devastation 26. The connection of insects with rocks is a subject which has been investigated to a very slight degree, and offers a fertile and instructive field for the enquiring agricultural entomologist. Mr. Wailes always found the lar^'se of enicoceri on rough shiny (t) Liyell— Principle of Geology. DRSTRUCTIVR INMKCTfl. 23 Htoncfl, nnd hu found it na great a wnstc uf time to look tor it upon a smooth linicatonc as to turn up a fragment of Imsaiti'* rock (whitstone), in seareh of a geodophagous (>) insect. "So far," says Mr. Wailes, "as my observations, whetlier confined to single stones, or extended over a whole district, go, any place having limestone, particularly the magnesian, for its subjacent stratum, will afford abundance of the geodephaga as well as most other coleoptera, whilst they will he found very thinly scattered over a basaltic region." (*) (1) OeodephnRous. Thn goodophags form a oolooptoroui lubdivUlon conUiniiig two ftiiDllies, tho cicindvlldtD and tho carabida*. Of the former there are lietwccn fifty and siity ipocioi known in tho United 8tatea and Canada. They prey on ina'jots. Tho carobidm aro very ntininrous, prodacooui, foediiiK upon innnctit and alio upon voRutabloii. They aro Koiicrtilly found under itonci and nibbiiih. (2) Quoted in Enc. Britt. 8tli Ed. CHAPTER II. ; Use of scientUlo terms oommon and necessary, 27, 28.— Reasons why an outline of entomological classification and nomenclature is necessary, 28, 29.— Importance of Entomology, 30, 31.— Boasona why the study of insects has not been popu. lar. 33, 34.— Voflnition of insects, 36.— Changes which they undergo. 37.— Breathing organs of insects, 38.— Systematic arrangement of, 39.— Definition, 40.— Scheme, 40.— Order I., Coleoptora, 41.— Order II., Orthoptera, 47.— Order III., Neuroptera, 48.— Orler lY., Hymenoptera, 49.— Order V., Trichoptery, 60. Order YI., Strepsiptcra, 61.— Order YII., Hemiptera. 62.— Chinch Bug, 62.— Aphidn in the United States, 53.— Order YIII., Depidoptera, 64.— Order IX., Diptera, 66.— Technical characters of the Cecidomyia, the genus to which the wheat midge belongs, 66.— Order X., Aphaniptera, 67-— Order XL, Th}'sanoura« 68.— Order XII., Parasita, 69. 27. Every agricultural publicalion contains from time to time descriptions of insect depredators, in which are frequently em- ployed many of the scientific terms used by entomologists to de- signate the species, genus and order, w which the maurauder be- longs. The use of some scientific terms is very often absolutely necessary in giving even a popular description of a fly, a beetle, a weevil, a parasite, or a so called bug. 28. Every one is familiar with the frequent occurrence of such terms as coleopterous insect, dipterous insect, parasitical insect, larva, pupa, &c. Farmers ought to be familiar with these terms, and to be able to form a correct idea of the nature of an insect depredator, which may occasion injury or alarm, whether they acquire their information from the perusal of a popular but suffi- ci«!ntly accurate description, or whether they seek to convey in written words an account of what they observe with such ac- TMiracy and distinctness as would enable any one acquainted with DESCRIPTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF INSKCTS. 25 the outlinea of entomology to identity the insect, if among well known destmctive species, here or abroad. It is fov the pnrpose of affording a general view of insect classification and nomencla- ture that the following brief definitions and descriptions are given. Tiiey contain merely those terms which are continually occurring even in popular descriptions of insecti, and without which most attempts to convey in words an idea of a new, a strange, or even a common species, must necessarily be compara- tively worthless, beciuise indistinct and imperfect. 29. The definitions and outlines of classification are prefaced by a few remarks upon the distribution and importance of insects, the science which treats of their history, habits and relation to man, and the difficulties which prejudice and a want of a proper appreciation of its merits have thrown in its way as a subject of popular instruction and enquiry. The increase and ravages of insects injurious to many of our cultivated crops have already become matters of the highest importance on this continent, and year by year threatens us with a terrible calamity. Like many other unseen yet impending evils, the magnitude of this one is unappreciated, and it is only when a devastation similar to that which occurred in New York State in 1854, or in the Niagara Townships in 1856, become as wide spread as the Union itself^ that men generally will regard the subjec* in a proper light. 30. There is no branch of natural history which can claim so many distinct objects of study and admiration as that of Ento- mology. (1) The number of distinct species of insects contained in collections, probably amounts to 200,000. In the Museum at Berlin about 100,000 species are arranged and classified, among which are upwards of 40,000 coleoptera or beetles, and it is com- (l) EntomoIoKy. Bntomon, an insect, logot, a discourse. C f' mmmmmgt ippifppniiip wmt IPPW npupipPiff 26 PRIZE E8SAY : ' puted that all the species of insects taken together, which exist in nature do not fall short of 400,000. 31. It is, however, probable, that there are more known species of plants than insects, but the vegetable world has been far more sedulously studied and ransacked than the apparently less strik- ing and less important world of insects. A very large number of plants have been collected in distant parts of the globe, with- out the insects which live on them or near them being brought at the same time. But if we limit, says Humboldt, (i) the esti- mates of numbers to a single part of the world, and that the one which has been the best explored in respect to both plants and insects, viz., Europe, we find a very different proportion, for while we can hardly enumerate between seven and eight thous- and European phoenogamous (flowering) plants, moro than three times that number of insects are already known. 32. The relations of insects to man are not only remarkably numerous but of the utmost importance, and with the exception of the domesticated animals, they exceed those of all other classes in this kingdom of nature. Nevertheless, we find that the study of entomology is still in its infancy, and has neither progressed so rapidly nor won so many admirers as her sister science botany, or some of her kindred departments in zoology. 33. From the time of Pliny to that of Linn6 in Sweden, fieaumer in France, Sulzer in Germany, Ray, Kirby and Spence in England, Say in America, entomologists have found the ne- cessity of seizing every opportunity of showing that their favor- ite science was not a frivolous amusement or devoid of utility, as popular opinion seemed inclined to consider it. (^) Old im- pressions, says Reaumeur, are with difficulty effaced. They are (1) Aspects of nature. (2) Sec introduction to Kirby and Spence's Entomology. iplliil ppiWl»P^'''''^'Wnwrw»'" DESCRIPTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF INSKCT8. 27 weakened, they appear unjust even to those who feel them, at the moment they are attacked by arguments which are inadmiss- able ; but the next instant the proofs are forgotten, and the per- verse association resumes its empire." 34. During the last half century the low estimation in which the science of entomology was formerly held, has been slowly giving way to a more correct appreciation of its value and of the benefits which a general study of its details might confer upon mankind. At times like the present, when a vast province is trembling at the prospect of one of its staple productions dwin- dling away under the attacks of minute but numberless insects, all are willing to listen to the teachings of the entomologist, and would seek to elevate to the position of a' i mvaluable science, the study which, when proofs are forgotten, will probably be allowed, in popular estimation at least, once mora to subside into a harm- less or frivolous pursuit. 35. It would be an easy task to show by numerous illustra- tions the great economical value of the science of entomolo^, but as this would swell out the pages to too great an extent, I shall content myself with a reference to the statistical facts in- terspersed throughout this essay, which may serve to create, where it is most needed, a proper appreciation of the magnitude of those evils which are growing upon us, by the selfishness, in- difference and neglect, which a mistaken impression of individual security has cherished. 36. Insects may be defined as animals without vertebrsc ; six- footed ; with a distinct head furnished with two antennae, and a pair of compound immoveable eyes ; breathing through open- ings which lead to internal air tubes or trachse ; sexes distinct ; adult state attained through a series of changes called metamor- phosis. 37. Nearly every insect undergoes three changes, (fig. I., II. 28 PRIZE ESSAY > and III.) before it reaches its perfect condition. From the egg to the larva ; from the larva to the pupa; and from the pupa CATBBFILLAB.— via. I. MOTH.— nS. III. MOTH. or chrysalis to the imago or perfect insect. The larvse of insects are commonly distinguished in popular phraseology in the fol* lowing manner : Grubs are the larvae of the coleoptera or beetles ; maggots the larvae of the diptera or two winged flies ; caterpillars the larvae of butterflies, moths and sphinges. 38. Most insects breathe through small openings called stigmata, spiracles or air holes, placed on the side of each segment of the body. These air holes can be distinctly seen without difficulty in naked caterpillars (fig. I.) The opening can be closed at will by the insect. The air holes are connected with ramifying tubes called air tubes or trachae. 39. The following scheme of a systematic arrangement of in- sects is based upon the peculiarities in the construction and ^iliiil DESCRIPTION AND CliASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 29 number of the wings or organs of flight, as appears from the derivation of the names given to the several orders. This ar- rangement must be considered as representing the most marked peculiarities of each particular order, and susceptible of various modifications as our knowledge of insect structure and analogies increases ; it is in fact but one out of many systems which have been proposed by entomologists, and is selected because it re- cognizes many primary divisions which are employed in popular descriptions, and which have been approved since the time of Linnoeus, their originator. 40. The primary divisions are termed orders ; the orders are peared in Lower Cana^b, in Mississippi valley, in North-western States of the American Union, from 1776 to 1869, 71. Description cf the Insect : the head and thorax, 73.— Dr. Harris' description. Dr. Fitch's description of the female, 74.— The antennae, 74.— The ovipositor, 76.— The male Hessian fly, the antennas and abdomen, 76. Habits q/ the Insect : Jjays her eggs in autumn and in spring, two broods each, 77.— Autumn brood, 78. -Maggots of the Hessian fly, 78.— Etfects on the straw, 79, 80, 81, 82.— The underbill wheat, 82.— Injury to the stem in the flrst instance, 84.— Change of maggot to pupa, 86.— Flagogeed state, 86, 86.— Dormant larvic, 87.— Pupa, 88.— Change to the fly, 88.— Wonder- ful adaptation shown by the fly, 89.— Resistance of insects to cold, 90.— Illus- trations of this, Vl.—Secotul generation qf the Hessian Fly, 92.— Gall fly characteristic of the Hessian fly, 93.— Parasites, 94,95, M.—Tatasitea prey upon the spring generation chiefly, V] .—Remedial Measures, 98, 99.— Enume- ration of different remedial measures, a fertile soil, 101.— Vast crops of wheat in Niagara County, N.Y., analysis of soil on which these extraordinary crops were grown, 103.— Late sowing, 104.— Grazing, the roller, mowing, ;,04, 108. — Fly proof, wheat so called, 108.— Underbill wheat, Ellma, Mediterranean, white flint, Mr. R. Harmon's opinion of tho white flint, 103.- Peculiarity in ihe deterioration of wheats, 110.— Tillering of wheat. 111.— The Chidham vheat, 112.— Early nob wheat, 113.— Steeps for the seed, 117.— Mr. Pell's steep and success of, 115.— Steeps, experiment on, 116.— Steep for smut, proportions, 117, 118.— Oats as a decoy, wheat as a decoy, 118.— Deeply covering the seed, 119.— Proper depth for sowing, 119.— Procuring seed ttora uninfected districts, 120.— Sun dryingthe seed, 121.— Sprinkling salt, Ac, 121.- Burning and plough- ing up the wheat stubble, 122. -General consideration of remedial measures^ 123.— Benefit of steeping wheat, 121.- ' Sow Late,* 125.— Spring wheat, 126 — Fife wheat, 126.— The cause of the spread of the Hessian fly, 127.— Apparent periodicity, 128.— Sudden inc/easo in various insects, 129.— Cause of sudden increase. Dr. Fitch's opinion, 130.— Cultivation of its favorad fOLd without rotation, 131. The Hessian Fly. (Cecidomyia Destructor.) 