9 
The second generation is nurtured in the lower joints of the straw. 
The worm attains maturity in May, becomes a dormant “flax 
seed” in June, continues in this state till August, when the fly 
comes out to deposit its eggs in September. Though most of 
these flax seeds remain in the stubble when the grain is harvested, 
numbers of them are so high in the straw, as to be gathered with 
it. But they are so firmly imbedded in the straw, and enveloped 
within the sheathing base of the leaf, that it must be rare that 
any of them are detached by the flail in threshing, so as to find 
their way among the grain, and thus with it be carried to a dis- 
tance. As the flax seeds moreover, evolve the perfect insect in 
August, it must be equally rare that a solitary fly comes from the 
straw after that date. These facts clearly show that there is but 
one mode, and but one month in the year, in which this insect 
could probably have been conveyed to this country at that time, 
to wit, in straw landed upon our coast in August. If landed at 
a later date, the flies would have completed their transformations, 
and made their escape, or perished in their confinement; if ear- 
lier, there is no probability that the straw could have been of the 
growth of that year, consequently it would have contained no live 
insects. Our present knowledge of the habits of this insect thus 
affords us a singularly accurate test, for ascertaining the truth of 
the original theory respecting the mode in which it was intro- 
duced. 
And how do the facts furnished us by the military history of 
those times, accord with what we have seen to be almost essential 
contingencies to the importation of this insect? Early in July 
of the year 1776, General Sir William Howe arrived on the 
New York coast from Halifax, with thé troops which had evacu- 
ated Boston, and debarked upon that part of Staten Island which 
lies within the Narrows—one of the reasons which induced him 
to make this part of the continent the central point of his opera- 
tions being, that “Long Island was very fertile in wheat and all 
other corns, and was deemed almost equal alone to the mainte- 
nance of an army.” (Bisset’s Hist. Geo. III.) We are informed 
in Marshal’s Life of Washington, (vol. ii., p. 424,) under the date 
of August, 1776, that “the reinforcements to the British army 
