Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1817-05-23
To tie Editor y'the Enquirer.
SIR.
RICHMOND, MAY %.

-
In your journal, under the date of the 9th
inst. to the farmers generally, to commu-
nlcate information from various parts of
the State, respecting the devastatiOns of
the Hesslan Fly, the present season to
| detail its general history: What species
| Ofwheat is most liable TO it? What sort
| of cultivation is best calculated to prevent
| or destroy it With other general re-
| marks not embraced in the range ofthese
| queries-l, who am citizen of Frederick
| county, proceed TO give my response 10
those queries.
The ravages ofthis common enemy i'll
Frederick, are great and extensive
Fields that exhibited the most charming
and hope-cheering prospects three weeks
ago, are now of yellow hue, and re-
trograding i'll every point of view what
the final result will be, no one can, at
this date, positively determine. ltis suf-
ticient for the present, TO say, this re-
| peated stroke of adverse fate, at This pc
culiarly calamitous period, lowing to the
extreme intemperance of the last wear,
and the consequent extreme high price
of the staff of life,) creates universal des-
pondency, and spreadsOverwhelming dis
may-lts effects have, however, been
nearly the same these twenty years in the
Shenandoah Valley, excepting few of
the first seasons of its visitation, in which
its progress was marked by greater
degree ofrapacity and entire ruin, in con-
sequence, il is believed, of early sowing,
which afforded it two campaigns against
one crop. Under this dreadful scourge,
and every disadvantage, were correct
estimate made of the average crop of
wheat, including period of five years,
for Frederick, Berkeley and Jefferson
| counties, / flatter myself | shall not be
found wide from the truth, if venture TO
| fix it on fallow, whether natural sward or
clover lay, at from fifteen to twenty BUSH
els per acre on first, at from ten TO fifteen
on second, aud at five to ten Oh third rate
land-corn land at a third less in the ag-
| gregate, but very precarious as TO the re-
suit, and, therefore, quite predetermined.
| Upwards of forty bushels of wheat have
been obtained in various parts of those
counties every year since the origin ofthe
| Fly, from lots and fields under a state of
high Improvement, and neat cultivation.
| Frederick furnishes for expectation, from
fifty to eighty thousand barrels of flour
| per aEnum, and large quantity OF whis-
key, made from rye and corn, nOtwith-
standing it includes many thousands of
acres of mountain, and surface entirely
tophaceous and sterile, being i'm extent
thirty by twenty miles.
With respect to the general history of
the Fly, | would only be taking leap in
the dark, were 10 attempt entering in
TO minutiae in detail, having never been
able to make up my mind on that score,
and so much having already been said
and written by the most sagacious and
scrutlnizing -four cOuntrymen. Suffice
it TO refer the curious to publication of
| I,,6f nf A..
subject, written with great perspicuity
and research.
Passing on to the next query in order,
viz: What species of wheat is most liza
BILE TO it, would observe, that facts are
stubborn things, and experiments and
experience, founded upon numerous tests
and attentive observation for a series of
years, compel me TO close in with the be-
lief that the dugdall or bearded wheat.
and in particular the purple and golden
straw, have most generally resisted the
annoyance of this lshmaeIiie of an insect,
owing chiefly, in my humble opinion, to
| its peculiar nature and characteristic of
IFS branching more than any of the
smooth sort and in this respect, approx
imatlng TO the progress of rye in It's
| growth. 1t may be added, Snd perhaps,
with some truth, that from its having
c0mpacter fibre, smaller straw and less
tube than other wheat, the fly cannot so
readily find shelter, and produce its usu-
| al effects.
Next presents itself the third query
| What sort of cultivation is the best cal
culated TO prevent or destroy it Ipre-
| sumo it is pretty extensively known that
the county of Loudoun has been entirely
| reclaim ed from state ofabsolute sterili-
/ tv from a continuation of nafura and
| art, by the free and steady use of clover
| and plaster.
In Frederick county, Maryland, the
small grain crops are uniformly great, the
soil being naturally fertile, the mode of
cultivation exceedingly neat and good.
There they plaster with heavy hand,
carefully adding the agency oftheir diff
| ferent manures, from the stable, compost,
lime, ashes, cow-pen and sheep-fold SCOT,
&c. and invariably clover every lot and
field, avoiding large maize crops, with
| the utmost precautlon.
The plan | would suggest, as promis-
| ing the most ready transition TO those.
| who have not had the good fortune to a.
| bandon the old and wretched mode of
| planting large quantities of corn and to-
| baccO, and availed themselves Oft inn
| proved method offarming upon a good
| and successful system, is to make an in
yiolabIe resolution, without delay, TO les
sen their corn crops from time TO time,
Till they be brought TO the smallest pos
| sibie quantity to commence Simultane.
ously, by way of substitution, with large
potatoe crops, and increase them to- the
largest possible scale consistent with cir