Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1920 — SOW WHEAT LATE TO AVOID DAMAGE FROM HESSIAN FLY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SOW WHEAT LATE TO A VOID DAMAGE FROM HESSIAN FLY

•Hessian fly damage to the wheat crop harvested during the past summer, cost farmers of the state $5,750,000, according to' estimates of Purdue University workers, following extensive investigations throughout the state. This big loss can be eliminated pretty largely if the wheat is sown after the “flyfree” dates, or dates which experimental work has shown that the fly does not attack wheat. . This “fly-free” date varies in Indiana from the third week in September in the extreme northern end of the state to the second week of October in the southern end. On the experiment station ground at Lafayette, the best results have -been obtained by seeding dunng the last week in September, usually from Sept. 26 to the 28th. one day Pearlier should be counted fw each ten miles north or south of this latitude.

When there is Hessian fly in the it is advisable to delay seeding as late as possible. Late seeding will often escape fly damage where early. seeding would be badly infested, the Purdue men point out. However, there if a practical limit to the lateiiess of seeding, it must qpt be so late as to put the wheat into poor winter condition. Good fertilization is pecially important to hasten the development of late seeded wheat. In order to obtain the advantages bf. late sowing in fighting the fly, it is necessary for real co-operation to be shown and for all the farmers in one neighborhood to sow after the “fly-free” date. If one field ie | sown early and the fly attack* thisfield, it will spread later to other j fields in the neighborhood and may । infect alt of them.