256 Insects Injurious to Vegetation. [Oct., 



this formidable foe. The New York Society for Promoting Useful 

 Knowledge, issued an advertisement, requesting information re- 

 specting it. Two communications were soon received by them, 

 and were directed to be inserted in the secular papers. These are 

 the first published documents relating to the fly, that have occur- 

 red to our notice. They are copied into Carey^s American Mu- 

 seum (Phila. vol. i., p. 324-326). One of them, dated New 

 York, September 1, 1786, gives a brief but pretty accurate ac- 

 count of the situation and habits of the insect, particularly in the 

 fall and spring. The other, dated Hunterdon, New Jersey, Janu- 

 ary 1, 1787, after hastily alluding to its habits, proposes as reme- 

 dies, late sowing, on rich land; drawing elder bushes over the 

 young plants; and passing over the wheat with a heavy roller to 

 crush the worms. 



In the Pennsylvania Mercury of June 8, 1787, is published a 

 letter from Col. George Morgan, addressed to the Philadelphia 

 society for promoting agriculture. He suggests the importance 

 of their appointing some competent person to fully investigate the 

 habits of the Hessian fly, and the remedies to protect from it, 

 after the example of the Paris Academy of Sciences, which had 

 commissioned Messrs. Duhamel and Tillet to enquire out the his- 

 tory of the Angoumois grain moth; he alludes to contradictory 

 reports respecting the Underbill wheat, copies the paragrahs al- 

 ready given, from M. Chateauvieux, as " answering in every re- 

 spect to our Hessian fly," and gives an account of the ravages of 

 the insect in his vicinity, and its habits so far as observed. 



The Mercury of September 14th, contains another letter from 

 Col. Morgan, correcting some inaccuracies in his previous com- 

 munication, and giving some additional interesting items. He 

 says, " those who are doubtful whether the fly is in their neigh- 

 borhood, or cannot find the eggs or nits in the wheat, may satisfy 

 themselves by opening their windows at night, and burning a 

 candle in the room. The fly wnll enter in proportion to their 

 numbers abroad. The first night after the commencement of the 

 wheat harvest this season, they filled my dining room in such 

 numbers, as to be exceedingly troublesome in the eating and 



