NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MANCHESTER. 213 
The injury sustained by the oaks on this occasion 
was not limited to those which grow in this particular 
district. I am well informed that in other parts of 
the county, and in Yorkshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, 
Shropshire, Middlesex, &c., many were similarly 
affected ; and it is probable that the mischief ex- 
tended much further. The damage done to the first 
leaves was, in a considerable degree, repaired by the 
development of a second set about the close of June 
and the beginning of July, the lively tints of which 
gave to our oak-woods, at that season of the year, the 
appearance of spring; but the bloom, as well as the 
early foliage, having been nearly destroyed, the crop 
of acorns, which had promised to be unusually abun- 
dant, proved remarkably defective. 
Various were the opinions entertained as to the 
cause of this blight, as it was generally termed, it 
being severally ascribed to disease, to lightning, to 
the cold winds which prevailed in the spring of the 
year, and to the ravages of insects. The last con- 
jecture happens to be correct; but few persons gave 
themselves the trouble to establish its accuracy by 
actual observation, and still fewer endeavoured to 
determine the species of those depredators. ‘Their 
vast multitudes may, with much plausibility, be at- 
tributed to the high temperature of the preceding 
year (1826) having been extremely favourable to 
their increase; for in the same season many other 
insects were also very numerous, especially the various 