61. The distinguished entomologist of the State of New York, Dr. Asa Fitch, in a history of the character, transforma- wmm WPPPPPPPPPPT THE HESSIAN FLY. 39 tious and habits of the Hessian fly, (i) written and published more than ten years ago, tells us that no other insect of the tens of thousands which teem on this continent has received a tithe of the attention or been chronicled with a tithe of the volumi- nousness that has been assigned to this species. As a natural consequence of this close investigation, every point in its history has from time to time been made prblic, so that very little that is new can now be embodied in an account of the insect. 62. In strict agreement with the preceding paragraph, the following account of the Hessian fly brings down its history to the present day, briefly describes the extent and frequency of its ravages, and the means which have been adopted, successfully or otherwise, to guard against them, but does not profess to an- nounce anything new with respect to the habits and economy of this alarming depredator. 63. Some few points in its history have been amplified, more especially those which relate to the efi'ect which it, in conjunction with the wheat midge, is likely to have upon the cultivation of wheat in the north-western States of the American Union, and the practical but expensive lesson it teaches the Canadian farmer to recognize and adopt — that first law of good husbandry — rotation of crops. Origin of the Hessian Fly. 64. It appears at first sight to be a matter of little moment to farmers whether the Hessian fly be a native of this continent or an importation from Europe. As a question of natural his- tory and public economy it is both interesting and important, as it shows the necessity of acquiring information respecting the (1) The Hessian Fly, its Iiistory, character, transformation and habits ; by Asa Fitch, M.D., American Journal of Agriculture and Science, Vols. IV., V. Also, in the transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society, 1846. PPPWWI* -^ Jlppililll^ ^ .. 'J ■iiiiiiuiiLi.il m§Mwwmmmmmmmmmi^i(9i'9ifii9if^ 40 PRIZE ESSAY : habits of both indigenous and foreign insects injurious to culti- vated crops, so that the introduction of new species into this continent, in the ordinary way of commercial traffic, or by the curious in such matters, may, if possible, be prevented ; and if by any means a new foreign insect should take up its residence with us and attract public attention by its ravages, much valuable and available information might be speedily disseminated from a familiarity with the history of the depredator in those countries where it had long been known, and of the means which were there adopted to arrest its progress or lessen its destructiveness. 65. Instances are continually occurring which illustrate the value of the kind of information referred to. During the last few years two new importations of insects from Ger- inny, de- structive to the turnip, have been made in Great Brif liii. '.'hese new arrivals are described in a paper (have mislaid the reference) published in a recent agricultural Scottish journal. The Australian wheat ravager, so destructive to the splendid crops of grain produced in many parts of that magnificent coun- try, has been brought to Canada as an entomological curiosity ; and I am very credibly informed that several living specimens are now in this country, closely, and it is to be hoped securely imprisoned, in a glass bottle. 66. It is quite possible from the habits of the Hessian fly in its larvee and pupa states, that it may have been brought into America in straw or otherwise from some of the many Europeri',: countries, where it appears to have been well known long bei)re it committed on this continent those terrible devastations which threatened at one time to arrest the cultivation of wheat in some of the Atlantic States of the American Union. t)7. A common impression prevails that this insect was intro- duced into America by the Hessian troops in their straw from Germany, during the year 1776, at which time the British Army, THE HESSIAN FLY. 41 then in occupation of Staten Island, received large reinforcements of Hessians under General de Heister. This idea has heen ridi- culed by many European entomologists, who have asserted that the insect is strictly American. It appears, however, that its existence has long been established and known in France, Ger- many, Switzerland and some of the larger Islands of the Medi- terranean ; probably for more than a century it has attracted at- tention in those countries, although the extent of its ravages may not have been known and consequently not recorded. (i) 68. This insect was first noticed in America in Long Island in the year 1 776, or 80 years ago. It proceeded inland at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles a year, and in 1 789 it had reached 200 miles from its original station. (2) It is now found as far west as Iowa and Minnesota, following the cultivation of wheat, wherever that cereal is introduced in the westward progress of settlement on this continent. The Southern States have suifered greatly from its ravages, and it seems to adapt itself without any diffi- culty to all the climates Avhich admit of the cultivation of its favourite food. 69. In a communication with which the writer of this Essay was favoured by Dr. Fitch, during February of the present year, the following interesting notice occurs of the ravages committed by the Hessian fly in the Provinces of Simbirsk and Saratov in Russia dur^ig the year 1852. In addition to the evidence I adduce, showing the Hessian fly to be a European insect which has been introduced into this country, I meet with thefoUowing in the " Etudes Entomologique" of the Russian naturalist, Motschalsky, page 23 : — " Cecidomyia funeata, Motsch, voisine de la cec. destructor (1) See an article by Mr. Herrick in the 12th vol. of the American Journal of Science and Art The Essay by Dr. Fitch, trans. N.V.S.A.S. , 184C. (2) Kirby and Spence. w wp w mmmmmm wmmmmmmmmni^fm 42 PRIZE essay: i I , I " Say, mais de couleur moins fonc^e, qui parait avoir des moeurs " analogues avec I'esp^ce d' Am£rique. EUe a caus^ I'annfi pasale " des grands ravages au froment des Gouv. Simbirsk et Sa:.^tov. " Je I'ai d^crite avec son parasite le platygqtater funeMut m., « dans le Journal du Minist^re de I'lnterieur, 1852." I have no doubt that this Russian insect is identical with our Hessian fly, which, when first hatched, is paler than afterwards. 70. The foregoing paragraphs seem to show, without any re- maining doubt, that the Hessian fly is a European insect, and that its depredations have been known and lamented many years before it was heard of or observed in America. Wt^ may, there- V. 'f\ accept the popular narrative of its introduction here, and a\ ud ourselves of all the information which the experience of its past history, habiis and ravages in Europe can aflbrd. History of its Progress. 71. The following records of the appearance of this destruc- tive insect in the United States and Canada, have been collated from various resources, but chiefly from the United States Patent Office Reports ; Dr. Fitch's Essay ; the transactions of the New York Agricultural Society ; American and Canadian agricultural periodical publications, correspondence, &c. About the year 1776 the Hessian fly was introduced into Staten and Long Island from Europe. 1779. * Caused great damage to wheat in Long Island. 1786. Appeared in New Jersey, 40 miles south-east of Staten Island ; east end of Long Island ; Shelter Island. 1788. Very destructive near Trenton, N.J. ; commenced its ravages in the State of Pennsylvania. ■mnnpi THE HESSIAN FLY. 43 1789. Reached Saratoga, 200 miles north of its original station; very destructive there in 1791 ; continued until 1803, when it disappeared. Re-appeared in 1845. Common in the middle Atlantic States. 1790. I Very common and destructive in the middle Atlantic States of the Union. 1791. Less common in the middle States ; arrived in Delaware in vast multitudes. 1792. Destroyed in Delaware an immense quantity of wheat. 1797. Appeared west of the Alleghany Mountains. 1801. First appeared near Richmond, Virginia. 1802-3 and 1804. Very destructive in Virginia. 1805, 1816. Ravages not recorded ; probably not general or in great excess in the United States. Prevalent and destructive in some parts of Lower Canada. 1817. Ravages renewed in New York State, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. 1818, 1819. Noticed in Pennsylvania. 1820. i : Common in Maryland and Pennsylvania. 1830-6. Disappeared in Lower Canada. 1831. Crops much injured in Seneca County, New York. mH^ mm VPHPPiP 44 PRIZE ESSAY : 1842. Very destructive in Pennsylvania ; Maryland and Ohio visited by it. 1843. Western Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Ohio all suf- fered this year. 1844. Very destructive in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Western New York, west end of Long Island, Penn- sylvania. 1845. Destructive in Illinois and Maryland, very destructive in Geor- gia ; disappeared from the districts in Michigan and Indiana, where they had committed havoc the preceding year. 1846. Very destructive in Maryland and ruinous in Georgia. Com- mon in New York, parts of Western Canada and Eastern Penn- sylvania. In Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, near the Mississippi. Unusually destructive this year. In Georgia the Hessian fly was observed to issue from its pupa case May 6th. 1847. Common throughout the wheat growing States of the West. Common in New York, but not generally destructive this year. General, but not destructive, in the County of York, U. C. It was observed very generally in the autumn depositing its eggs on the young wheat over wide areas in the United States ; also in County of York, Canada West. Great fears excited in the United States for the safety of the harvest of the ensuing year. 1848. "The crop of 1848 was, undoubtedly, one of the best and largest ever grown."(i) (1) Hon. C. P. Halcomb, of Delaware, U. S. P. O. Eep. 1849-50. mm mmm THE HESSIAN FLY. 1849. 45 Very general and destructive in some of the counties of New York — Oswego, Albany, and Columbia Counties. Ravages great in Ohio. IS.'iO. Disappearing from parts of Ohio, also from parts of Michigan. " The Hessian fly, one of the enemies to our wheat growers, visits us at intervals of from four to six years, continuing its ravages through two or three seasons, and then apparently dis- appears."(^) 1851. General improvement in Pennsylvania and Maryland ; Hes- sian fly not troublesome. Virginia much improved ; the fly *' scarcely dreaded." No Hessian fly in Gallea County, Ohio ; disappearing in Oakland County, Michigan, " for years." Not troublesome in Indiana ; general insecurity from its ravages. In Buckingham County, Vermont, 1851, the Hessian fly had almost disappeared, and from its great diminution the farmers thought they could sow their wheat in September, which resulted in the immediate increase of the fly, and a consequent falling back to late sowing and proper preparation of seed. 1852. Hessian fly attacked wheat in Fauquier County, Virginia, when sown before October. The same in Buckingham County, Ver- mont. Not known to any extent in Penobscot County, Maine. 1853. Committed great ravages in some parts of Pennsylvania — Centre County and Clinton County. 1854. Visited Niagara County, N. Y. " The Hessian fly is another enemy of ours, and in trying to get an early crop of wheat by <1) Northville, Wayne County, Mich. J. D. Tukes, P. O. B.,1860. iimmmmmmmmmm mmt H PRiZK essay: early sowing, we constantly incur danger from the Hessian fly in the fall of the year. If frost occur soon after wheat is sown in the fall, in time to kill the Hessian fly, we rarely suffer much from it. — Onondaga County, N. Y.W) Wheat more or less in- jured in Kent County, Michigan, when sown before the 20th September.(s) Destructive in Maine,(') Aristook County. Description of the Insect. 72. Numerous descriptions of the Hessian fly are to be found in scientific and agricultural publications ; in all of the most im- portant features these descriptions coincide. Perhaps the most popular, and at the same time one of the most accurate delineap tions, is from the pen of the late Dr. Harris, in his admirable " Report on Destructive Insects." 