swarms of these orange-colored gnats infest fields of grain towards the last of June. While the sun shines, they conceal themselves among the leaves and weeds near the ground. They take wing during the morning. and evening twilight, and also in cloudy weather, when they lay their eggs in the opening flowers of the grain. New swarms continue to come forth, in succession, till the end of July; but Mr. Buel says that the principal deposite of eggs is made in the first half of July, when late-sown winter wheat and early-sown spring wheat are in the blossom or milk. The flies are not confined to wheat alone, but deposite in barley, rye, and oats, when these plants are in flower at the time of their appearance. The eggs, hatch in about eight days after they are laid, when the little yellow maggots or grain worms may be found within the chaffy scales of the grain. Being hatched at various times during a period of four or five weeks, they do not all arrive at maturity together. Mrs. Gage informs me that they appear to come to their growth in twelve or fourteen days. Specimens of these maggots, which she has sent to me, were found to agree, in every respect, with the descriptions and figures of those of the European wheat fly. They do not exceed one-eighth of an inch in length, and are not provided with feet. From two to fifteen or twenty have been found within the husk of a single grain, and sometimes in every husk in the ear. After a shower of rain, they have been seen in such countless numbers on the beards of the wheat, as to give a yellow color to the whole field. These insects prey on the grain in the milky state, and their ravages cease when the grain becomes hard. They do not burrow within the kernels, but live on the pollen and on the soft matter of the grain, which they probably extract from the base of the germs. It appears, from various statements, that very early and very late wheat escape with comparatively little injury; the amount of which, in other cases, depends upon the condition of the grain at the time when the maggots are hatched. When the maggots begin their depredations, soon after the blossoming of the grain, they do the greatest injury; for the kernels never fill out at all. Pinched or partly filled kernels are the consequence of their attacks when the grain is more advanced. The hulls of the impoverished kernels will always be found split open on the convex side, so as to expose the embryo. This is caused by the drying and shrinking of the hull, after a portion of the contents thereof has been sucked out by the maggots. Towards the end of July, and in the beginning of August, the full-grown maggots leave off eating, and become sluggish and torpid, preparatory to moulting their skins. This process, which has been alluded to by Judge Buel, and some other writers, has been carefully observed by Mrs. Gage, who has sent to me the maggots before and after moulting, together with some of their cast skins. It 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 may easily be seen through the delicate transparent skin, which retains nearly its original form and dimensions, and extends a little beyond the included insect at each end. The torpid state lasts, only a few days; after which, the insect casts off its skin, leaving the latter entire, except a little rent in one end of it. This cast skin is exceedingly thin and colorless, -and, through a microscope, is seen to be marked with eleven transverse * "New England Farmer," vol. xii, page 60. lines. After shedding its skin, the maggot recovers its activity, and writhes about as at first, but takes no food. It is shorter, somewhat flattened, and more obtuse than before, and is of a deeper yellow color, with an oblong greenish spot in the middle of the body. Within two or three days after moulting, the maggots either drop of their own accord, or are shaken out of the ears by the wind, and fall to the ground. They do not let themselves down by threads, for they are not able to spin. Nearly all of them disappear before the middle of August; and they are very rarely found in the grain at the time of harvest. Some persons have stated that they are transformed to flies in the ears of the grain; having, probably, mistaken the cast skins found therein for the shells of the chrysalis or pupa. We have good reason for believing that the maggots burrow in the ground, and remain there unchanged, in a torpid state, through the winter. Whether, on the approach of spring, they again cast off their skins, in order to become pupæ, or whether the skin hardens and remains as a shell to protect the pupa, has not been determined; but it is probable that the skin is not cast off till the insect comes forth in the winged form. The last change seems to occur in June and July, when great numbers of the flies have been seen, apparently coming from the ground, in fields where grain was raised the year before. Several cases of the efficacy of fumigation in preventing the depredations of these insects are recorded in our agricultural papers. For this purpose brimstone has been used, in the proportion of one pound to every bushel of seed sown. Strips of woollen cloth, dipped in melted brimstone, and fastened to sticks in different parts of the field, and particularly on the windward side, are set on fire, for several evenings in succession, at the time when the grain is in blossom; the smoke and fumes thus penetrate the standing grain, and prove very offensive or destructive to the flies, which are laying their eggs. A thick smoke from heaps of burning weeds, sprinkled with brimstone, around the sides of the field, has also been recommended. Lime or ashes strewn over the grain when in