330 
[Assembly 
riculture, requesting the society to investigate and report to the 
Council the nature of the Hessian fly, and particularly whether the 
quality of the grain is affected by it. The society promptly replied, 
“that from every communication made to them on that subject, they 
are decidedly of opinion that it is the plant of the wheat alone, that 
is injured by this destructive insect, that what grain happens to be 
produced from such plants, is sound and good, and that this insect 
is not propagated by sowing wheat which grew on fields infected 
with it.” They also refer to the letters of Col. Morgan, and of 
Messrs. Vaux and Jacobs, as containing the best information ex¬ 
tant, relative to the natural history of the insect, and the most suc¬ 
cessful method of preventing its depredations. ( Carey's Museum , 
vol. iv. p. 244). 
Dr. Currie took an active part in showing the government and 
people of England, that the information which had led to the clos¬ 
ing of the ports against the entry of American grain, was wholly 
erroneous; and in eight or ten months the government bought the 
stored wheat at prime cost, kiln-dried it, and resold it at great loss. 
The prohibition was taken off almost immediately thereafter. (Me¬ 
moir of Currie, ii. 65). 
Jn 1789, as w'e learn from the Encyc. Britann., the Hessian fly 
first reached Saratoga, two hundred miles north of its original sta¬ 
tion. From the statements of several persons who were residing in 
Washington and Saratoga counties so long ago as this date, it ap¬ 
pears that the crops in this district of country, (at that day second 
to no other in the quantity of wheat which it produced,) first be¬ 
gan to fail about the year 1790 or 1791. The insect reached here 
by a regular progess from the south, coming nearer and nearer each 
successive year. It continued to infest the crops during a number 
of the following years, sometimes severely, at others but moderate¬ 
ly. On two or three occasions, many of the fields in Saratoga coun¬ 
ty were entirely destroyed. I do not learn that in this vicinity their 
devastations at any time reached this extent. About the year 1803, 
their last depredations were committed. From that time this insect 
has never been observed in this vicinity, that I can ascertain, until 
the autumn of 1845. In Rensselaer county, however, I am credi¬ 
bly informed, that it was quite injurious about the year 1810. 