73. " The head and thorax of the fly are black ; the hind- body is tawny, and covered with fine greyish hairs. The wings are blackish, but are more or less tinged with yellow at the base, where also they are very narrow ; they are fringed with short hairs, and are rounded at the end. The body measures about one-tenth of an inch in length, and the wings expand one-quarter of an inch or more. ***** The transformation of some in each brood appear to be retarded beyond the usual time, as is found to be the case with many other insects ; so that the life of these individuals, from the egg to the winged state, ex- tends to a year or more in length, whereby the continuation of the species, in after years, is made more sure."C4) 74. In the admirable essay on the Hessian Fly, by Dr. Asa Fitch, before referred to, a very exact description of the male (1) Address of the Hon.O. Geddes, 1864. (2) F&l. Off. Report, 1864. (3) P. O. B. (4) I have not lately had an opportunity of referring to Dr. Harris' work, the description given in the text is consequently second hand. iMiiPliiii THE HKMIAN FLY. 47' and female insect is giyen^ of whioh the following is an abstract. The illustrations to which reference is made are taken from the drawings of the same author. The high standing of Dr. Fitch, as an entomologist, coupled with the attention he has devoted for many years to the history and habits of insects injurious to vegetation and to the agriciilturist, confers the utmost value upon, his delineations and descriptions. The Female Hessian Fly. 75. The head and thorax of the female (Fig. I) are black. The antennee (Fig. e) are about half as long as the body, and composed of sixteen joints, each of a cylindric oval form, the length being about double the diameter ; each joint is clothed with a number of hairs, surrounding it in a whirl. The joitits are separated from each other by very short translucent filaments, having a diameter about one third as great as the joints them- selves. The thorax is oval and black ; the poisers are dusky ; the abdomen is of a black colour above, more or less widely marked at the satures (joints) with tawny fulvous, and furnished with numerous fine blackish hairs. ^ HU. aim. (via. I.) HSSBU:( PLT— VBsuxB {C. deitruotor.) (no. e.) JOIHTS OP THE JLVTUVVa. 75. The ovipositor is rose-red. The wings are slightly dusky. The legs are pallid brown, the tarsi black. The several pairs of PIP mmm 48 PRIZE BSSAYt legs equal each other in length, being about one-fifth of an inch long when extended, of which length the tarsus embraces one half. Short basal joint indistinct. The Male. 76. In the male (Fig. II) the antonnee (Fig. d) are three- fourths the length of the body. The abdomen (Fig. II) consists of seven joints besides the ter- minal one, which (viewed from beneath Fig. c) consists of a transversely oval joint giving off two robust processes, armed with in-curved hooks at the tips. In the living specimen the abdomen is of a brownish-black colour, more or less widely marked at the satures with pallid fulvous or smoky whitish lines. In all other points the male coincides with the female in its character. # '/'[ (no. b.) Nat. Size. (via, d.) Joints of Antenna {Male.) (PIO. 0.) Ventral view qf the terminal segments qf the abdomen. HXBBIAir FLT— MAIK (PIO. II.) Habits. 77. The Hesssian fly lays her eggs upon the young leaves of wheat in the autumn (September) and in the spring (May). Many observers have witnessed the fly in the act of depositing her eggs at these seasons of the year.(i) The eggs are placed upon the upper surface of the young leaves of the autumn wheat, (1) Mr. E. Tilghman of Maryland ; Mr. Merritt of Tale College, &o., &c. mt THK IIE88IAN i'LY. 49 and sometimes exceed thirty in number. They arc generally arranged in the longitudinal depressions between the minute ridges of the blade. Their appearance is that of very small reddish coloured points or spots. Their length is consid- erably greater than their diameter, and appears to bear the ratio to the latter dimension of five to one, the length being about one fiftieth of an inch, the breadth or diameter about one-two- hundred-and-iifticth. The form is cylindrical. 78. The eggs of the autumn brood arc hatched within a week of the time they are laid, if the weather be warm ; during the prevalence of cold and unfavorable weather they may remain unhatched for a period of three weeks. The white colored mag- got as soon as it is liberated from the egg, passes down the leaf, between the sheath and stem, until it reaches the first joint, (the crown) ; here it becomes stationary and apparently fixed upon the stem (Fig. m and Fig. a § par. 80), nor does it change its position un- til it assumes the form of the inert worm or its pupa.'(w) It re- poses with its head towards the root of the plant. 79. When young autumnal wheat is attacked by one or more of the maggots, the infested shoots will be seen in the following spring to be withered and changed to a straw colour. If two or more shoots proceed from the crown of the root, those only to which the maggot is attached will wither and die. In young plants, death of the part aflFectcd is produced by the abstraction of the nutritious juices which would otherwise be appropriated to the nourishment of the shoot. The increased power of ab- sorption and assimilation of food possessed by the plant when the spring brood of the fly appears, (in May,) enables it to re- (pia. m.) (FiG.n.) 30 PRIZB IISAY t silt to a great extent the waiting attacks of the maggot, whoie attachment is then made to the second and sometimes the third joint. 80. In young autumnal wheat the base of the sheath is at the crown of the root, as shown in figure (A. §), and it b here that the autumn brood of the fly must be sought for. Appearance of a healthy (*) and of a diseased (t) shoot of wheat in autumn ;— tbe worms lying at (§). mmmmmimik THE HBMIAN FLY. 51 In the preceding diagram the right-hand shoot ii represented as withered and lifeless from the attacks of the maggot at the crown of the root under the suface of the soil. The left hand stem is fVee from any attack and consequently uninjured. The process of tillering would throw out a number of new shoots ^om the crown of the root to replace those which are del* troyed. 81. The maggots appear to live wholly by suction. They do not penetrate the stem, or make any apparent incision ; they )/roduce, however, a depression, caused by the obstruction they offer to the growth of that part of the plant where they are seated. These depressions, though not always apparent on the outside, when produced by several maggots of the second brood in the early summer months on the first or second joint, greatly weaken the stem, and render it liable to be blown down and broken by a light breeze of wind, when it has attained the attitude it acquires on approaching maturity. Sometimes a swelling or gall is the result of the attack as shown at (§ §) in Fig. B, page 56, (paragraph 92.) 81^. The manner in which the maggot of the spring brood affects the stem in the early summer months, seems to arise from its presence preventing the deposition of the necessary amount of silica or flint immediately under its body. It is well known that the great strength of the hollow cylindrical stem of the wheat plant is due to the large amount of silica it contains, and where there is a deficiency of this strenthening material, the stalk is unable to support the weight of the ear when agitated by wind ; were the usual quantity of silica present the small re- duction in the diameter or dimension of the stalk (supposing no gall to be formed) at the point where one or more of the maggots are seated would not materially interfere with its strength. The t m mmmmmmmmiimiffmmi^ wmmm 52 PRIZE essay: absence of silica seems to be the chief cause of its liability- to be broken bv agitation. 82. The underbill wheat, so long cultivated and celebrated for its immunity from the attacks of the Hessian fly, affords an admirable instance of the silicious shield of the wheat stem re- sisting the attacks of the fly. Those varieties of wheat which produce strong flinty stalks have long been known not to suffer much injury from the presence of the spring maggot. The na- tural tendency of these varieties to assimilate large quantities of silica, enables them to withstand the weakening effect dut to the lasect, under which other varieties, naturally lese rich in silica, would succumb. 83. The preceding remarks refer solely to the injury caused to the wheat plant by the weakening of the stem, and its frac- ture Dcfore arriving at maturity. It is to be observed, however, that the presence of two or more of the spring larvae of the Hessian fly must operate very disadvantageously in other res- pects. On thin-stemmed varieties the growth of infected stems is often altogether arrested by fracture, if the maggot descends to itsseat above thefirst or second joint beforethe plant has acquired a strong and healthy growth, and under such circumstances the field has been very appropriately likened to one through which a herd of cattle had been making their way. 84. Since the injury occasioned by the larvae of both broods of the Hessian fly is produced in the^r*^ instance upon the stem, whether above the crown of the root in young wheat, or at the first, second or third joint of thatwb eh is farther advanced, it necessarily follows that a more or less healthy condition of those parts of the plant will enable it to resist to a corresponding degree, the attacks of the insect. A strong and vigorous tillering growth in the fall (i^i) and spring is required to maintain a condition of comparative health under the attacks of one or two of these para- THE UESSIAN FLY. 53 ['• sites, until maturity is attained. Hence the reason why vigor- ous well-grown flinty stemmed varieties survive and yield a fair return, while weak and sickly plants or thin-stemmed varieties fail, nc new stalks or shoots being formed in the fall or early spring when the infested ones die, and in the early summer the weak stems which have survived sink under the exhausting drain of the spring brood. So far then the depredations of the Hes- sian fly when not present in overwhelming numbers, may be greatly lessened and in part overcome by good husbandry, and a careful selection of seed of approved varieties. 85. When the autumn maggot has arrived at its full growth, its outer skin, at the approach of winter, becomes detached from the body, and serves first as a larva, and ultimately as a pupa or chrysalis case. This separation arises from a general contraction of the body of the maggot, whereby it occupies less space than the outer skin, which invested it during its growing state. The outer skin now acquires a tough consistency, and a dark brown colour, somewhat similar to a flax-seed in appearance, hence the name of this state of the insect, which might be more properly distinguished as its cased larva condition. The figures (o) and (n) show the position and appear- ance of these cased larvae of the Hessian Fly (flax seed state) on the stems of wheat plants from which the leaves have been torn "*^*y* (FIQ.M.) (FIQ.O.) 86. The maggot remains in this protecting case throughout the long and cold winter months, without any marked change of form, and is represented in Fig. (k), which shows a magnified appearance of the worm when taken (PIG.*.) out of its larvae case, &c. (i) and (J). II :« PIP

> 103. By way of contrast to the foregoing paragraphs, it may be well here to notice the magnificent crops of wheat obtained in lHi)2 in Niagara County, N. Y., on the Canadian frontier; they are recorded in the Patent Office Report for 1853, by Mr. Heman Powers of Lewiston. In 1 849-.50 Mr. William Hotchkiss had a field of six acres which averaged G3j bushels to the acre, weighing f)3ibs. to the bushel. The seed was 'Soule's wheat.' Mr. Thomas Powell of the same County, raised in 18;')3, 48!) bushels from a field of seven measured acres ; this showing a yield of nearly 70 bushels to the acre. The circumstances under which this large yield was produced Avcre as follows : — In the fall a heavy dressing of swamp muck was applied. During the winter the field was used as a yard for stu^k, includ- ing a flock of sheep. In May was carted on a liberal coating of * iH ■ I'll mmmmmmmm 62 PRIZE essay: arm-yard manure which was immediately ploughed in very deep. Up to the Ifith August, it was used at niglit as a sheep yard, when the field was again ploughed three times, until the soil was perfectly pulverized. Two bushels to the acre of ' Soule's wheat' was then sown broodcast, and covered with a light plough which completed the process. The variety known in Western New York as " Soule's Wheat" is in fact no other than the very best Genessee " White Flint," having a etij' straw and maturing early. The following is Professor Emerson's analysis of this soil : — Water of Absorption 3.00 Organic Matter 7-75 Silicates 7G.93 Carbonate of Lime 2.82 Phosphate of Alumina 0.15 ' Magnesia 0.2.5 , ' Peroxide of iron and Alumina 8.82 99.72 104. 2nd. Late Sowing. "We regard it as one of the most efficient, as it certainly is the most facile of any that can be re- sorted to."(*) " It is universally admitted that it is the earliest sowed fields which are always the most infested." (2) Objections, — winter killing, rust and wheat midge. Remedies to these, — draining, protecting with litter or cow dung, and for rust see paragraphs 190 to 227. Time of sowing, about the last week in September, seed being properly prepared for reasons given else- where and in appendix. Depth of sowing, 2 — 2\ inches. Depth of ploughing, 6 to 8 inches or more. In parts of Ohio late sowing is found to be a very excellent artifice, the varieties sown being the " Soule and white-blue stem ;" these have nearly (1) Fitch. (2) Ibid. THE HESSIAN FLY. u " driven the Illinois, Mediterranean, Redchaif, Bald, &c., out of cultivation," (1852.) 105. 3rd. Grazing. This measure is alluded to as worthy of attention, " we cannot, therefore, hut regard this as a most judi- cious and important measure if seasonably resorted to."(i) 106. 