326 [Assembly 
was taken in the Delaware river, and carried into New-York, 
whence the cargo was sent to the mill ot Isaac Underhill, near 
Flushing, Long Island, to be ground. Mr. Underhill’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; ami all who made 
aise of it were similarly successful. The “ Underhill wheat” at 
■once became noted, for effectually resisting the attacks of the fly, 
and for many years subsequently, as we shall have frequent occa¬ 
sion 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 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 farm¬ 
ers 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 disheartening, that many of 
them were plowed up and sowed with spring grain. 
Eastward its progress would appear to have been much more ra¬ 
pid 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 in a year. • Before the harvest the species appeared to be few 
in number, but in the fall it was found to have greatly increased, 
and appeared in great numbers on the green wheat, and was ob¬ 
served to do most injury to that which had been most early sown.” 
( Havens , p. 71). 
