1846.] Insects Injurious to Vegetation. 255 



into New York, whence the cargo was sent to the mill of Isaac 

 Underhill, near Flushing, Long Island, to be ground. Mr. Un- 

 derhill's own crop of the previous year having been so entirely 

 destroyed that he had no grain for seed, he took what he required 

 for sowing from this cargo, and reaped therefrom upwards of 

 twenty bushels per acre, whilst few of his neighbors for miles 

 around had any to reap, so calamitous were the operations of the 

 fly. To his praise be it recorded, he distributed his entire crop, 

 in small quantities, and at a moderate price, among his neighbors, 

 for seed; and all who made use of it were similarly successful. 

 The " Underhill wheat " at once became noted, for effectually re- 

 sisting the attacks of the fly, and for many years subsequently, as 

 we shall have frequent occasion to notice, was eagerly sought for 

 and successfully cultivated, where all other varieties of this grain 

 failed. {^Vaux and Jacobs, Clark.) 



In 1786, the fly first reached Col. Morgan's farm, at Prospect, 

 New Jersey, about forty miles south-west of Staten Island. It 

 was first observed in May, and by October was so increased, that 

 some farmers in Middlesex, Somerset, and Monmouth counties 

 were induced to plow up their young wheat and sow the fields 

 to rye. Other fields, less injured, were allowed to remain until 

 the succeeding spring, when their appearance was so dishearten- 

 ing, that many of them were plowed up and sowed with spring 

 grain. 



Eastward its progress would appear to have been much more 

 rapid than towards the west and south, for this same year it had 

 reached a hundred miles, nearly to the east end of Long Island, 

 and was detected on Shelter Island. " It was first perceived a 

 little before the harvest, and appeared to have come from the west 

 end of Long Island, in a gradual progress of between twenty and 

 thirty miles in a year. Before the harvest the species appeared 

 to be few in number, but in the fall it was found to have greatly 

 increased, and appeared in great numbers on the green wheat, 

 and was observed to do most injury to that which had been most 

 early sown." (^Havens, p. 71.) 



Public attention was now becoming strongly directed towards 



