Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1916 — BEATING THE HESSIAN FLY [ARTICLE]

BEATING THE HESSIAN FLY

At this time, when the fight on the Hessian Fly is becoming so widespread, and every implement of warfare is being used, any word or method of control Is eagerly sought. To the “pestered” wheat growers nothing is more acceptable than news of the success of other practical farmers, and because of this thy experience of Mr. P. I. Simons of Calhoun county, Michigan, is worthy of note. It is not a one year’s test, but observations from three crops that the conclusion is based upon. As Mr. Simons tells it: “The wheat field was severely attacked by the Hessian fly, and the average yield that year was 3 to 5 bushels per acre. Right across the fence from my wheat field was another on the same kind of ground that had been prepared in practically the same way. “The difference was that I used 200 pounds of fertilizer per acre. The application was made with a fertilizer attachment to the grain drill at the time of sowing. At four different places across the field strips were untreated and the entire field was seeded to clover.L “Up to June 10th the fly had not attacked my fertilized wheat, but had attacked the unfertilized wheat in the same field to'such an extent that the drill rows where no fertilizer was used appeared as wagon roads across the field. At this time the field across the fence from mine had practically been destroyed, yielding only 3 bushels per acre. My wheat threshed out 21 bushels per acre. The fertilizer that year meant an increase of at least 15 bushels per acre to me. “Now, when it came to the seeding where no fertilizer was applied I failed to get a clover stand, while on the fertilized portion of the field I had the best clover In the neighborhood.” It should not be taken that fertilizer will kill the fly. It isn’t an insecticide, but it fulfills its mission when the Increased health and vigor of the • plants results, and thus the fly turns to the weaker, sicklier plants to carry on the destruction. Sowing late will help avoid the fall brood, but no recourse other than having good strong healthy plants can be turned to so that the spring brood will not have the chance of profittaking. ■