329 
No. 150.] 
On the east part of Long Island, where, as already noticed, the 
fly arrived in 1786, it so rapidly multiplied, that the following year 
many fields were nearly destroyed, and this year the third of its 
presence, the wheat crop “ was cut off almost universally.” The 
red-bald, which was the common winter variety there raised; and 
the spring wheat were equally affected. Rye in many fields was 
much injured, and a field of summer barley was wholly destroyed. 
( Havens , p. 73). 
Wheat in large quantities, was at this period exported hence to 
Great Britain. Accounts of the appaling havoc that this insect was 
making, excited the attention of the government there, and aroused 
their fears, lest so dreadful a scourge should be introduced into that 
country, by means of the American grain. “ The Privy Council 
sat day after day, (says Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 50), anxiously 
debating what measures should be adopted to ward otf the danger 
of a calamity more to be dreaded, as they well knew, than the 
plague or pestilence. Expresses were sent off in all directions to 
the officers of the customs at the different outports respecting the 
examination of cargoes—despatches written to the embassadors in 
France, Austria, Prussia and America, to gain that information of 
the want of which they were now so sensible; and so important 
was the business deemed, that the minutes of the council, and the 
documents collected from all quarters fill upwards of 200 octavo 
pages.” In consequence of the information lajd before them, a 
proclamation was issued by his Britanic majesty, on the 25th of June, 
1788, prohibiting the entry of wheat, the growth of any of the 
territories of the United States, into any of the ports of Great Bri¬ 
tain. It has been remarked as very singular, that although the en¬ 
try of American wheat was thus interdicted, it was still allowed to 
be stored at the different seaports, thus affording the obnoxious in¬ 
sects, if any of them had been contained in the grain, a very con¬ 
venient opportunity to escape and make their way into the country! 
When the news of the closing of the British ports against Ame¬ 
rican wheat reached this countiy, the measure was at once regarded 
as having resulted from misinformation respecting the habits of this 
insect. The supreme executive council of Pennsylvania immediate¬ 
ly addressed a letter to the Philadelphia ociety for promoting Ag- 
