1S46.] Insects Injurious to Vegetation. 257 



drinking vessels. Without exaggeration, I may say, that a glass 

 tumbler, from which beer had been just drank at dinner, had five 

 hundred flies in it, within a few minutes. The windows are filled 

 with them when they desire to make their escape. They are very 

 distinguishable from every other fly, by their (having) horns or 

 whiskers." 



Accompanying Col. Morgan's letter is a brief report, made by 

 Thomas Clark, who, at the request of his neighbors had gone to 

 Long Island, to gather correct information respecting the fly, and 

 the means of escaping its depredations. He became well satisfied 

 that the Underbill wheat was fly proof, and could be obtained in 

 any desired quantities, at the moderate price of $1.25 per bushel. 

 He also reports the interesting fact, that the fly had now become 

 so reduced in its numbers on the west end of Long Island, that 

 many of the inhabitants supposed there had been none the present 

 year, though he himself saw it there quite common still. Since 

 1779 their crops had been destroyed more or less every year, un- 

 til the present. 



In 1788, a communication in Carey's Museum (vol. iv., p. 47), 

 from Buck's county. Pa., informs us that in the vicinity of Tren- 

 ton, N. J., so much as the seed sown would not be harv^ed. 

 Many farmers had plowed up their wheat crops in the spring, and 

 planted them with corn. The fly also in this year commenced 

 its ravages in the state of Pennsylvania. " Near seed-time last 

 year, many persons on the Pennsylvania shore saw the insect so 

 thick in the air as to appear like a cloud, coming over Delaware 

 river." 



Following this communication, is a paper signed " a landhold- 

 er," who regards the eggs as laid in the grains of ripe wheat, 

 and sowed w^ith them; and proposes procuring seed from places 

 not infested with the fly, as a remedy. 



Messrs. Vaux and Jacobs, farmers of Providence, Pa., in July, 

 1788, made a tour through New Jersey and Long Island, for the 

 purpose of gathering information respecting the fly, and the best 

 modes of withstanding its attack. Their account is published in 

 the Pennsylvania Packet of August 21st, and is mainly occupied 



No. VIII. 7 



