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5D REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE, @ 
of the boundary line in Canada. It was first noticed, so far as we 
can find, in North Carolina at the close of the Revolutionary war, 
where, as has has been so often stated, it was mistaken for the Hes- 
sian-fly, which at that time was attracting considerable notice on 
Long Island and thereabouts. 
Dr. Fitch, in his second report, gives at some little detail an account 
of its early appearances, from which we may simply state that after 
this first notice the insect did considerable damage for several years 
in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. After a short 
series of seasons it was again destructive in North Carolina in 1809, 
so that in Orange County the cultivation of wheat was abandoned for 
two years. 
In 1839, in the same States, great damage was done to corn and 
wheat, and in 1840 an increase in number occurred and the wholesale 
destruction of the crops was only prevented by an exceedingly wet 
season. 
The first scientific description of this species was given by Say in 
1831, in a little pamphlet published at New Harmony, Ind., entitled 
“Descriptions of new species of Heteropterous Hemiptera,” from a 
single specimen collected on the eastern shore of Virginia, and it 
was probably at that time rare in Indiana where Say resided, at New 
Harmony. 
It attracted much attention in 1840 in [llinois, when it occurred in 
numbers in Hancock County, where it was supposed to have been 
introduced by the Mormons, and was called in consequence the “‘Mor- 
mon louse.” 
According to Professor Riley the first recorded appearance of the 
insect in Missouri was in 1839. It was again noticed in 1844 and has 
been destructive ever since. In Iowa iis first recorded appearance 
is in 1847; in Indiana in 1854, and in Wisconsin in 1885. 
1864 was a year marked by damage in these Western States. In 
1868, a season of great drought, much damage was done by the bugs 
in Missouri. 
In 1871 great damage was done in Illinois, southern Iowa, in parts 
of Indiana, in Nebraska, in southern Missouri, and Kansas. Jt was 
estimated by Dr. LeBaron, in his Second Illinois Report that the loss 
to the wheat, oat, and barley crops during this year amounted to 
$10,500,000 in Illinois alone, and in the other six States mentioned, 
including Indiana, the total loss was upwards of $30,000,000. 
In 1874 they occurred again in Missouri and the adjoining States 
in exceptional abundance. It was during this season that Professor 
Riley sent out circulars to all parts of Missouri, and at the close of 
which he wrote the extended article which was published in his 
Seventh Missouri Entomological Report. 
He estimated the total loss to the group of States of which eastern 
Kansas forms a center to be double that of 1871. Very careful esti- 
mates by counties give an aggregate loss of $19,000,000 for Missouri 
alone, including only the three staple crops of Wheat, Corn, and 
Oats. He mentions several facts which tend to show that this esti- 
mate is low rather than high. 
From 1874 to 1881 there were no serious irruptions of this pest, but 
in this year it attracted considerable notice and did a great deal of 
damage in the same Western States. Much newspaper literature con- 
corning the insect was published during this year, much of which 
was excited by Thomas’s paper upon the relation of meterological 
conditions to insect development and particularly to the Chinch Bug. 
