13 
succee ling generation regularly enlarged the sphere of its devas- 
tations in every direction. 
Quite early in its history, the important fact became acciden- 
tally discovered, that certain varieties of wheat are capable of 
withstanding its attacks. In the year 1781, a prize schooner 
loaded with wheat, was taken in the Delaware river, and carried 
into New York, whence the cargo was sent to the mill of Isaac 
Underhill, near Flushing, Long Island, to be ground. Mr. Un- 
derhill?’s own crop of the previous year having been so entirely 
destroyed that he had no grain for seed, he took what he required 
for sowing from this cargo, and reaped therefrom upwards of 
twenty bushels per acre, whilst few of his neighbors for miles 
around had any to reap, so calamitous were the operations of the 
fly. To his praise be it recorded, he distributed his entire crop, 
in small quantities, and at a moderate price, among his neighbors, 
for seed; and all who made use of it were similarly successful. 
The “ Underhill wheat” at once became noted, for effectually re- 
sisting the attacks of the fly, and for many years subsequently, as 
we shall have frequent occasion to notice, was eagerly sought for 
and successfully cultivated, where all other varieties of this grain 
failed. (Vaux and Jacobs, Clark.) 
In 1786, the fly first reached Col. Morgan’s farm, at Prospect, 
New Jersey, about forty miles south-west of Staten Island. It 
was first observed in May, and by October was so increased, that 
some farmers in Middlesex, Somerset, and Monmouth counties 
were induced to plow up their young wheat and sow the fields 
to rye. Other fields, less injured, were allowed to remain until 
the succeeding spring, when their appearance was so dishearten- 
ing, that many of them were plowed up and sowed with spring 
grain. 
Eastward its progress would appear to have been much more 
rapid than towards the west and south, for this same year it had 
reached a hundred miles, nearly to the east end of Long Island, 
and was detected on Shelter Island. “It was first perceived a 
little before the harvest, and appeared to have come from the west 
end of Long Island, in a gradual progress of between twenty and 
thirty miles ina year. Before the harvest the species appeared 