4th. The Roller. " No doubt this measure is a judicious one." (2) It shakes off the eggs, and crushes the young Avorms, the condition of the ground must be particularly attended to be- fore this remedial measure is employed. 107. 5th. Motointf. A valuable proposal for exterminating the second or spring brood from a wheat field.<3) 108. Cth. Fly-proof Wheat*. 'That there are any kinds of wheat which are perfectly "fly-proof" (to use a common nnd expressive term) as luis been sometimes stated, we wholly disbe- lieve.'(*) Among famous varieties we find the following : — Ist. XJnderhill Wheat — a strong silicious stemmed variety — flour good. ^ . 2nd. Spelter Wheat — ^flour indifferent 3rd. Clima Wheat — ripens early, and yields largely. 4th. MediterraiieanWheai, introduced into Maryhxid in 1837 — very prolific, very coarse, ripens early, and a very general favourite in the United States. Is considered almost fly-jiroof, but soon becomes acclimated, and, although it improves in quality, it loses its "fly-proof" qualities (sec paragraph 110). The Mediterranean wheat is a slight red chaff, with a long stiff beard, and a long red and very flinty berry. 7th. The Etrurian Wheat—'very prolific, very early ripener, and has none of the defects of the Mediterranean. A bald wheat, with a round plump white kernel, and very thin bran. 8th. The White Flint Wheat. ' One of the choicest varieties 11 ^^ (1) Pitch. (2) Ibid. (3) Ibid. (4) Ibid. 64 PRIZE KNSAY of Western New York, witlistniuls the nttnck of the fly hotter than nny of the other k'uuU there in iwe.' lOy. Mr. Unwson Ilarnioii, in n report of experiments on the varieties of wheat enltivnted in tlie State of New York, and to whom a preminm for the experiments was awanh'd hy the N.Y. S. Ajj;rienltnral Soeiety, says that tlie wiiitc flint variety has with- stood the Hessian fly hetter than nny otlier now cultivated. The soUdity of the straw at the root gives the fly k'ss chance of de- stroying it. " Some of the stalks of this variety will ho so eaten (?) m to fall down, yet mature the htrnj ; while in other varieties, after it has fallen from the injury of the fly, the greater part oi" it fails to mature." 0> 110. Mr. II. G. Stewart, of Montrose, Lee County, Iowa, re- ports that the >aricty of winter wheat called the ' Mediterranean* is the only kind known there which escapes the attacks of tlu* Hessian flv. At the same time, Mr. Stewart reminds us of the very important peculiarity of rapid deterioration which is fre- quently observed in change of climates. Tlie Mediterranean wheat does not ripen in Iowa so soon, F)y ten days, as it didy?w ijcdi's ago, and is consequently more liable to rust, and the at- tacks of other wheat pests. (-> Tlie white blue-stem is also fast deteriorating in the State of Pennsylvania. "Our crops this year fall below 10 bushels to the acro."(3) 111. Certain varieties of wheat possess the property of ' tiller- ing' to a much greater extent than others under the same or similar conditions. It is evident that this power of throwing out frosh stalks is one of gi'cat impoVtance in resisting the autumn attacks of the Hessian fly. Certain stems are sacrificed to its ravages, these are replaced by others which shoot out after the (1) Transactions of tho N.Y.aA. Society. Pago 218, \%V.V (•2) Patent Olllco Report, 1851. Agriculture. (3) Ibid. Pige 147. TIIK flKBBIAN FLY. 05 first stonis nro wcnkonrd or destroyed, nnd so prosorvo tlic Limo (?) Oypttuio, Charcoal, &e. Ezperimenta on tbia subject not complete. (See App<;udis.) 72 PRIZE ESSAY : election of varieties which can l)e sown so late as to escape the May attack of the Hessian fly, the June and July attack of the midge and rust will cover all contingencies. Can this be accom- plished ? Have we such a variety of wheat as will satisfy these conditions ? The late lamented ISIr. Wade, of Cobourg, recommends the ' Fife Wheat,' which is described in paragraph Hll. The ' Fife Wheat,' or as it is called in the Townships east of Lake Simcoe, Scotch wheat, is there a great favorite. It is not ' liable to rust,' may be safely sown much later than many other varieties, and it is at the same time very i)roductive. For addi- tional notice of the Fife Wheat, see paragraph 1 G 1. The Cause of the Spread of the Hessian Fly. 127. A point of interest in the history of this insect is the stated apparent periodical character of its visits. A little reflec- tion will show that this seeming regularity may be attributed to causes which are independent of one another, but yet have an important bearing upon its multij)lication or diminution. The first and probably the most influential relates to the general wide spread cultivation of its favourite food ; the second to the favourable meteorological conditions of the season : these stimu- late and encourage its increase ; the third affects the diminution of its numbers, and involves the excessive multiplication of the parasites which prey upon it. 128. Under the article ' Wheat Midge,' paragraphs 158-9, a much more apparent periodicity is observable in the successive appearances of t^iat insect. The following notices of the exces- sive appearance of certain insects in the United States and Ca- nada, with the character of the season during and immediately preceding their visit may prove interesting. They are not ad- vanced with any expectation that a near approach to a clue to the cause of the greater or less distribution of the Hessian fly ■p ;i' THE HESSIAN FLY. n in different years will be attained, but rather to direct attention to a class of extremely interesting natural phenomena which can- not fail to become of value as they accumulate. 129. (1) It has long been known in Germany that the race of pine beetles increased most in warm dry summers, followed by cold dry winters. 'Hot weather shortens the period of transformation, and thus affording time for the maturation of the several broods, causes a superabundant number of insects to be found. '(•> (2.) The oak trees in Devonshire have suddenly appeared stud- ded with gallnuts during the last three or four years, and in numbers so abundant as nearly to equal the leaves. (2) The Hes- sian fly and wheat midge are true gall flies, and the sudden in- crease of one of their kindred giving rise to the common gall- nut in countless multidudes, shows how universally the capability of rapid and unexpected increase is shared by different species of this allied generation. (3.) See paragraph 160. ' 130. In the communication to the writer, (before referred to) dated Feb. 2nd, 1 Hii?, Dr. Fitch says : " It has long been my opinion that the great multiplication of the insect depredators on wheat, and of insects generally, which takes place in particu- lar years, is caused in part, at least, by certain peculiarities of the atmosphere of that and of the preceding year. This subject is alluded to under several of the species in my reports. What those atmospherical peculiarities are, in the case of any particular insect, is yet unknown to us. One of the general laws relating to this matter, I think, will be found to be this — that whatever peculiarities of the season occasion a luxuriant growth of a par- ticular plant, will also favour the multiplication of the insects feeding upon that plant. But we are here treading upon slippery (1) David Gorrie, Esq., ; Farmers' Note Book ; Highland Agr. Soc. Trans. (2) Illustrated London Xews. March, 1867. Mppp mmmm 74 PRIZK ESSAY : ground. It is a very obscure subject, requiring an extended series of very careful observations to lead us to the exact truth. And in such enquiries as this we are very liable to be misled, and to mistake mere coincidences for established laws. For instance, if an insect has been obser\-ed in two or three instances to be very numerous, say, after an unusually wet season, we should confi- dently conclude such a season to be the cause of its multiplica- tion. But it may perchance again show itself in equal abun- dance after a dry season. Authors have so often been humiliated by having their speculations falsified in ways analogous to this, that I have felt disinclined to venture upon such precarious ground, except with the utmost caution. It is a most important topic, however, and all the facts which fall under our observation, having a bearing upon it, should be recorded, and in time such records will lead to correct theories in the premises." 131. There can be no doubt that the excessive and continuous cultivation of its favourite food, wheat, without rotation, has fostered, encouraged and cherished the Hessian fly, and indeed, all other wheat depredators, until they have become firmly estab- lished in the country, and always to be looked for and guarded against. Little or no rotation has been allowed to interfere with their progress. They have been provided writh all situations of exposure or shelter in one locality or another, to ensure the pro- pagation of their species ; and all that the sensible farmer can do to protect himself from the swarms which will continually be thrown off from the nurseries maintained through selfishness or ignorance in this country, is to adopt the artifices which will enable him to escape the attacks of the depredators. 132. It has been suggested that the name ' Hessian Fly ' should be discontinued and the term ' wheat stem-fly, substituted for it. The change, however, is decidedly objectionable, on the ground that there exists in Europe an insect which has long borne the name of the ' wheat stem-fly,' (chlorops pumilionis.) * Mm mfmm Malawi ■^^^^^■^ ii !•» CHAPTER IV. The Wheat Midge (Cecuhmyia trilici). Origin of the Wheat Midge, 133.— DostnictivoneBs in Vermont, Ac, In 1882, 134.— The Wheat Midge an importation, 135.— Destructive in Scotland in 1740, 136.— History of the progress of the Midgo in Western Vermont, Ohio (?) Lower tianada. New York, Maine, Michigan, Fonsylvania. Western Canada, Saguenay, L.C., ft-om 1820. 1856, 137.— Doacription of the Midgo, 145.— The clear winged Wheat Midge, 146.— Tlie Female, 14e.-The Male, 146 (a).— The spotted-wlnged Wheat Midge, 147, 148.— Habits of the Midge, 148.- Eggs deposittd, 160.— Young hatched, 162.— Figure of Maggot, 162.— A peculiarity in the Maggot, 15S.— Multitudes of these Maggots in ' screenings,' 154.— Differences in the Hattits of Individuals, 156.— Mr. Principal Dawson's experiments, 169.— Dr. Fitch's observations, 167.— Mr. D. J. Browne's observations, 157.— Apparent periodicity in the Habits of the ?Iidge, 158.— Prevalent in particular years^ 158.— Dr- Fitch's opinion, 169.— Influence of season on the Midge, 160.— Heme- dial Measures, 161.— Smoking the Flies ; Sowing lime or ashes ; Early Sowing of Winter Wheat , Late Sowing of Spring Wheat ; Fumigating with Sulphur ;: Fly-proof wheats, so called; Turkish Flint Wheat; Burning of Orpiment;. Fife Wheat, 161.— Sound practical suggestions, 162-— Suggestions of Mr. Hut* ton, 163.— Change of seed, 163 (a).— Remedial Measures suggested by a study of the Habits of the Midgo, 163(b), 163(c), 163(d), 163(e), 163(r).— Its Parasitei^ 104.— European Parasites. 165.— Swallows, 166.— Yellow Birds, 167. Origin of the Wheat Midge. 133. This destructive insect has long been known in Europe, and during the latter half of the past century it attracted general attention on account of the ravages it committed in various parts of Great Britain. Simultaneous with its appearance in America in the northern part of Vermont in 1828, it occasioned great havoc in Scotland and England, creating universal alarm in many of the best wheat growing districts of those countries. 134. In 1828 the ravages of the wheat midge in Northern Vermont became so general as to cause serious apprehensions for the wheat crop. In 1829 these fears were confirmed by the ap- pearance of the fly in such countless numbers as to threaten the I :il|: 'If: 76 1*RIKK KH8AY : entire drstr action of the growing grnin. Its spread WM so rapid and uniform in all diroctionH where its favourite food was culti- vated, that, ill \H',i'2, we find the wheat ernp» greatly injured or altogether destroyed in Vermont, New Hampshire, part of New York and Pennsylvania, and damaged over a large area in Lower Canada. 13'). Douhts have heen expressed hy European entomologists as to the identity of the American wheat midge with the ceci- domyin tritUi, descrihed hy Mr. Kirhy, In the spring of 18.55, however, Ur. Fitch sent some specimens of the American insect to M. Amyot, a distinguished French entomologist. At the meeting of the Entomological Society of France, Novemher 14, 18.55, M. Amyot announced the resultH of a most rigid examina- tion, which he, in company with M. Lucas, had suhmitted the specimens sent to him by Df "itch. These entomologists find the American insect perfectly ulentical with the European ceci- domyia tritici, or wheat fly. This annouueemeut leads to the conclusion that our wheat midge is an importation as is the Hes- sian fly ; and an examination into the habits of tlie insect exhi- bits no pecuharity which can militate against the adoption of this conclusion. 