blossom, has, in some cases, appeared to protect the crop; and the Rev. Henry Colman, the commissioner for the agricultural survey of Massachusetts, says that this preventive, if not infallible, may be relied on with strong confidence. For every acre of grain, from one peck to a bushel of newly slaked lime, or of good wood ashes, will be required; and this should be scattered over the plants when they are wet with dew or rain. Two or three applications of it have sometimes been found necessary. Whether it be possible to destroy the maggots after they have left the grain, and have betaken themselves to their winter quarters, just below the surface of the ground, remains to be proved. Some persons have advised burning the stubble, and ploughing up the ground soon after the grain is harvested, in order to kill the maggots, or to bury them so deeply that they could not make their escape after they were transformed to flies. Perhaps thoroughly liming the soil before it is ploughed may contribute to the destruction of the insects. It is stated that our crops may be saved from injury by sowing early in the autumn or late in the spring. By the first, it is supposed that the grain will become hard before many of the flies make their appearance; and by the latter, the plants do not come * Among others, see "The Cultivator," vol. v, p. 136. into blossom until the flies have disappeared. In those parts of New England where these insects have done the greatest injury, the cultivation of fall-sown or winter grain has been given up; and this, for some years to come, will be found the safest course. The proper time for sowing in the spring will vary with the latitude and elevation of the place, and the forwardness of the season. From numerous observations made in this part of the country, it appears that grain sown after the 15th or 20th of May generally escapes the ravages of these destructive insects. Late sowing has almost entirely banished the wheat flies from those parts of Vermont where they first appeared; and there is good reason to expect that these depredators will be completely starved out and exterminated, when the means above recommended have been generally adopted and persevered in for several years in succession. Mrs. Gage has discovered another pernicious insect in the ears of growing wheat. It seems to agree with the accounts of the thrips cerealium, which sometimes infests wheat in Europe to a great extent. This insect belongs to the order hemiptera. In its larva state, it is smaller than the wheat maggot, is orange-colored, and is provided with six legs, two antennæ, and a short beak, and is very nimble in its motions. It is supposed to suck out the juices of the seed-thus causing the latter to shrink, and become what the English farmers call pungled. This little pest may probably be destroyed by giving the grain a thorough coating of slaked lime. Our agricultural papers contain some accounts of an insect or of insects much larger than the maggots of the wheat fly, growing to the length of three-eighths of an inch, or more, and devouring the grain in the ear and after it is harvested. The insects to which I allude have received the names of wheat worms, gray worms, and brown weevils; and, although these different names may possibly refer to two or more distinct species, I am inclined to think that all of them are intended for only one kind of insect. Sometimes this has also been called the grain worm; whereby it becomes somewhat difficult to separate the accounts of its history and depredations from those of the cecidomyia, or wheat insect, described in the foregoing pages. It may, however, very safely be asserted that the wheat worm of the western part of New York and of the northern part of Pennsylvania is entirely distinct from the maggots of our wheat fly; and that it does not belong to the same order of insects. From the description of it, published in the sixth volume of "The Cultivator," page 43, by Mr. Willis Gaylord, this depredator appears to be a caterpillar, or span worm ; being provided with 12 feet, 6 of which are situated near each extremity of its body. Like other span worms, or geometers, it has the power of spinning and suspending itself by a thread. Mr. Gaylord says that it is of a yellowish-brown or butternut color; that it not only feeds on the kernel in the milky state, but also devours the germinating end of the ripened grain, without, however, burying itself within the hull; and that it is found in great numbers in the chaff, when the grain is threshed. He says, moreover, that it has been known for years in the western part of New York; and that it is not so much the new appearance of this insect, as its increase, which has caused the present alarm respecting it. The transformations, and the appearance of this insect in its perfected state, have not yet been described. Mr. Nathaniel Sill, of Warren, Pennsylva nia, has given a somewhat different description of it. On threshing his winter wheat, immediately after harvest, he found among the screenings a vast army of this new enemy. He says that it was a caterpillar, about three-eighths of an inch in length when fully grown, and apparently of a straw color; but, when seen through a magnifier, was found to be striped lengthwise with orange and cream color. Its head was dark brown. It was provided with legs, could suspend itself by a thread, and resembled a caterpillar in all its motions. This insect ought not to be confounded with the smaller worms found by Mr. Sill in the upper joints of the stems of the wheat, and within the kernels, until their identity has been proved by further observations. It appears highly probable that Mr. Gaylord's and Mr. Sill's