The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1901-09-06
AGRICULTURAL.
The HESSIAN FLY.
How Late Must Wheat Be SOwn
to Escape Its Ravases?


ment Station made weekly sowings of
wheat from August 81 to October 26 at
the Central Station at Wooster, and |
from September to October 13 at the |
substation at Strongsville, 40 miles
north. Other sowings were made at
both places from September Is to Octo |
ber l. In both tests the first sowing
was practically untouched by the fly.
: and IA was more than half destroyed,
and that sown September q was prac-
tically all destroyed by the fly. That
sown September % made about three
tourths of crop, and that sown after
October escaped injury. AT Strongs-
vile the injury eliminated in the SOW
ings of September Is to Is, the wheat
sown on the latter date being almost
completely destroyed. On wheat sown
after September 25 there was bat little
injury.
At Columbus. wheat sown October
and suffered but little, In the south
ern part of the State wheat sown be-
fore October 10 was considerably in
jured, while that sown after that date
measurably escaped.
1t will be observed that the dates of
safety from fly indicated by these ex-
periments are generally later than it
has heretofore been supposed to be
necessary to walt to avoid the fly; but
in 1877 Prof. A. J. Cook, writing of the
disastrous attack of fly in that State,
observed that destructive attack was
repeatedly observed on wheat sown as
late as September 20, and Director c.
D. Smith, of the Michigan Experiment
Station, has reported severe injury to
wheat sown there the Goth of last Sep
tember.
1t seems, therefore, that the date of
actual safety, in seasons of general
prevalence of this pest, is so late to
incur as great risk from winter-kill-
ing as the ordinary risk from the fly.
The farmer who will observe closely,
however, has it in his power to reduce
his risk method by the following
method: Sow a part of the crop at a
medium early date. say September 5 to
for Northern Ohio to September 15 to
Is for the southern part of the State;
and then in about three weeks exam
inc the wheat plants very carefully at
the point where the well known ''fiax
seeds" of the fly are found. 1t will be
| too early as yet to find the ''fiax seeds, -
but if the fly has commenced its work
the very small, white maggots which
later develop into the "hax seeds"
should be found sucking the juice from
the plant. These ma ygots are at first
so small that it will require close
searching to discover them, and a
magnifying glass of low power will be
a help, though not absolutely neces-
sary.
If the maggots are found it will be
wise to delay seeding few days longer:
but if none are found the whole crop
may be sown with good assurance of
escape.
The advantages of this method are
not only that it will enable us to dis
cover whether the fly is present in in
furious numbers at an earlier date, but
that if the fly be present it will prob
ably be attracted to the early sown
wheat and induced to deposit all its
eggs, thus effectually protecting the
xyIa D1ota ~ a.:
object a considerable area must be
sown, for we have had no evidence that
| the tenth-acre plots used in our expert
ments in early and late seeding have
exerted any protective influence on the
remainder of the field in which they
were located. On the other hand, we
have found the general attack upon our
field work to be made about the dates
when the weekly sowings were most
severely attacked.
Numerous instances have been re
ported in which wheat sown one day
has been attacked by fly while tha
sown the day following has escaped
These can only be satisfactorily ex
planned on the assumption that tn,
earlier sown wheat attracted the Fl,
and proved sufficient in area to occup,
all the flies in the immediate neighbor
hood.
In case of an injurious attack devel
loping upon the early sown wheat j
should be turned under, in order t.
destroy the insects and prevent furth
er attack the following spring. Th'
cost of turning under and reseedin.
would usually be small in comparison
to the loss which would result from tn
fall attack and from carrying over
host of flies to prey upon the crop dur
ing the spring.
CHAS. E. THoRNE, Director.
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