Of other birds, the red-winged blackbird, orioles, sparrows, and thrushes are known to eat the bugs, but they do this sparingly, and are by no means so efficient as the quail,

To the careless observer it may seem a small matter whether quails, robins, etc., are protected or not, but the affairs of nature are so nicely balanced that a trifling decrease in one species of animal may allow another to increase with almost incredible rapidity. By exterminating the birds great damage is done to agriculture, and, whether he knows it or not, the boy who goes out with a sling-shot and knocks over a robin or a cat-bird may do more harm than all his corn-cultivating for the rest of the year can balance. This may sound extravagant, but it is strictly true; and vandalism, like virtue, is very sure to bring its own reward. Agriculturists will in time wake up to this fact.

ARTIFICIAL REMEDIES.

Several remedies have been proposed, but it may as well be acknowledged that none of them are as satisfactory as could be wished. In his second Ill. Report, Dr. LeBaron proposes the four following remedies: (They are carefully discussed in the Bulletin of Dr. Thomas.)

(1) Anticipate the ravages by sowing grain very early and getting ahead of the new insects. (2) Prevent migration of bugs from one field to another.

(3) Burn rubbish in the fall.

(4) Abstain for awhile from cultivating the grain upon which they feed, and so prevent their breeding.

There have also been suggested by Prof. Riley the following remedies:

(5) Irrigation so copious that the bugs will be drowned.

(6) Rolling the land after spring sowing, to keep the females from laying eggs upon the kernels.

Other remedies have been recommended.

(7) The appliance of salt, gypsum, lime, tarred saw-dust.

(8) The surrounding of wheat-fields by a strip of millet or Hungarian grass, to retain the bugs until they can be burned, thus saving the wheat.

(9) In the Prarie Farmer Mr. N. E. Allen recommends the sowing of clover with the spring wheat, which matures early and forms a covering for the ground, shading it, keeping it moist, and thus preventing the growth of the bug.

Each of these remedies has been tried, and probably each has its advantages. To consider them more in detail will be instructive.

(1) To anticipate the ravages by early sowing. Upon this there cannot be placed much reliance. In even the most favorable seasons the bugs have appeared and done immense damage. The fact is that the chinch-bug is governed by climatic changes as much as the wheat. In a year when wheat or oats are late the bugs will also be late, and vice versa. In this connection Dr. LeBaron thinks the salt or gypsum remedies should be tried, not because they have a poisonous effect upon the insects, but because they stimulate the growth of the grain and bring it earlier to maturity. Here, too, the clover-seeding remedy of Mr. Allen may be tried with possibly good effects.

(-) Preventing migration. About the time the wheat crop has been finished, the first brood of bugs is ready to migrate into the cornfields near at hand. As has been stated, this migration usually takes place on foot, except where the wheat has held out so long that the bugs have acquired their wings, and in view of this, various traps may be laid for the wanderers. A halfdozen furrows plowed around the infested field are very effective, especially if no gentle rains come up to consolidate the dust into a firm foot-hold. This is simple and easy. Another plan is to dig a ditch, making the side perpendicular towards the fields which are to be protected. The bugs cannot climb a vertical surface, especially if it is loose and dusty. This condition can be produced by scratching the trench with boughs. When a number of insects have collected in the ditch a log may be dragged through it with fatal results to the bugs.

Another method is to make a barrier around the cornfields, of fence boards set on edge, and the top besmeared with tar. Chinch-bugs will not cross such a line, however much they may wish to. The tar must be renewed often enough to keep it soft and sticky. The boards may be dispensed with and a stream of tar poured directly upon the ground from an old watering pot or kettle. This is not as effective, for the tar dries up more quickly.

As Dr. LeBaron admits, "The great deficiency of all such methods is that, at best, they only protect that crop which is usually the least damaged by them."

(3) Destroying the rubbish. This plan is a very good one, as far as it goes. A clean field is much less likely to be attacked than a dirty one. All stubble, brush, refuse hay, etc., should be burned some time in the late autumn. By this means many of the hibernating bugs will be killed, and fewer eggs the following spring will be the result. However, it is impossible to reach all the places where the insects hibernate, and many of them will be sure to escape and will be on hand in the spring, ready for mischief. Besides, corn-stalks are used for winter fodder, and since their burning would be no absolute immunity from the bugs, it is a plan of questional le expediency.

(4) Taking the view of the case that "it is useless to attempt to raise spring wheat or barley where chinch-bugs have been present in any considerable numbers the preceding year, unless we have reason to believe that they have been killed off by heavy rains," Dr. LeBaron proposes that the farmers of an infested locality should take concerted action and grow only such crops as enjoy immunity from the pest. This remedy seems chimerical, and though it might be adopted as a last resort, will scarcely be of much practical value.

(5) Copious irrigation. Prof. Riley has great faith in this remedy. If an infested field be put under water for a day or two the bugs will be killed. There are many places where this can be done, but upon the rolling prairie of eastern Nebraska it is entirely impracticable and may be dismissed. But wherever the remedy can be used it will prove most efficient, and care should be taken not to apply the water too early, for in that case many of the bugs would escape.

