322 [Assembly 
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 distance. 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 earlier, 
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 introduced. 
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 1 Early in July of 
the year 1776, General Sir William Howe arrived on the New-York 
coast from Halifax, with the troops which had evacuated 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 operations being, that 
“ Long Island was very fertile in wheat and all other corns, and 
was deemed almost equal alone to the maintenance of an army,” 
(Bisset's Hist. Geo. III). We are informed in Marshall's Life of 
Washington , (vol. ii. p. 424,) under the date of August , 1776, that 
11 the reinforcements to the British army were now arriving daily 
from Europe ” Lord Howe’s strength was hereby augmented to 
twenty-four thousand men, about half of whom (as is probable from, 
the statement, page 416,) were newly arrived “ Hessians and Wal- 
deckers.” The most of these were from Hesse Cassel, a district 
