252 Insects Injurious to Vegetation. [Oct., 



brigades of Hessians. The next day he took post at Flatbush," 

 on Long Island, about six miles distant from the main encamp- 

 ment on Staten Island. 



In juxtaposition with this account, let us now place the state- 

 ment of one, who, Sir John Temple, the British Consul General 

 at New York tells us, "had been more curious with respect to this 

 insect, than any other person with whom he was acquainted." 

 Says Col. Morgan, {Encyc. Britan.) "the Hessian fly was first in- 

 troduced into America, by means of some straw made use of in 

 package, or otherwise, landed on Long Island, at an early period 

 of the late warj and its first appearance was in the neighborhood 

 of Sir William Howe's debarkation, and at Flatbush." So many 

 circumstances concur to evince the truth of tbe account here given 

 by Col. Morgan, to its very letter, that we think no one will here- 

 after hesitate to give it full evidence. 



We have searched in vain for the date of the embarkation of 

 the Hessian troops, or the number of days occupied by them in 

 crossing the ocean. It is possible they may all have left Europe 

 anterior to the harvest. But in Germany, as in this country, as 

 is shown by M. Kollar's statement, the infested straw becomes 

 broken and tangled, and turns yellow, early in June. Had a com- 

 pany of soldiers needed straw for package, no objections would 

 have been made to their going into a field of this kind, and with 

 a scythe, gathering what they required, weeks before the usual 

 time of harvest. 



We have nowhere met with but one statement, which goes 

 directly to prove that this insect is indigenous to this country, or 

 existed here anterior to the arrival of the Hessian troops. The 

 late Judge Hickock of Lansingburgh, N. Y., in a communication 

 to the Board of Agriculture in the year 1823, and published in 

 the memoirs, (vol. ii., page 169,) says, "a respectable and ob- 

 serving farmer of this town. Col. James Brookins, has informed 

 me, that on his first hearing of the alarm on Long Island, in the 

 year 1786, (doubtless, 1776 is intended,) and many years before 

 its ravages w^ere complained of in this part of the country, he de- 

 tected the same insect, upon examining the wheat growing on his 