130. In 1/40 the wherit iiy was destructive in Scotland, during the winter of which year the Thames was frozen over. In Ellis' Modern Husbandman for 1745, the attacks of the vast num- bers of black flies (the ichneumon parasites) are noticed in the following quaint terms : " after this we had a melancholy sight, for as soon as the wheat had done blooming, vast numbers of black flies attacked the wheat ears, and blowed a little yellow maggot which ate up some of the kernels, in others part of them, and which caused multitudes of eors to miss of their fulness, acting in some measure like a sort of locust, till rain fell and washed them off; and though this evil has happened in other il;f TIIK WHEAT MIDOK, 77 summers to the wheat in some degree, and not done mnch harm, yet if the good [irovidcnce of God had not hindered it, they miglit have ruined all the crops of wheat in the nation." History of its PRociREss. 137. The following records of the a])pearance of this destruc- tive insect will furnish a tolorahle idea of the extent of its ravages on the American continent : — 1820. Wheat midge first appeared in Western Vermont.H) , ^ 1827. Occasioned local injury in Athens County, Ohio(?)(2) 1828. Committed extensive depredations in Northern Vermont, and the frontiers of Lower Canada. 1829. Greatly destructive in Vermont and parts of Lower Canada and New Hampshire. . 1830. •«• ■ ■ ■'-.. ■ '• '•■ Appeared in North-eastern New York. ^ 1831. Considerable injury in Eastern New York. • ' " 1832. Very destructive in Eastern New York ; cultivation of wheat abandoned. 1834. Commenced its depredations in the State of Maine. First appeared in numbers in Lower Canada, near Montreal. 183.5. " 7th or 8th .Inly, 183.'), I discovered the fly On my wheat iu myriads. They disappeared on the 11th or 12th July. They (1) Mr, Jewott— New England Farmer; (2) Statement of Mr. Elner Bowell, page 2S2. Pat. Off. Rep., 18S2r3. I I 78 PRIZE ERSAYt ' appeared to be depositing their eggs in the glnmei of the ear in the 7th or 8th Jnly. Six or eight days subseqncntly live mag- gots were produced. The earliest wheat was all destroyed. A part of my wheat that was not fully in ear when the fly appeared, was not so much injured. The tops of the ear had the maggots, but the lower part that was not shot out was uninjured" (Evans). Considerable injury from the wheat midge on the Island of Montreal. 183G. Fly seen June 29th, and commenced depositing eggs in Lower Canada on the 4th July. Wheat on the Island of Montreal greatly damaged. The fly extended its ravages west and north- ward of Montreal for many miles. 1842. Appeared in Western New York. 1845. Very destructive in Western New York. 184C. Approaching Seneca County, New York. ^ ,. , , t. 1847. Destructive in Townships north of Seneca County, New York. 1848. Appeared in Seneca County, New York. •, 1849. Committed ravages in the county of Lennox, Upper Canada. Prevalent in Addington, Hastings and Frontenac. Disappeared from Monroe County, New York. Destructive in Seneca Coun- ty, New York. 1850. - Wheat midge greatly increased in the County of Hastings, Upper Canada. Also in Prince Edwards and adjacent counties. 5 i il '«i TIIR WIIRAT MIDCiK. 79 The following notice of its ]>rogrcBS contains some facts and oli- scrvations both interesting and valuable : "To account for this (the low averngo of the crop) it must be observed that the weevil (wheat niidgo) has been very destrnct- ive, having been two years in the county, and in its journey west- ward has reached about the centre of our western tier of town- ships ; sonic few instances have occurred of its having been found beyond that limit. We cannot but expect that next year it will be still more destructive ; one fact, however, is well established, that in early situations, on early spots, where the seed was sowed early, there was little or no weevil (wheat midge.) In low, damp, late situations, and where late sown, it has been extremely de- structive, es[>ecially in the eastern part of the country, where it first appeared. This important fact ought to be well remem- bered by our neighbours to the west of us, where they will have it undoubtedly in a very short time, and exertions ought to be used by them to sow early, and early kinds of seed, to drain the land well, and make small ridges, and otherwise expedite the growth as much as jjossible. The early sowed sole wheat es- caped last year, in many instances, in the very centre of the weevil's destructive ravages. The maggot is generated from a fly blow deposited in the blossom by a very small greyish fly, with a small stripe of orange down the back, and it is most busy when the wheat is in full blossom, about the first of July.^*' 138. In the Canadian Census Report for 1851, we find the following remarks on the progress and destructiveness of the wheat midge in certain counties of Upper Canada duriitg this and the following year. They are from the pen of the able Secretary of the Board of Registration and Statistics, William Hutton, Esq., whose experience, position and practical know- lege, confet the highest value upon his views and statements : (1) Prize Report, county of HastinRs, 1862. W. Hutton, Esq. -fe V'd ■pn PRirZE >8SAY it " "With perhaps equal advantages we find an enormous discre* pancy in some of our own wheat-growing districts. In the year 1850, the township of Ksquesing, in the county of Halton, pro- duced 26 hushels of wheat to the acre, and that of Adolphus- town, in ih? county of l^ennox, only six bi'shels to the acre, and this with soil and climate perhaps equally good. This is at once accounted for by tlie ravages of that fearful plague to the far- mer — the weevil. The worst wheat crops in Canada West, in the yef 1851, were in those counties where the weevil was prevalent. It committed the most serious depredations, in very many cases having rendered whole fields of most promising wheat not worth the threshing. This fly, which deposits its lar/se in the blossom of the wheat in order to feed upon the milk of the grain as it ripens, was, unfortunately, in that year most abundant in the counties of Frontenac, Lennox, Addington, Hastings, and Prince Edward, and is travelling gradually west fit the rate of about nine miles every it»mmer. and rcirains from five to seven years in a locality. The only ])revention yet discovered has been to sow early seed on early land, and very early in the autumn so that the wheat may blossom before its enemy takes wing, the period for which depends much upon the earlinpss of the season. So destructive was the fly in 1H51, that the fine agricultural county of Lennox produced only six busht'ls per aero, Hastings about ten, and Prince Edward, Addington and Frontenac, about eleven. It had not in that year reached tlie county of Northumberland, but was very destructive in that county tln^ following "ear, 1 852." Contrary to exj)ectation, did not commit ravages in S( ueca County, New York. 1H51. Very destructive in Frontenac, Lennox, Addington, Hastings, and Prince Edward (bounties, Uppi-r Canada. Destructive in the great wheat district west o^ '^^'ayuga. New York. THE WHKAT MIDGE. 1852. 81 ■!:i!: 1:': Covnmitted excessive ravages in late wheat in the county of Hastings. Destructive in Northumberland ; travelling westward. The subjoined notice is by the author of the preceding quotation : 140. "They are numeroutj in this county in late wheat — very numerous in later, and very, very numerous in the latest. I should say that very probably one-half (certainly one-third) of the whole wheat of this county is destroyed by this weevil. I saw the fly about the first of this month, (July, 1852,) almost forming a little cloud, jjroceeding westward. It will be in Mur- ray and Sydenham this season, and will proceed westward from seven to nine miles each year. The only remedy I can perceive, as yet, is very early sowing on very early ground, well drained, of very early kinds of grain. I have four fields of wheat ; in the earliest there is little or none, except where there was after- growth, but it becomes worse in each field in proportion to its lateness, either in whole or in spots. Perhaps, through your valuable journal, you will be able to hurry the farmers west of us in their preparations for wheat sowing, and thus do a world of good, as the progress of the weevil is as certain as the pro- gress of time itself, and how great a scourge it is — few of our brother farmers in the West are aware. The Sole and Hutche- soiv wheat appear to be the earliest, and will be ready for har- vest witli me, and around me, on the 22nd of July, which is early for this season. I cannot say exactly why the earliest wheat is the safest, but I dare say nature })rovides that the fly comes to its natural strength at the usual time for wheat to blossom ; and if the wheat be earlier than usual, the grain is too forward to nourish its deposit. T'xis year the eoldnesf* of the season re- tarded the animal creation j)rol)al)ly more than it did the ceye- table creation, and this may be another reason why the fly was too late for early sown wheats." ****** ,*«■ Mmsmnm^nn 82 PRIZE essay: Weevil (wheat midge) common and destructive in Veimont. Not generally prevalent in New York. "The weevil has done us no injury yet in Genesee County, New York." Destructive in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. 18.53.(1) 141. " The weevil has made its appearance in some localities in this part of our State, but not in sufficient numbers to injure our crop." — J. D. Verres, Wayne County, Michigan. " The midge or weevil has done a great deal of damage to our white wheat." " The Hessian fly has not for many years done us any injury." — G. Wiborn, Ontario County, New York. " The wheat crop was less with us than an average last sea- son, in consequence of injury by the weevil." — James De Mott, Seneca County, New York. Midge appeared in moderate abundance in Northiimberland and Durham, Canada West. In Mr. Principal Dawson's " Scientific Contributions," we find the subjoined general notice of the wheat midge in Nova Scotia: "The wheat midge has in recent times been the most destructive of all wheat blight." Hence we may consider it es- tablished in Nova Scotia. 1854. 142. Maine. — Wheat midge destructive. " Wheat has been almost entirely neglected for some years past on account of the weevil ; but it is again assuming a place in the fields of our far- mers with fair success. "(2) Western New York. — Committed dreadful ravages. Estimat- ed loss in the State exceeding nine million dollars. Pennsylvania. — Destructive. Northern Ohio. — Destructive. (1) See Patent Office Reports. (2) E. Weston. Somerset County, Maine. P. O. E. ' THE WHEAT MIDGE. 83 Very general and destructive throughout the northern wheat growing districts of the United States. In 1854, at the August meeting of the American Institute, in New York, Mr. Solon Ro- binson stated that the red weevil (wheat midge) is the most ter- rible pest ever encountered by wheat growers. Destructive in Grand Bay, Saguenay, L. C. 143. "In almost every section of the State of New York, where the wheat crop is grown, the ravages of the wheat midge have been most extensive, especially with the white wheat. The Mediterranean wheat, when early sown, has generally escaped. Assuming that the loss was one-third from this cause — although it was probably considerably greater — it is represented in monev value (at ^2. 1 5 per bushel, the average price,) by iS'9,403,0 1 2,8.5. (Abstract from N. Y. S. A. S., 1854. Seg. Agr. Meeting.") " The pecuniary loss which our country has sustained from this insect, is incalculable ; but it is truly appalling, nay terrific. Some writers have thought that a wet season favored the increase of the midge, but in this country it has never been more de- structive than it was in the summer of 1854, noted as one of the driest seasons known. In gathering the agricultural statistics of that year, our State Agricultural Society inserted in its circular the query : ' To what extent was the wheat crop in your vicinity injured by the midge V And the answer to this inquiry furnish- es us with quite authentic information upon this topic. The able and efficient Secretary of the Society, Hon. B. P. Johnson, in- formed me, that on getting together all the replies to this in- quiry, and placing everything at the lowest figure, so as to be certain the estimate was within truth, the wheat which this in- sect had that year destroyed in our State, at its then current market price, exceeded in value fifteen millions of dollars ! This amount would be more than a third larger, if estimated at the price to which wheat afterwards arose last winter. Truly, it mmmm n m M. PRIZE ESSAY : is a formidable enemy, that has the power to take such an amount of money from the pockets of our citizens in a single year."(i) As every fact connected with the midge is of importance, the following caution from the " Genesee Farmer " is appended : '* Weevil. — Caution to Farmers. — The Hon. E. Blackman, of Newark, N. Y., exhibited to the writer samples of Timothy seed obtained by him at Buffalo, which was literally alive with weevils. The seed was understood to be from Ohio ; and most of the seed from many parts of that State, having been ol)tained from grass in the wheat crop, the weevil falls into their timothy seed and thus is sown broadcast over the land. As the insect lives through winter, or in some other way appears in the same locality every season, it may be possible that the sowing of this seed containing them may hasten the general prevalence of that dread scourge throughout the entire wheat-growing section of our State. Ought not farmers to be on their guard against thus distributing destruction to their crops of wheat ?" 