HESSIAN FLY (ante). The eggs are laid on the young blades of the wheat, after the coming up of the plant in the fall, and also in the spring. The eggs are about of an inch long, with a diameter of only of an inch, of a pale red color, and hatch in four or five days, if the weather be warm. The !arm, as soon as hatched, descend between the leaf and the stalk till they reach a joint, just below the surface of the ground, at that stage of the plant's growth. Here they undergo their metamorphoses, nourished by sucking the juices of the plant. All the transformations may require several months, sometimes a year, being often retarded by circumstances. It needs but very few of these infects to cause the plant to wither and perish. The larv? attain their full size in five or six weeks when they are + of an inch long, and have the appear ance of a flax seed. In April and May the fly is released and soon begins to lay its eggs on the young wheat blades, of both autumn and spring sowing. The eggs attain the pupa state (flaxseed appearance) in June and July, the fly appearing in the autumn to lay the eggs for tin next spring brood. Many of these do not come to maturity till after har
vest, remaining for a time in the stubble in the pupa state. The Hessian fly is said to have been first seen in this country on Staten Island in 1776 near the place where sir William Howe disembarked the Hessian soldiers under his command; and from this circumstance received its name. The progress of the insect seems to have been about 20 m. in a year, usually migrating in swarms. It is a difficult pest to get rid of, and the eradication requires concert of action among the farmers. If the straw contain any insects in the pupa state_ it should be burned. The stubble be cut quite long so as to give as int*I1,EvIakfts possible it,Wburned. Then ploWing, and careful bar rowing and collecting of the roots as far as practicable should follow, with drying, and burning. See besets Injurious to Vegetation, by Dr. T. 31. Harris.