THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 91 



The sixth conclusion (p. 238) of the Professor is also an adoption of 

 B. Wagner's views : " That it was introduced from Southern Europe, either 

 Southern France or Mediterranean regions, perhaps Asia Minor, before the 

 Revolutionary ^^'ar." But Wagner speaks with more reserve and caution. 

 Having felt the strength of the objections to an introduction of the insect 

 by a longer voyage, he supposes that importation had been possible only 

 from the nearest coast of France. But his assumption of the long-existing 

 occurrence of the insect in Southern France is not corroborated by any 

 fact whatsoever, beyond the few specimens found in 1S34 by Mr. Dana 

 near Toulon. Whether a large trade between the Mediterranean shores and 

 North America existed before the Revolution, or not, I am unable to state. 

 But some very interesting facts out of the memorandum book of his father, 

 communicated by the late Mr. N. Silsbee, show that immediately after the 

 Revolution an active trade from Salem, Mass., to Leghorn and other 

 Italian cities, was kept up, principally bringing over American meal. It 

 may therefore be supposed that this trade was not an entirely new feature, 

 at least it was spoken of as a well known fact. Had not the difficulty, or per- 

 haps better, the impossibility, of introducing the insect by trade been 

 proved by the immense trade during all this time with England, where by 

 the greatest care and attention the insect was never observed in the car- 

 goes, it could have been assumed that the fly had been introduced just by 

 American trade to all the places visited by Mr. Dana. At least there was 

 the same chance for an introduction from Europe to America, as from 

 America to Europe. Nevertheless just this difficulty makes it more plausible 

 that the insect was indigenous here as well as in the Old World, a statement 

 so well expressed a century ago by Dr. Mitchell (Encycl. Britan., p. 494). 



The Memoirs of the Philad. Soc. for Promoting Agriculture, contain 

 in Vol. IV., 1818, p. xxix.. Notes for a Young Farmer, etc., by Richard 

 Peters, President of the Soc. : 



It is not yet agreed what kind of wheats best withstand the Hessian 

 Fly. . . Good farming, manure and reasonably late sowing are cer- 

 tainly the best securities. It is most probably a native here. It never 

 entirely leaves us, though it appears at irregular periods in numbers less 

 scourging than at times when its ravages are more conspicuously destruct- 

 ive. [Here follows the passage concerning its name, as quoted before ; 

 and p. lii., a note of Say's description of the fly and its parasites.] 



P. xl.. Address on the Progress of Agriculture, January 14, 18 17, by 

 James Mease, M. D., Vice-President. 