18.5.5. -. Very destructive in the counties of Northumberland and Dur- ham, C. W. ^ In Lower Canada, wheat badly damaged by fly in Grand Bay, Saguenay. Not generally prevalent in the United States. This is one of the })cculiarities of insect life before referred to, in paragraphs 24, laO. Being most abundant end destructive generally in 1854, and in certain localities absolutely ruinous, the succeeding year finds it dwindling away into an insignificant and almost for- gotten pest ; yet numberless examples show how little the causes which govern its increase are understood, and how immensely (1 ) Asa Pitch, M. D., " Rural New Yorker," 1856. 1 THE WHEAT MIDGE. 85 deserving they are of most careful study over the wide areas on this continent where wheat is cultivated. 1856. 144. Wheat fly common on the lake shore counties west of Toronto. Committed excessive ravages in the counties bordering on the Niagara River. Estimated loss in Canada from the wheat fly hi 1856 probably exceeds ^2,500,000. Made its first appear- ance in the county of Middlesex, C. W. General but not de- structive along the Detroit River. County of Wellington affect- ed. Common in the county of Peterborough. Common in parts of Maine. Destructive in County of Saguenay, L. C. In the township of Thorah, C. W., hitherto considered altogether free from all insect wheat pest, except "grasshoppers ;" in some instances the top kernels of wheat were found partially attacked by a "small light brown worm, with a black head," thought to be the "weevil." The intervention of a thunder shower pre- served the infested ears. Whether this insect be the larvse of the midge, is quite uncertain, and a notice of it is introduced to show that even so far north and east, as the Townships of Saguenay and Thorah, the midge, or nnother wheat depredator, is attracting attention, and perhaps silently establishing a home. Description of the Wheat Midge. 145. A small orange-colored fly, (or flics, as there are several species,) with delicate, transparent, irridescent wings, and long slender legs. The length of this insoct is about the tenth of an inch, rather less than more ; the breai ^.h of iis expanded wings slightly exceeds the tenth of an inch. A good magnifying glass is required in order to distinguish the following particulars. The Clear-Winged Wheat Midge. 146. The eyes of the female (Fig. I) clear-winged wheat mmmmiF 86 PRIZE essay: midge (Cecidomyia Tritici) occupy two-thirds of the entire head.(i) -fC WHEAT HIDOB. (Nat Size.) (no. K) Part of a Female Antenna. FIG. 1.— MAGKIPIBD CIBAS-TTINOBD WHBAT MIDGE.— (Cecidoffiya tritici.) They are large, of a deep black colour, and are separated from each other on the top of the head only by a light and almost im- perceptible cleft, so that when viewed in front they appear like a continuous broad black band surrounding the head. The face is pale yellow. The antennae are of a deep brown or black colour, less intense than the eyes, of the same length as the body and composed of twelve joints. Each joint (Fig. h) is commonly oblong, with a contraction in its middle, and is surrounded with a row of hairs near its base, and another near its apex. The joints of the antennae are connected by a slender thread. The thorax is of a pale yellow colour ; the abdomen throughout of an orange colour ; the wings are colourless, appearing like thin plates of mica. Their margins are densely ciliated with hairs. The legs are pale yellow ; the basal joint of the tarsi is the shortest of all, its length little exceeding its diameter. All parts of the body are clothed with minute hairs. (1 ) For a full and complete technical description of the Wheat Fly, or Midge, see Dr. Fitch's Report, in Vol. V. Trans. N. Y. S. A. S., 1845. Many scientiflo terma arc omitted in the text, for obvious reasons. THE WHEAT MIOGE. 87 146 (a). The male wheat midge is a rare insect, and differs from the female in one particular point by which it may be easily distinguished (Fig. IV.) The antennse are double the length of the body, and twenty-four jointed. The joints are of an exact globular form, and encircled with a row of hairs. (Fig. e.) (via. e.) Part qfa maU antenna. Foot qA Jyiieat 3Iidg», highly magnified. PIO. IT.— MAI.B OF THE CUtA.B-WIirQBD WHEAT MIDGE— MAONIFIED. The Spotted Winged Wheat Midge. (Cecidomyia arealis. Fitch.) 147. The spotted winged wheat midge is distinguished from the preceding insect by having spotted wings ; six spots are com- monly found on each wing. The length of this insect is about one-twentieth of an inch, while that of the common clear-winged wheat midge is about one line, or the twelfth part of an inch, although much smaller specimens are not unfrequently met with. 148. In the Rural New Yorker, for June, 1856, Dr. Fitch says, in an admirable communication on the wheat midge : — " The fact then is, there are two species of this insect devas- tating our wheat. But as these species are alike, so far as we yet know, in their habits, transformation and external appear- P: A «8 FRIZK essay: SPOTTED- WINOED WIIBAT MIDOB— MAONIFIBD. (C. cerealrs. Fitch.) Magnified wing <\fC. cerealia. Wheat Midge at rest, with its wings in their natural j^otU Hon, -magnified. ance, and can only be distinguished from each other by their wings when in their perfect state, it will be more convenient to designate them collectively as the wheat-midge, and only in cases where technical accuracy and precision is required, is it worth while to discriminate them by the names " spotted winged wheat midge," (C. cereafis,) and " clear winged wheat midge," (C. Tritici.) Habits of the Wheat Midge. 149. In Canada the wheat midge appears during the latter part of June, and remains until the middle of August. Photograiiiic SdHices Corporatioii 4^ 23 WIST MAIN STRIIT WIISTHt N.Y. UStO (71* ; •72-4303 4^ 4^ %0 ,^'> ^v 92 PRIZE essay: I afterwardfi ascertained that they had penetrated to the depth of more than an inch, and were of a whitish colour, softer and more active than the^ had previously heen. The fact is thus estabhshed, that these apparently torpiid larvae, when they fall from the ripe wheat in autumn, or are carelessly swept out from the threshing floor into the bam yard, at once resume their ac- tivity, and bury themselves in the ground. " The larvee thus buried in the ground, were allowed to remain undisturbed during winter and spring, the flower-pot being occa- sionally watered. About the end of June they began to reap- pear above the surface, in the winged form ; the little grubs creeping to the surface, aud projecting about half their bodies above it, when the skin of the upper part burst and the full grown winged midge came forth and flew off. This completes the round of changes which each generation of these little creatures under- goes, and we have thus actual evidence of each stage of its pro- gress from the egg to the perfect insect." 157. Dr. Fitch's observations do not agree in one particular with those of Mr. Dawson. The following extract from the paper published in the Rural New Yorker, before referred to, explains Dr. Fitch's views : — " The insect does not moult or cast off its skin from the time it leaves the egg until it enters its pupa state, nor do I think the larva skin forms a case or envelope within which the pupa lies, but that the skin of the larva gradually changes and becomes the skin of the pupa, as it certainly does in our willow gall-fly (Cecidomyia Salieis. — Fitch.^ I infer this from the fact that in those instances in which I have reared these flies from the larvee, the empty pupa skins were the only ones which I found remaining." ♦ ♦ * ♦ * * ♦ " Gather a number of the worms from the wheat at the time of harvest and place them in a pill box. They all soon cease m THE WHEAT MIDGE. ^ * crawling about, and ere many days become cased larvee — the yel- low worms btiing shorter than the semi-transparent pod in which they are inclosed. They may now be kept for months, even in a dry, stove-warmed office, without losing their vitality. Then, upon placing them between the folds of a wet cloth, they will next day be found actively crawling about within the cloth, till reaching its outside they with a skip ihrow themselves away from it, no*- one of them leaving a carse or empty skin behind in the cloth." Mr. D. J. Browne, in the Patent Office Report for 1854, page 74, says, "towards the last of July or beginning of August, the full grown maggots cease eating, and become sluggish and torpid, preparatory to shedding their skins, which takes place in the following manner : — ^The body of the maggot gradually shrinks in length within its skin, and becomes more flattened and less pointed, as readily may be seen through its delicate transparency. This torpid state lasts only a few days, after which the insect casts its skin, leaving the latter entire, excepting a little rent at one end of it. These empty cases or skins may he found in great abundance in the wheat ears after the moulting process is com- pleted." • Apparent Periodicity in the visits of the Wheat Midge. 158. A singular apparent regularity in the periods of its re- currence in vast numbers so as to prove eminently destructive, has been hinted at by Dr. Fitch in 1844.0 When these instances of periodicity are associated with its late destructive depredations in the United States and Canada, they seem to acquire a peculiar although perhaps speculative interest. Its appearances at differ- ent periods are as follows : — 0) See raoceeding pangrv>h. |,H:, j ' in 94 PRIZE essay: tst. Very preTalent in Scotland in 1740.H) 2nd. Abundant a few years previoua to 177 U or about 25 years after its first appearance, and in that year (1771) emineatly de- ■tructiTe.(2) 3rd. After 25 years or in 1796, it was again obserred by Messrs. Kirby and otherE, in abundance in different districts for three or four years. 4th. After about 25 years more, or in 1825 to 30, it once again became destructire and appears in America as weU as in Europe. 5th. After a fifth epoch of about 25 years it occasioned in New York Srtate damage to the extent of ^15,000,000 to the wheat crops in 1854, and in Canada West exceeding «^2, 000, 000 in 1856. The season of 1854 was one of unexampled drought in the State of New York. 159. In a letter from Dr. Fitch to the writer, (before reierred to) the follovnng reference to this curious subject is made ^ — Though I tillude to a seeming regularity in the recurrence af the wheat midge in England, after loi^ intervals, I have no idea there really is any such regularity in the return of this oi any other insect. We thought the midge had run its race in this section of country, some years ago, and that the genlral cultiva- tion of wheat might be resumed. But in 1854 it suddenly re- appeared, as numerous as it had ever before been ; indicating that it has become a naturalized insect in our midst, ready to multiply whenever tho6;e circumstances which favor- its increase recur. And an over the western country, this and other wheat insects are introducin;g themselves, to remain there no doubt, as long as wheat is ctdtiwted there, ever and anon multiplying and devas- tating the crc^M for one or more years, and then dimimshing and i.>r a time ceaiiing to attract notice. 1 ')0. There can be no doubt that certain peculiarities in the t > I'Uiis* Modem SUksbaudry. (2> Mr. Oullat. ';i|,|ff THE WHEAT MIDGE. 9ft i i liiiS season have a marked effect upon the increase of the wheat midge. The year, perhaps, of its greatest ravages, on this continent, 1854, was one of unparalleled drought, and it has heen observed that numerous species of insects appear in incredible numbers during dry and hot summers. (') The palmer worm which committed such ravages in the orchards during the summer of 18.53, was preceded by remarkably dry and hot weather. The chinch bug in 1839 became excessively numerous in Virginia and the Caro- linas, anl was preceded by a very dry spring. In 18.50 this in- sect was abundant in Illinois, but during the two following years . it was little noticed, " but the three dry summers which have now occurred have increased it prodigiously."^^) Numerous other examples might be quoted to show that hot and dry weather favours in a remarkable degree the excessive multiplication of insects. The green plant louse was excessively common in gar- dens near Toronto in 1856, during the dry early summer months ■ (129.) ^ .-■/.,;:,;,.;■,,;., ,■ •,, ,,.;;.■ ■' . •. On the Remedial Measures which have been adopted and suggested with a view to lessen the Ravages of the Wheat Midge. 