(6) Rolling the land after seeding. In this remedy, Mr. Allen, in the Prairie Farmer, expresses great confidence, and it is probably one of the best at our disposal. Immediately after the grain is in the ground a heavy roller should be passed over it, or it should be planked or poled. This breaks up the clods, fills the chinks and crannies of the soil, and opposes an effectual bar

rier to the female bug when she desires to crawl down to the kernel and lay her eggs upon it. She cannot dig like a beetle, and if hatched upon the top of the ground the young will perish for lack of proper food.

Therefore have the land smooth. The aphorism for bug-afflicted farmers seems to be, “no lumps and no bugs."

A combination of remedies (1), (7), and (9) has been recommended. By itself, the application of remedy (7) in any of its forms will be of small avail. The chinch-bug cannot be frightened by lime or salt, besides the trouble and expense is something enormous. By itself, then, remedy 7 is not recommended.

(8) Barriers of millet, Hungarian grass, etc., to be burned away when full of the pests. This is of questionable utility, for the movements of the insects are rapid and they appear in such quantities that one burning will not dispose of them.

(9) This remedy is good in combination with (1) and (7). ̧

To head off chinch-bugs, then, we must have clean farming, early sowing, and good deal of vigilance; the land should be rolled, flooded if possible, and finally-a modification of remedy 4-the "rotation of crops" should be observed. Beside being of value to the soil, an intelligent variation in planting will confuse and hamper insects. If a farmer sows one piece of land to spring wheat for year after year he may expect a multiplication of insect pests. It is as certain to come as a multiplication of lice in an old hen house. It will, perhaps, be difficult to bring about this state of things in the West, where the fertility of the soil makes its owners so reckless that they almost let it farm itself; but, sooner or later it will be well-nigh compulsory.

Mr. Lawrence Bruner thinks the following counties were particularly troubled by the bugs: Gage, Hall, Hamilton, Butler, Clay, Lancaster, Fillmore, Nuckolls, Seward, Saunders, Saline, Adams, Red Willow, Howard, and Platte.

THE HESSIAN FLY-(Cecidomyia destructor SAY).

ORDER DIPTERA; FAMILY CECIDOMYIDAE

Harris Insects Inj. to Veg.; Packard's Guide to Study of Ins.; Am. Entomologist, vols, 1, 2, 3, Third Rep., U. S. Ent. Com., and Bulletin No. 4-The Hessian Fly, by A. S. Packard, Jr.

DESCRIPTION.

The egg is very small, a fiftieth of an inch in length, cylindrical, pointed at each end, and pale red in color.

The larva is about a tenth of an inch long, with the body smooth and shining, and a little flattened beneath.

The "flaxseed state."-This is a name gived to the stage when the pupa is forming. Unlike many insects the pupa remains for a time inside the dried larva-skin, At this period the larvaskin with enclosed pupa resembles a flaxseed and thus the name came to be given. In this

condition the insect passes the winter. In spring the pupa emerges, by breaking the dried larvaskin which has served it as a sort of a cocoon. Then, according to the observations of Dr. Fitch, it ascends the wheat straw, finds some cleft in it and crowds its way out. The crack closes behind it and is allowed to nip the end of the abdomen. The pupa-skin now dries and splits and the perfect insect appears. For a few moments the fly is quiet, waiting for its wings to dry, and then it takes to the air in flight.

The imago is about one-tenth inch in length, slender, dark brown, with smoky-brown wings, legs paler brown, and eyes black. It is easily distinguishable from the wheat-midge, which has stouter body and is of an orange color.

HABITS.

Eggs are laid on the leaves of wheat-plants-those of the first brood in September on winter wheat, and those of the second brood in April or May upon spring wheat. From one to forty may be found upon a single leaf. Sometimes eggs are laid in July and a third brood is brought forth. Normally, however, the insect is double-brooded, the flaxseeds being found in winter and in early summer.

The Hessian fly, then, cannot exist except where winter wheat is cultivated, for it must lie in the straw throughout the cold season. Its greatest damage is in the fall, to winter wheat, and, since wheat is mostly of the spring variety in Nebraska, this insect has hitherto been less abundant than the chinch-bug, which works in the spring wheat rather than in the winter wheat.

Four days after deposition, the egg hatches, and the larva crawls to the angle between leaf and stem, where it attaches itself. It lives upon the sap and does not chew the straw. As it increases in size, it gradually becomes imbedded in the stalk, owing to the swelling caused in surrounding plant-tissue. The wheat turns yellow and dwindles in size, and before winter sets in may be almost destroyed. It sometimes recuperates and sends up a second growth in the spring.

Unlike the chinch-bug, according to Dr. Packard, the Hessian fly prefers a warm, moist climate. Hence rains and dampness, while causing decrease in the numbers of chinch-bugs, may only increase the other pest-which is quite as bad a one, where it appears in large swarms. A cold winter is bad for it, especially a winter without much snow. From its habits, then, it flourishes best where the chinch-bug is least likely to appear.

ITS APPEARANCE IN NEBRASKA.

