THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 197 



direction and appoint an officer for the special purpose of reporting on 

 noxious insects. The many reports of the late Dr. Fitch, extending over 

 a lengthened period, are well known and much valued ; his successor, 

 Mr. Lintner, is a man peculiarly fitted for the position — a most patient 

 and accurate observer, a skilled Entomologist with an experience in this 

 department of some thirty years, he brings to the task all the necessary 

 qualifications. Seldom has there been an appointment so judiciously 

 made, and I feel sure that great good will result from it. 



Since I last addressed you a special Commission has been appointed 

 by the Ontario Government to inquire into the agricultural resources of 

 the country, and the progress and condition of agriculture therein, and 

 recognizing the important and intimate connection of Entomology with 

 agriculture, the Government has seen fit to appoint your presiding officer 

 as one of the Commissioners. In performing the duties devolving upon 

 me in this position I shall endeavor to give to Entomological matters 

 bearing on agriculture that prominence which their importance demands. 



Wm. Saunders. 



THE HESSIAN FLY NOT IMPORTED FROM EUROPE. 



BY DR. H. A. HAGEN, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



The official publication of Bulletin 4, " The Hessian Fly," by Dr. A. 

 S. Packard, for the N. A. Entom. Commission, has induced me to study 

 again the question of the importation of this insect by Hessian troops at 

 an early period of the war. The excellent memoir by Dr. A. Fitch was 

 believed to have settled this question in a final manner ; therefore his 

 opinion was accepted by all subsequent American writers. 



The best German monograph on the Hessian Fly was written and 

 published twenty years ago, in Hesse, by Dr. B. Wagner. He acknow- 

 ledges fully the merits of Dr. A. Fitch's monograph, but he objects to 

 the historical part and the conclusions based upon it. As Dr. Wagner's work 

 seemed to have settled the question so thoroughly that for twenty years no 

 scientist in Europe has believed in the Hessian importation, I was rather 

 astonished to find in the Bulletin a reprint of the old story, without the 

 slightest acknowledgment of their refutation by Dr. Wagner. 