161. The remarks under this heading made in the chapter on the Hessian fly may be here repeated ; we can employ remedial measures to check the destructive increase and devastations of this insect, but we cannot provide a remedy against its general appearance from time to time, under favourable conditions. The following plans have been adopted in the United States, and also recommended frequently in Canada. The general re- sult is, as before, attached in a few brief words : — 1 . Smoking the flies when in the act of depositing their eggs- (1) For various instances of tho concurrence of hot and dry weather with th«- sudden appearance of insects of different kinds, see Dr. Fitch's Keports. C8) Ibid. Ill iJii^i 96 PRIZK ESSAY : — Not generally practicable, and too much dependent upon wind to be of much utility. 2. Sowing with lime, or ashes, or gypsum when the flies are in the act of depositing their eggs. Experietice and observation have shown this artifice to be without any effect. Instances have often been cited when it has proved of value, in Ohio, Vermont, Canada. The true reason must have escaped observation. Wheat in blossom strewed with lime will not deter the insect from de- positing their eggs, as observation has most distinctly shown. 3. Early sowing. — In the absence of the Hessian fly this arti- fice is no doubt valuable with regard to winter wheat. 4th. Late sowing of spring Avheat — of value where rust is not- likely to prove equally destructive as the midge. Wijh good varieties of wheat this remedy is probably the best that can be suggested. Many instances are recorded of the very successful employment of this simple artifice. In the Canadian Agricul- turist for September, 185G, the late Mr. John Wade, of Hamil- ton Gardenp, county Northumberland, describes a kind of wheat adapted to late spring sowing, which appears to possess the re- quired qualities. " The Fife is now as good after being grown 7 years as it was at first, without the least sign or vestige of failure in any shape except from weevil ; and to know that you can be sure of a crop of wheat sown as late as the 10th of June, and to fill and ripen without a speck of rust, and yield 20 to 30 bushels an acre, is surely a consideration." 5th. Fumigating with, sulphur. — Is not the remedy, when practicable, as bad as the disease ? Sulphurous acid — the result of burning sulphur in air, is a most deadly vegetable poison. tith. Fly-proof wheat {^octiXe^). See paragraphs 108-112. The Black Sea wheat has long been a favourite in Canada, it is now fast deteriorating in some of the qualities which commend- THE WHEAT MIDGE. ed it some years since ; it has become acclimated. Fresh seed would no doubt be in full possession of its most valued pro- perties. The Turkish Flint Wheat, from near Mount Olympus, in Asia, is a hardy fall variety, and has recently been introduced into the United States through the Patent OiKce. It has a dark coloured chaff, a very heavy beard, and a long, flinty, white-color- ed berry, and is thought by the Commissioner of Patents likely t ) prove highly profitable to the farmer and miller, from its su- perior weight and the excellence of the flour it produces. It has withstood the severity of an American winter in the middle States, and " from its long thick beard will probably be protect- ed in a measure from the depredations of insects in the field as well as from heating or moulding in the stalk." P. O. R. 1855. 7th. Burning of Orpiment. — This is a most dangerous recom- mendation. If it were attempted on a large scale, sufficient to be of practical utility, the destruction of many flies would be very probable, but the poisoning of a manipulator now and then would be absolutely certain. This suggestion has been copied from a " Canada Journal," into the Potent Office Report for 1847. 1 62. Sound and practical advice on this subject is given to a c6rrespondent whose wheat was beginning to suffer from the ' Weevil ' in the county of Middlesex, by the editor of the Canadian Agriculturist, in the Sept. number, (1856) of that Journal. The extract is subjoined. Ist. Prepare your land loell. 2nd. Sow early (winter wheat) ; — for this neighbourhood, we should say not later than the second week of September, (of course the absence of the Hes- sian fly is here supposed.) 3rd. Select early and hardy vari- eties of wheat, such as the Improved White-Flint ; Kentucky White-bearded, or as it is commonly called, Hutchinson's ; — Blue mmmmm mmmmmmm 98 PRIZE kssay: stem i Soule's, and Hume's White Wheat. There may be other kinds equally valuable, but the above are tHc earliest, hardiest, most prolific, and produce the best flour of any with which we are acquainted. Ploughing wheat stubble in the fall has been recommended, with much show of reason in its favour, but it is evident that the practice must become general before much good can be expected from it. One large field left un- ploughed would furnish flies enough in the spring to spread the mischief over the whole neighborhood, or settlement. (?) (?)0) There is no variety of wheat entirely exempt from the attacks of insects. The Mediterranean is said to be less liable to their attacks than any other, but it is a coarse, red-bearded wheat, and makes inferior flour. It is an early kind, but the grain is as dark as the rye, and seldom plump. It is not grown in Upper Canada to any great exten:. 163. It will be well here to draw attention once more to the suggestions of Mr. Hutton, although given at length in para- graph 137. " One fact is well established, thatinear/^O) situations, on early spots, where the seed was sown early there was no "Weevil, (wheat midge.) In low, damp, late situations, and wherelatesown it has been extremely destructive. This important fact ought to be well remembered by our neighbours west of us, where they will have it undoubtedly in a very short time, and exertions ought to be used by them to sow early, and early kinds of seeds, to drain the land well and make small ridges, and otherwise expedite the growth as much as possible. The early sowed Soule wheat escaped last year in many instances, in the very centre of the Weevil's destructive ravages." Prize Report, county of Has- tings, by W. Hutton, Esq., 18.52. (1) The notos of interrogation are tlie author's— it is very improbable that one large field would spread the mischief if the other artifices above noticed were adopted. (2) In the absence of the Hessian FI7. *»:•■ THE WHEAT MIDGE. M lC3(a). With reference to change of seed of the same variety it should be borne in mind that it is advisable to obtain the fresh seed from a soil and climate better and earlier than those of the locality in which it is sown. In America, where our winters arc so prolonged that vegetation in the summer months progresses as in a hothouse, it seems very probable that seed obtained from the north would ripen earlier for a year or two in southern dis- tricts, than acclimated varieties. (2) 163(b). The remedial measure which appears to be immediate- ly suggested by a study of the habits of the wheat midge, is of the simplest description, and everywhere practicable. It will be seen from paragraphs 1.52, and 156, that the maggot of the midge, previous to assuming its larvic condition, buries itself an inch or a little more below the surface of the ground. That when the time arrives for their assuming th3 fly state, they wrig- gle themselves to the surface for that purpose. It is only by a series of alternate contractions and expansions of one side and the other that they can make their way up from an inch below the surface to the light and air, for they possess no feet or other exposed members when in the pupa cas?. If, therefore, the pupa be buried, say six inches below the surface, it is permanent- ly imprisoned, for nature has not provided any apparatus to ena- ble it to effect its escape under such circumstances. If, there- fore, at any time between August and May of the following ye»r the ground be ploughed to a depth of at least 6 inches, and in such a way that the furrow slices lie as compactly as possible, there can be no doubt that a vast majority of the pupse will per- ish from inability to escape from their imprisonment. 163(c). But how much greater will be the probability of every individual pupa perishing if the ground be ploughed seven inches deep immediately after harvest, and left untouched until the fol- (3) See paragraph, or i^tlier note to paragraph 120, page S6. .1- I I !■ m. 100 PRIZE essay: lowing August ? Every one knows that it is not possible, in ploughing, to turn a sod or furrow slice completely over, so that all parts shall be altogether revoked. The furrow slices may be made to lie with great compactness, but there will be instcrtitial spaces into which the pupa may fall or wriggle themselves, and eventually escape. When the field is ploughed itnmediately after harvest, not only will the autumnal rains fill the spaces be- neath and between the furrow slices by washing down fine parti- cles of earth, but the influence of the many months of winter and spring will consolidate the furrow slices, and their compact- ness may be ensured by rolling in May or the early part of June, before the fly appears. 163(d). Rolling the land immediately after ploughing is ac- complished, will give further security to the prison in which the pupa are enclosed by this simple artifice. 163(e). We may now consider the feasibility and adaptation of this artifice of after harvest ploughing and rolling, to those sections of Canada where the fly has not yet appeared. The country about Lake Simcoe has not yet apparently suffered from the depredations of this insect, and we know that the districts between London and the Detroit River are now only threatened at their borders with the invasion of the wheat midge. The question proposed is, what ought the farmers of these favored diltricts to do in order to avoid the slow but sure progress of the devastator. 163(f). Every one will say, first banish the idea from your minds that you are safe from an invasion ; let the experience of half a continent foreshadow the contingencies of a few town- ships. Acknowledging, then, the necessity of preparing for the invasion, what is to be done ? The answer depends upon the presence or absence of another insect. Ist. Are you liable to the attacks of the Hessian fly ? No ; then sow early, &c., &c. 1 » In Madison County, New York, during the prevalence of the wheat midge, in the years 1838 and '52, flocks of yellow birds were seen busily employed in the wheat fields, much to the alarm of the farmers, who, observing these active and beautiful little creatures picking the heads of wheat tc pieces, immagincd that they were destroying the crop, and hence resorted to various means to kill them, and drive them away. The same warfare has been frequently noticed elsewhere, and should at all times be discouraged to the utmost by all who desire to cherish the most interesting, beautiful and useful class of insect destroyers the world contains. Birds, and especially the insectivorous birds, ought to be encouraged in every way on this continent. Facili- ties so unusual have been furnished by man for the increase of certain destructive insect tribes, and no corresponding effort made to maintain a check upon their excessive multiplication, that we have permitted a host of enemies to obtain a firm foot- ing in our midst, which are at all times liable to paralyze our in- dustry in the most alarming and grievous manner. ■■■iaMH CHAFl'ER V. The ]VJieat Stem Fly, and other Depredalori. Wheat itom fly, lOS-Orlgln of ita iiamo, 109.— Probably not idenlifltd on thl» con* tinuiit, 108.— Deacriptlon of the wheat itvm fly, 160.— Tlic Ain<m ; nature of this body no lonmr a mystery, 238»— Early opinion regnrdiriK. 238 ; M. fnlnsne's opinion and discovery. 238 (n).— Medical efTvcts of ergot, 240,— Localities where it appears, and dreadful results fW)ni the con- sumption of ergoted wheateu bread in England and rye bread in Vranco and Germany, 211.— Ergot common in postures when undrained} common in certain grasses. Rust — Uredo Rubigo. 190. Many eminent American agriculturists consider 'rust' to be the greatest enemy which the farmer has to encounter in the cultivation of wheat on this continent. Compared with the ravages it sometimes occasions, the depredations of the Hessian fly and wheat midge fall into the second rank. Its attacks are so unexpected and universal that it has been likened to a sudden whirlwind of blight, which sweeps over thousands and tens of thousands of square miles of country in the short space of a sin- gle night. ' Struck with rust' is an expression more common and more to be feared than that frequent visitation in the early spring months, which we are accustomed to hear deplored under the term, • nipt by the frost.' " In the Northern States general- ly it produces more disaster to the wheat crop, than all other diseases and all insects put together."0) 191. It is quite needless to enumerate the different theories, as they are termed, which have from time been advanced, to ac- count for the appearance of rust. Every purpose will be an- swered for the objects contemplated in this essay, if the origin of rust be traced and described. It will be useful to enumerate a few instances of the appearance of rust in the United States and Canada. 192. In 1837 rust was common in many parts of the States. Its appearance was preceded by very hot weather, followed by rain. In many districts the wheat crops were suddenly and totally destroyed. 