wheat caterpillars are the same, notwithstanding the difference in their color. Insects of the same size as these caterpillars, and of a brownish color, have been found in various parts of Maine, where they have done much injury to the grain. Unlike the maggots of the wheat fly, with which they have been confounded, they remain depredating upon the ears of the grain until after the time of harvest. Immense numbers of them have been seen upon barn floors, where the grain has been threshed; but they soon crawl away, and conceal themselves in crevices, where they probably undergo their transformations. Mr. Elijah Wood, of Winthrop, Maine, says that the chrysalis has been observed in the chaff late. in the fall. A gentleman from the southern part of Penobscot county informs me that he winnowed out nearly a bushel of these insects from his wheat in the autumn of 1840; and he confirms the statements of others, that these worms devour the grain when in the milk, and also after it has become hard. In the autumn of 1838, the Rev. Henry Colman observed the same insect in the town of Egremont, in Bershire county, Massachusetts. It was separated from the wheat, in great quantities, by threshing and winnowing the grain. These wheat worms, (or wheat caterpillars, as they ought to be called, if the foregoing accounts really refer to the same kind of insect,) are supposed, by some persons, to be identical with the clover worms, which have been found in clover in various parts of the country, and have often been seen spinning down from lofts and mows where clover has been stowed away.§ A striking similarity between them has been noticed by a writer in the "Genesee Farmer." Stephen Sibley, Esq., informs me that he observed the clover worms in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, many years ago, suspended in such numbers by their threads from a newly gathered clover mow, and from the timbers of the building, as to be very troublesome and offensive to persons passing through the barn. He also states that, if he recollects rightly, these insects were of a brown color, and about half an inch long. I am sorry to leave the history of these wheat worms unfinished; but hope that the foregoing statements, which have been carefully collected from various sources, will tend to remove some of the difficulties wherewith the subject has been heretofore involved. The contradictory statements and unsatisfactory discussions that have appeared in some of our papers respecting the ravages of these worms and the maggots of the wheat fly might have been avoided, if the writers on these insects had always been careful to give a correct and full description of the insects in question. Had this been done, a crawling worm or caterpillar, of a brownish color, threeeighths or half of an inch in length, probably provided with legs, and capable of suspending itself by a silken thread of its own spinning, would never have been mistaken for a writhing maggot, of a deep-yellow color, only one-tenth of an inch long, destitute of legs, and unable to spin a thread. When the transformations of the former are known, and the insect is obtained in its winged or perfected state, it will undoubtedly turn out to be a very different creature from the tiny orange-colored wheat fly. Until its transformations are ascertained, it will be of little use to specudate on the means to be used against its ravages. No. 3. Observations by General Harmon. VARIETIES OF WHEAT. The culture of wheat has called forth the attention of the agriculturist in the temperate zones more extensively than any other grain. The varieties have been extensively multiplied; each variety has its advocate. The varieties cultivated three thousand years ago appear to have been much inferior to some of the varieties of the present day. The quantity was probably greater than that obtained from some of the most valuable varieties of the present time; but the grain was coarse, containing much less of the essential qualities of good wheat-gluten and starch. The varieties cultivated at the present day appear to have as great a difference in their quality as there was between that cultivated before the Christian era and the present time. WHITE FLINT.-The origin of this valuable variety is not certainly known. It is claimed that it was introduced into New Jersey from Spain in 1814; and from thence spread through many of our wheat-growing districts. It is likewise claimed to have been brought from the Black sea) into New York about the same time. The supposition that it originated in the town of Rome, Oneida county, in this State, where it was called "mud flint," from having been found growing on muck soil, is not entitled to serious consideration. Its first appearance in western New York was about twenty-five years since. The strongest probability is, that it was first brought from the Black sea into this State. Its origin is of less importance than the proper appreciation of its value to the cultivator. It is generally acknowledged to be one of the most valuable varieties that has been introduced to the wheat-growers of the Northern States. Description. The chaff is whiter than in most varieties. A few short and soft beards are found in the upper end of the heads, which are inclined to droop somewhat like the heads of barley. The straw may be said to be of medium length, and not as large as the straw of the common varieties. At the root it is more solid, and of a wiry appearance-being more stiff, and not as subject to lodge as when it was first introduced. The heads are not long, but generally well filled with from thirty to forty kernels in each head. The kernel is of a white flinty appearance, and very |