258 Insects Injurious to Vegetation. [Oct., 



with a description of the Underhill wheat, and a full confirmation 

 of previous reports respecting it. 



On the east part of Long Island, where, as already noticed, the 

 fly arrived in 1786, it so rapidly multiplied, that the following 

 year many fields were nearly destroyed, and this year, the third 

 of its presence, the wheat crop " was cut off almost universally." 

 The red-bald, which was the common winter variety there raised, 

 and the spring wheat, were equally affected. Rye in many fields 

 was much injured, and a field of summer barley was wholly de- 

 stroyed. (Havens, p. 73.) 



Wheat in large quantities, was at this period exported hence 

 to Great Britain. Accounts of the appaling havoc that this in- 

 sect was making, excited the attention of the government there, 

 and aroused their fears, lest so dreadful a scourge should be intro- 

 duced into that country, by means of the American grain. " The 

 Privy Council sat day after day, (says Kirhy and S pence, vol. i., 

 p. 50,) anxiously debating what measures should be adopted to 

 ward off the danger of a calamity more to be dreaded, as they 

 well knew, than the plague or pestilence; expresses were sent off 

 in all directions to the officers of the customs at the outports, re- 

 specting the examination of cargoes; despatches written to the 

 ambassadors in France, Austria, Prussia, and America, to gain 

 that information, of the want of which they were now so sensi- 

 ble; and so important was the business deemed, that the minutes 

 of the council, and the documents collated from, fill upwards of 

 200 octavo pages." In consequence of the information laid be- 

 fore them, a proclamation was issued by his Britannic majesty, 

 on the 25th of June, 1788, prohibiting the entry of wheat, the 

 growth of any of the territories of the United States, into any of 

 the ports of Great Britain. It is very singular, that although the 

 entry of American wheat was thus interdicted, it was still allowed 

 to be stored at the different seaports, thus affording the obnoxious 

 insects, if any of them had been contained in the grain, a very 

 convenient opportunity to escape and make their way into the 

 country ! 



When the news of the closing of the British ports against Ame- 



