27 
from the fly alone, says the Genesee Farmer, (vol. vii., p. 251,) 
will doubtless be at least 500,000 bushels. In those districts of 
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, which are contiguous to the Missis- 
sippi river, it appears to have been common, and also in eastern 
Pennsylvania. From a minute in the proceedings of the trustees 
of the Maryland Agricultural Society, we learn that “so great 
ravages have not been committed by the Hessian fly, since 1817. 
On some of the best land wheat has been plowed up, and other 
portions are so much injured, that they will not be worth harvest- 
ing. At least one-half of the crop of Talbot county has been de- 
stroyed.” And in the upper counties of Georgia, it is said, “the 
fly has committed such ravages upon the wheat, as scarcely to 
leave enough seed for another year.” 
Its Name and Synonyms. 
It is a somewhat trite but very true adage, that “names are 
things.” Every one who has had occasion to search through 
files of our agricultural journals for information respecting any 
particular insect or other malady to which our crops or herds are 
subject, well knows what doubt and perplexity is often occasioned 
from having two or more names used by different writers for the 
same thing, and also from having two or more distinct things de- 
signated by the same name. To illustrate this, let us refer to the 
Patent Office Report for 1844, p. 26, where, in thirteen consecu- 
tive lines, we read as follows: “ Near Onondaga county the wheat 
is said to be injured by the grain worm. ... . In Schoharie 
we find complaints of the weevil. ... . In Schenectady county 
the ravages of the fly were great... .. In parts of Columbia 
county it suffered from the maggot. ... . In Dutchess a yellow 
worm in the head destroyed it.” Of a truth, “ what a host of 
enemies!” By way of climax, we only require some wiseacre 
who has never seen the insect or lived within a hundred miles of 
it, to say, “ Good people, you are all wrong; wheat worms is the 
correct name for your insect””—and we are furnished with a tole- 
rably complete list of the popular synonyms of the Cecidomyia 
tritici! But who, not intimately conversant with its American 
