xxxiv INTRODUCTION. 



In 1849 and 1850, the midge having advanced up the St. Lawrence river to Lake Ontario, made 

 its appearance in the counties along the north side of the lake, in Canada, travelling westward, it is 

 said, at the rate of about nine miles each year. At the same time it was making similar progress on 

 the opposite side of the lake, into the great grain-growing district of western New York, which it 

 seems also to have approached at the same time from the Mohawk valley and central New York. It, 

 was quite injurious on the borders of Seneca lake in 1849 and 1850. 



The late General James S. Wadsworth, of Grenesee, New York, states that the midge was seen 

 in the Genesee valley in 1854, more in 1855, and in 1856 it destroyed from one-half to two-thirds 

 of the crop on the uplands, and nearly all on the flats. In 1857 it was still worse, taking over two- 

 thirds of the crop. 



The secretary of the New York State Agricultural Society, from statistics gathered for the year 

 1854, concluded that at the lowest estimate the injury done the wheat-crop in that year in the State of 

 New York exceeded fifteen millions of dollars; or, if estimated at the price to which wheat afterwards 

 advanced, to over twenty millions of dollars. 



In Pennsylvania the midge seems to have attracted the attention of wheat-growers earlier than in 

 western New York. In the Patent Office report for 1852, James Thornton, jr., of Byberry, Philadel 

 phia county, Pennsylvania, says: &quot;Mediterranean wheat is universally sown, its early maturity being 

 proof against the grain-worm, (a very destructive insect that feeds upon the grain whilst in a milky 

 state.&quot;) And in the Patent Office report for 1853, Mr. F. J. Cope, of Ilemphill, Westmoreland county ? 

 Pennsylvania, under date of November 8, 1852, says: ; The wheat crop of this section was materially 

 injured the past season by an insect not inaptly called the milk weevil, from the fact that its depre 

 dations are committed on the growing crop while the grain is in the milky state. The injury has been 

 almost entirely confined to the white varieties, the Mediterranean escaping altogether. The grub 

 (frequently four and five to each grain) is of an orange color, about one-eighth of an inch long. My 

 entire crop was destroyed by it. There seems to be no remedy for it ; and we must avoid risks by 

 abandoning, at least for a while, those varieties which seem to be its special favorites.&quot; 



There can be no doubt whatever that the insect alluded to is the midge. Since that time it has 

 been but too well known to the wheat-growers of Pennsylvania. 



The injury done the wheat-crop by this insect, is of itself sufficient to account for the diminution 

 in the yield. The damage was greater in New York than in Pennsylvania, and the falling off in the 

 crop from 1850 to 18GO is also greater in the former State than in the latter. In Pennsylvania the 

 amount of wheat in 1850 was 15,3G7,G91 bushels, and in I860, 13,045,231 bushels, or a decrease of 

 about fifteen per cent.; while in New York, in the same period, the decrease was from 13,121,498 

 bushels in 1850, to 8,G81,100 in 18GO, a decrease of about forty-four per cent. 



In the other middle States, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, the production of wheat was 

 greater in 18GO than in 1850. 



In these States the midge has done very little injury, owing, it is thought, to the warmer climate. 

 The great deficiency in the production of wheat in the middle States lies wholly with New York and 

 Pennsylvania, and is due principally to the advent of the wheat-midge since the census of 1850 was 

 taken. It is believed that the midge is not now as destructive as it was in 1859, to the production of 

 which year the census returns apply. The wheat crop of the following year (1860) was compara 

 tively uninjured by the midge, and had the census been taken in that year, the deficiency would not 

 have appeared as great as it now stands. When the midge appears among the wheat in a given section, 

 it does comparatively small damage the first year, and consequently attracts little attention The second 

 year it spreads rapidly, and the third and fourth years, if the season is favorable to its operations, it 

 destroys a large portion of the crop ; wheat-growers become alarmed, and after a few futile attempts 

 to raise wheat, are so discouraged as to abandon, in a good degree, all efforts to grow it. This was 

 especially the case in western New York. In the county of Monroe, which in 1845 raised more wheat 

 than any other county in the State, and more than all the New England States, the midge proved so 