193. In 1840 an extensive rust blight occurred in Northern (I)* Prize Essay. N.Y. S.A.S, John J. Thomas, 1843. 1 RUST, SMVT, ETC. Ill Indiana, affected with almost equal destructiveness all kinds of wheat crops, and on all sorts of soil. 191. From 1840 to 181(5, rust was common and most destruc- tive in the States of the Union, but in 1847 little complaint was made of its ravages. 195. In 1849 it was very destructive. Mr. A. Ruff of Xenia, Ohio, states that rust destroys much wheat and has been con- > stantly increasing for the last 12 years. O 196. During the same year, and on the same authority, we read : " The enemies of wheat in this vicinity (Racine) are the weevil, mildew, and rust, the last having the present season des- troyed one-half of the crop. . 197. In 1850 rust caused almost an entire failure of the wheat crop, in all North-western Virginia. Every year more of less rust is found in the States and Canada. It is, indeed, everywhere prevalent, and we are always liable to rust years. It is equally common in the high northern as in the middle wheat growing States. In 1855 and 185G it occasioned considerable damage to the wheat crop in the County of Saguenay, C.E., common in Thorah, Canada West.(2) 198. It often happens tliat the crops over isolated tracts of country are affected, generally in stripes, narrow and long. These stripes are found to lie in valleys, or low situations ; on new land rust is very destructive, the experience of every Canadian farmer will serve to assure him of the tendency 'to rust ' exhibited by crops grown on virgin soil or new land in low damp situations. 199. Rust is a fungus, a minute vegetal)le growth, which throws that part of its structure serving the purposes of roots through the tissue of the wheat plant, and lives upon the nou- (1) p. O. Report, 18*9. (2) Rust hait occusioned the nlinosl entire dcstriiclion or the wheat crop in ; nil or lliis township, during ita universality. It is everywlierc prevuleni in Atneiicu. I wmmm m mmmmummm 112 PRIZE EB8AY i rishment which should be appropriated by the growing grain. Before proceeding further with a description of ' rust,' it is essential to acquire information res])ecting the structure, mode of growth and reproduction of the tribe of vegetables called fungi. Mildew is occasioned by a minute fungus called Puccinia Graminia. Rust is the growth of two kinds of fungi, uredo rubigo and uredo linearis. It is probable that the rust of this country dif- fers from the ' rust * in England, certainly there is a great differ- ence between the apjiearance of the fungus on growing wheat stems here, and the delineations given in European works on this subject. Smut, is uredo aegetum. Bunt, is uredo foetida ; 'stinking rust.' 199(a). Many other fungi prey upon other vegetables. Mr. Berkeley thought that the potato disease was due to a parasitical fungus found in the haulm, the botrytia infeatana. Martins also ascribt .1 the potato malady to a fungus, differing from the one last named. ^ (3) ^«*);es ., .■racfc (1) Till": ■' >T^ 4) (8) (2) 1(1) (I) BBCCIOS AND POHTIOW OP A 8TAI.K OF WHBAT APPKCTED WITH BUST. (1) (I) (I) Masses of tho BubiKO- (i) Stomata, or breathing pores. (3) Cellular tissue. (1) Cuticle. (5) Epidermia. IM RUBT, 8MUT, ETC. 113 A\< o'r^S mm FIG. I.— B0TKTT18 INPEBTAN8. (1) Head, or spores of the fungus, (i) Mycluim, or spawn. (S) Cuticle of leaf of potatoe. (4) Cellular tissue. The figure shows the manner in which the mycelium or spawn, of the fungus ramifies through the cellular tissue of the leaf. (t) rBEno RUBioo (Common Rust.) 200. The minute vegetable organisms called fung!, are cellular nlants having neither leaves, stems nor roots. Their organs of nutrition consist of a series of filaments called the Mycelium (fig. 1, 2), {jnykea, a fungus) or spawn, which spread like a net- 114 PRIZR E88AY: no. II.— FCNOUS (8MCT) FOUND OK R0TTK5 POTATOES, VSRT SIMITAR TO BUST. (a) Young hemX, or spore, (b) More matured state, (c) Shedding or scattering the Soeds or sporulos. work through the substances on wJiieh the fungi grow. They represent the roots of the fungus. From tliis network proceed bodies resembling globes, (fig. 1) circular disks, mitres, cups and coralline branches, which bear the organs of reproduction. (d The (2) PUCCIITIA aVLk^llva (Common Mildew.) (1) Ency. Brit., 8th Edi. RUST, SMUT, ETC. IIT) mycelium ia developed either iituler ground, or in the interior of the substance on which the plant grow.4. The fihuMents of the mycelium are composec^ of elongated colourless cells. Fungi are propagated by seeds or uporufea enclosed in sporule eases or spores (b, c, fig. II.) 20 1 . Fungi most commonly grow upon vegetoble or animal substances in a state of decomposition. They reipiire u very large supply of carbonic acid and ammoiiia for their nutrition. The proportion of nitrogenous matter contained in their tissues is much greater than in those of ony other vegetable ; so that their substance, if capable of being digested, is almost as nutri- tious as flesh. (1) 202-3. All cultivated jdants are covered with a membrane, termed the cuticle, and composed of cellular tissue (tig. I, p. 113.) The cells of the cuticle are filled with a colourless fluid, and their walls are thickened on the outside with a deposit which is usually of a waxy nature ond nearly impervious to moisture. In plants growing in temperate climates, the caticle is composed of a single row of thin-sided cells, in tropical plants several layers of thin-sided cells occur, evidently with a view to resist, by their non-conducting power, the great heat of a tropical sun. Exter- nally to the cuticle, there is an exceedingly delicate transparent membrane called the epidennia. 204. In particular parts of the cuticle of nearly all plants, minute openings exist which are termed »tomata ; these may be opened or closed by an alteration in their form. They arc not found upon the roots of plants, on the ribs of the leaves, or in plants growing in darkness, but they exist in general on all leafy expansions. They are most abundant on the under surface of leaves, except when these float on water, and then they are found (1) Car|)enter. Prin. of Comp. Physiology. 116 PRIZE ESSAY! on the upper sulo alone ; but they oxiHt rqunlly on both Burfacof of erect leaves, aa in the lily tribe and grnMKes.O) 201(a). Cellular tissuc<') exists in all plniits, and composes a large portion of turnips, carrots and otber ilesby roots. It con- stitutes tbe pith and outer bark of trees, and the central jmrt of rushes. The little cells of which this tissue is coin])osed vary in size. They are found from toVo^'' *o i i «*'' l"*""* "* •*" •"*'^ '" diameter. The general average diameter is from ^j'^th to iJoth of a line, and that of the cellular spores of fungi -Bo^^h of a lino or iro'(njth of an inch in diameter. 205. Vapour of water passes from the surface of plants in two ways, either by evaporation or exhalation. Evaporation from the surface of plants is dependent upon the moisture in their tissues, the temperature of the air and the dew j)oint. When air is saturated with moisture, or in other words, when the dew point is the same as the temperature of the air, evaporation from the surface of plants ceases. It is entirely independent of vitality. Exhalation is a function of the plant; is altogether dopenc\M)t upon vitality, and bears a strict relation to the number of stomata on the plant. 206. Exhalation is greater in summer than in autumn, and is much less active during the winter than at other periods of the year. A laurel ports with as much fluid in two days in summer, OS during two months in winter.<'') Hales found that a common sunflower transpired on an average 20 oz. a day. The weight of the plant was 3ibs., its height 3^ feet, and the surface of its leaves 5,8 IG square inches. On one warm day it exhaled as much as 30 oz. of fluid ; on a warm dry night 3 oz. ; when the dew was sensible, though slight, it neither lost nor gained, and by heavy rain or dew it gained 2 or 3 oz.(*) (1) Carpenter. (2) Called also Parenchyma. (3) Guottard, quoted by Carpenter (4) Quoted by Carpenter, Prin. Comp. Physiology. ^W^^I'ijilf RV8T, SMUT, KTC, H7 207. Tlioso and numcroua other cxpcrimrntii establish tlio fact that exhalation from the s'oinata is greatly dependent upon the moisture of the atmosphere, and that an atmosphere satura- ted with moisture totally arrests this function in plants. Light exercises a most important inHuence upon exhalation, for it has heen established that if jdantH in which the process is being vi- gorously performed be carried into a darkened room, the exhala- tion is immediately stopped, ond that the absorption by the roots is checked almost as completely as if the plant had been stripped of its leaves.!') 208. " It would not seem improbable, then, that the effect of light is confined to the opening of the atomata, which it is be- lieved to effi;ct ; and that the large quantity of fluid discharged from them may be due to simple evaporation from the extensive surface of succulent and delicate tissue which is thus brought into relation with the air, and to the constant supply of fluid from within, by which it is maintained in a moist condition." (s) 209. As is shown in the foregoing paragraphs, evaporation may take place from all parts of the surface of a plant in small quantity when air is not saturated with moisture ; and in the absence or presence of light, it is, in a word, independent of vi- tality. Exhalation, on the contrary, is dependent not only upon the dryness of the atmosphere, but upon the opening of the stomata of the plant under the influence of light, it is therefore so far subordinate to vitality. 210. The stomata opening under the influence of light, the rise of the sap^^) in plants becomes due to evaporation and the pressure of the atmosphere. " By the evaporation of water at the surface of plants, a vacuum arises within them, in conse- (1) Senebier, quoted by Carpenter. (2) Carpenter. Prin.Comp. Physiology. (3) The rise of the sap in spring is probably greatly increased by a species of germination lil)orating gas in the plant. m'^mmmmmtmmwif^i^if'ffwimmm^ ^wiimmim^ mmmm 118 PRIZE ESSAY! qnence of which water and matters soluble in it are driven in- wards, and raised from without with facility ; and this external pressure, along with capillary attraction, is the chief cause of the motion and distribution of plant juice8." road latitude 60*>. 18, Foot-note, for Lake Ugaini read Lake Ngatni. 18, Line 4, for provisions read Provinces, 16, Line 4, for H. J. of Science read Am, Jour, of Science. 15, Line 20, for infect read infest. 20, Line 12, quotation mark omitted after the word imagined 23, Lino 3, for tehitstone read whinstone, 24, Line 7, for Trichoptery read Trichoptera. 24, Line 9, for Bepidoptera read Lepidoptera. 26, Line 18, for threatens read threaten. * 26, Line 24, for Jteaumer read JReaumur, 26, Last line, for Seaumcur read lieaumur. 27, Line 19, for the read these. 27, Line 29, for trachee read trachece. 27, Line 30, for metamorphosis read metamorphoses, 25, Line 14, for trachw read trachece. 29, Line 10, for Linnaus read Linmeus. 81, Line 16, for evils read weevils. 82, Line 16, for is read are. 84, Line 10, for Cerasicoldus read Cerasicolens. 86, Line 20, for Leenwentrock read Leuwenhoek, 86, Last line, for Jfaxtmt/an read ifaxinuVtan. 87, Foot-line, for those read these. 88, Line 6, for ravages read ravager, 38, Line 17, for cacA read «acA year. 88, Line 19, tor fag seed re&dfax seed. 88, Line 81 , for Early nob read Early NoS. immmmi^ > Page 40, Lino 16, tor puhliihtd in a reeent AgrieulturtA 8c ottith Journal read publiihed in a recent number of a Seottith Agrict^titrol Journal. 41, Line 20, quotation marks omitted. 42, Line 7, quotation marks omitted. 46, Lino 16, for lecurity read immunity. 47, Line 18, for taturet read tuture; 48, Line 12, do do 49, Invert (fig. n.) 61, Line 16, for attitudt read altitude. 61, Line 26, for itrenthtning read strengthening. 62, Line 8, for underhill vhtat read Underhill wheat. 64, 8 lines from the bottom, for tleept read ileep. 61, Line 8, for Z'ffoumediea read L'Hommedieu. 61, Line 8, for Oeneiiee read Oenesee. 61, Line 14, for L'Houmediea read L'Hommedieu. 61, Line 28, for Heman read Hiram. 62, Line 6, for broodeait read broadcatt. 62, Line 8, for Oenetaer. road Oenesee. 66, Line 6, for quantity read quality. 66, Line 11, for Penam reod Pelham. 68, Line 16, foi- it read i<«. 71, Line 10, for 121 read 162. 72, Lino 27, tho word Europe, between in and the, omitted. 76, Line 2, for trilici read tritici. 79, Line 19, for solo read Smile. 87, The diagrams are misnamed, and the letter-press beneath the right and left hand diagrams should be reversed. 87, Line 12 from bottom of page, for arealis read cerealis. 88, Line 2 of diagram, for C. cerealcs read C. cerealis. 89, Line 2, for oat read oats. 103, Line 6, for obeee read obese. 118, Line 2. for Mycluim read Mycelium. 114, Last line, for Puccinia Gramuis read Puccinia Oraminis. 127. Line 16, for -4wierican read European. 126, Line 26, for Pea read TVa. 184, Line 13, for Pleutns road Phleums. ^'TifW^B I the