323 
No. 150.] 
but about a hundred miles distant from Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Al- 
tenburg, where, as we have already seen, the same insect did much 
damage to the wheat crops in 1833. And again, under the date of 
August 25, (p. 437,) it is stated, that '■'on this day, General De 
Heister landed with two brigades of Hessians. The next day he 
took post at Flatbush,” on Long Island, about six miles distant from 
the main encampment on Staten Island. 
In juxtaposition with this account, let us now place the statement 
of one, who, Sir John Temple, the British Consul General at New- 
York tells us, “had been more curious with respect to this insect, 
than any other person with whom he was acquainted.” Says Col. 
Morgan, ( Encyc. Britann.) “The Hessian fly was first introduced 
into America by means of some stiaw made use of in package, or 
otherwise, landed on Long Island, at an early period of the late 
wur; and its first appearance was in the neighborhood of Sir Wil¬ 
liam Howe’s debarkation, and at Flatbush.” So many circum¬ 
stances concur to evince the truth of the account here given by Col. 
Morgan, to its very letter, that we think no one w'ill hereafter hesi¬ 
tate to give it full credence. 
We have searched in vain for the date of the embarkation of the 
Hessian troops, or the number of days occupied by them in crossing 
the ocean. It is possible they may all have left Europe anterior to 
the harvest. But in Germany, as in this country, as is showm by 
M. Kollar’s statement, the infested straw becomes broken and tan¬ 
gled, and turns yellow, early in June. Had a company of soldiers 
needed straw for package, no objections would have been made to 
their going into a field of this kind, and with a scythe, gathering 
what they required, weeks before the usual time of harvest. 
We have no where met with but one statement, which goes di¬ 
rectly to prove that this insect is indigenous to this country, or existed 
here anterior to the arrival of the Hessian troops. The late Judge 
Hickock of Lansingburgh, N. Y., in a communication to the Board 
of Agriculture in the year 1823, and published in their Memoirs, 
(vol. ii. page 169,) says, “ a respectable and observing farmer of 
this town, Col. James Brookins, has informed me, that on his first 
hearing of the alarm on Long Island, in the year 1786, (doubtless 
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