M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1859-07-28
agricultural.
Letter from John Johnson.
CROPS IN NEW YORK, MrDoE, &C.

CROPS IN NEW YORK, MIDGE, &C.
Our harvest will very soon be here;
and in fact we have some wheat ready
to cut now, in this county, (Seneca,)
or may be already cut. Our wheat
crop is excellent; the Mediterranean
wheat entirely free from midge, and
very little in our Soules wheat. | know
OF no Soues wheat in the county, ex-
cept what Mr.. Swan and have; and
they are both splendid crops. | have
seldom seen better. got bushel Of
wheat sent me from NJ Missouri, called,
/ believe, the Early May wheat. |
sowed it last September, at the same
time l commenced sowing my other
wheat. 1t was in head about week
sooner than the Mediterranean; still,
it will not be ready to cut any earlier.
1t is entirely free from nudge, aId re.
ally looks beautiful. The heads, or
ears, are rather short, but they are
very plump, and am in hopes that it
may yield well. lit would only yield
like the Soules, it would be OF i'm
mense value to this country, as it wo'd
put the midge at defiance. All we
want is a wheat that will be in lull
head about the 9TH of June. Then
the chaf gets too hard by the time the
midge is ready, 50 that they cannot
sting through the chaf. | have seen
some writers, who think their brains
CrQmmed with science, say that th0y
deposit the larva on the outside OF the
chaH, and that in four days it is alive,
and creep5 over the top of the cAatf,
and down to the young kernel ufwheat;
but know better than that. | have
watched them too often to believe any
such nonsense. When the female gets
full Of the Larvae, or maggots, she is
quite red in the body. She then sticks
to the chat, puts out her sting, and
penetrates through the outer and in.
aer chatf, and instinct teaches her to
apply her sting right opposite the
young wheat. If she happens to be
above it, she pulls ont her sting, and
tries lower. When she gets the place
that answers her purpose, she sticks
there tol some time, and you can take
held Other with your finger and thumb
and pull out her stinger. When she
gets on a head that the chaf' is too
hard, she will move up and down the
ear, trying every one; sometimes she
will succeed on the very lowest ker-
nels, and sometimes on the highest
If she don't succeed on any Of them,
she tries another ear. They cannot
stand hot sun, and they seldom COM
mence to sting the wheat until about
two hours before sunset, and then they
keep at their work Vf destruction un.
til the dew falls. | have sat with
glasses on amongst the wheat, for
hours, watching them. | never saw
the midge or fly more numerous than
this season, but the chaf of my red
wheat, and the Missouri wheat, was
altogether too hard for them, and it is
only the very latest heads Of the white
wheat they could sting, and the loss
from them is only triaing. | hope
the Missouri wheat may yield as we'll
or better than the Mediterranean, as
the latter is only fit for poor, worn
land. If the land is in good condition,
it gets all down; hence great loss and
expense in harvesting. The Missouri
whe at has stiff straw, as stiff as the
SOule'S, and will stand up even, with
extra manuring. There is very little
wheat sown in this county. The Med.
iterranean was very good last year,
and better this, and | think more will
be sown this year, take the whole
county. This is the best crop that has
been grown III ten years. The midge
never hurt me much, but in the last
two crops. Our hay crop is very light,
worse with me than in 1854; in fact,
my crop was good that season, and
the quality double extra. Corn small
but color good. Oats and barley will
be a poor crop.-GENEvA, N. Y,
June 80.