Although the mere presence of the chinch-bug might seem to be an indication that the Hessian fly is unlikely to do much damage in Nebraska, there are many reasons why it should be watched. As yet no serious injuries have been reported. In 1881, Lawrence Bruner wrote to

the entomological commission that the insect has been known in Nebraska from 1867, recurring in 1873 as far west as York county, where it did some damage. At that time Prof. Aughey reported the insect from the vicinity of Lincoln. In 1885 I saw several stalks of wheat near Pawnee City, which had galls upon them, and in 1886 I noticed the puparia attached to stalks near the State Asylum for the Insane, in Lancaster county. The fly has been reported to me from Saunders, Gage, Fillmore, Richardson, and Cass counties, during the season of 1887, and I think that it has been observed by farmers in the vicinity of Lincoln. It has certainly been seen in Douglas county during the spring of 1887, but no tracts of wheat land have suffered from it except in Lancaster and Gage counties, where some trifling damage has been done. The present year, 1887, has been dry, and Hessian flies have not abounded. Last year was more favorable, and more have been reported than for this.

In spite of temporary droughts, the annual rain-fall of Nebraska is steadily increasing, and consequently the conditions for the Hessian fly are becoming more and more favorable, so that in ten years, or less, we may reasonably expect it to appear in greater numbers-possibly in numbers great enough to work serious injury.

INSECT PARASITES.

There are several species of Hymenoptera, known in general as "Ichneumon-flies." Semiotel lus destructor Say, and Platygaster error Fitch, seem to be the most beneficial. They have so much to do with restraining the Hessian fly that it is not advisable to burn stubble in which the pup may be concealed, because the parasites will also be destroyed.

REMEDIES AND PREVENTIVES.

(1). The larvæ may be killed by an application of lime. One or two bushels to the acre, Sown broadcast, is wet by rain or dew and forms a solution very distasteful to the insect.

(). Fultz, Clawson, Underhill, and most red wheats are more vigorous in withstanding attack, and should be sown if there is reason to fear the Hessian fly. Lancaster wheat is also recommended. Prof. Packard remarks: "Whatever kind of wheat is used, much more depends upon a rich soil, a vigorous growth, and careful cultivation, all of which tend to make the stalk stouter, and the growth a few day's earlier, than the choice of particular varieties." (3). Kolling the ground will not be of much use, though often recommended. Though a Sovereign remedy for the chinch-bugs, it does not work as well with the Hessian flies on account of their different habits.

(4). Burning the stubble has been condemned by practical entomologists for the reason given above. It is much better to let it stand.

(5). Pasturing with sheep; this is recommended by some. If the wheat in the fall is strong enough to bear it, sheep turned into the flelds will destroy great numbers of "flax-eeds" and larvæ.

(ti). Late Sowing. After a hard frost most of the insects will be destroyed, and if sown then, the wheat, though in danger of being winter-killed, enjoys considerable immunity from attack. This is a doubtful remedy."

(7). Early sowing. Oddly enough, just the reverse of the last remedy is claimed itself to be a remedy. This is based upon the belief, if the wheat is strong enough by the time the flies beg.n to work upon it, that all will be well. However, the leaves are no sooner out of the ground than they are subject to attack, and, in consequence, it is doubtful again whether such remedy i- real.

(8). Dr. Fitch and Prof. Cook advise the sowing of most of the grain late, but also to put out an early patch which may act as a decoy upon which the flies can lay their eggs. As soon as the late wheat is up, the early wheat may be plowed under and re-sown, thus destroying a large proportion of the eggs and larvæ.

(9). The rotation of crops is to be urged as strongly as in the case of the chinch-bug. It is a device of scientific and practical agriculture which has a definite reason, not to be disregarded. High culture, good soil, rotation, diversified sowing, with most of it late-in short, good farming, will be found to restrain the ravages of the Hessian fly, as well as those of most other insects.

HISTORY.

The Hessian fly is so named because it was supposed to have been introduced into this country during revolutionary times, by the Hessian mercenaries of England. From New York it spread gradually westward and southward. As shown in the carefully prepared map accompanying the monograph of Prof. Packard, its northern boundary is approximately that of a line drawn through St. Paul, Minn., and Portland, Maine. The southern border is wavy, running through Galveston, Cairo, south again to Atlanta, and north to Norfolk, Va. Westward the insect is found in Kansas, Nebraska, a corner of Dakota, and a part of the Indian Territory. 1843 was a bad year for the eastern and central states. In 1871, 1874, and 1877, it was increasingly harmful, and in 1878 it began to dwindle again in significance. This indicates a periodicity in its appearance, and it is noted by Prof. Packard that the years of greatest prevalence were warm and moist, thus indicating that these are favorable conditions.

From the researches of Wagner, it is suggested by Dr. Hagen, one of the most eminent authorities in the country, that the insect was not introduced from Germany by the Hessians, but from Spain and the Mediterranean countries, somewhat earlier in our National history. This view is supported by Prof. Packard, and it seems probable that the name, Hessian fly, is a misnomer. Nevertheless it is firmly established, and no reason can be given why it should

uot stand.