292 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
\ 
that may be ascertained in relation to the insects, which may he 
described, and copies will he sent to all persons answering these 
inquiries. Returns are requested to the Secretary, Agricultural 
Rooms, Albany, as soon as the questions proposed can he satisfac¬ 
torily answered. B. P. JOHNSON, Secretary . 
HON. G. BARSTOW— Nichols, Tioga Co. 
March 9 th, 1858. 
B. P. Johnson, Esq. 
My Dear Sir—In the journal of the State Agricultural Society 
for December, I noticed a circular of the Executive Committee of 
the Society, making some inquiries in relation to the history of 
the wheat midge (or weevil), as it is sometimes called. I have 
been a small farmer in the valley of the Susquehanna, for about 
forty years, and have grown wheat in a small way during that 
time. Since my residence here, the Hessian fly has made us two 
visits, and the midge one. 
I shall endeavor to answer all the questions of the Committee 
though perhaps not exactly in the order in which they stand. I 
should think it was about ten years since the midge first appeared 
in this part of the Susquehanna valley. I presume they came 
from the east, as I well recollect seeing them in Columbia county, 
in this State, in 1838. 
Their progress westerly seems, therefore, to have been very 
slow; but I believe they have traveled west with more rapidity 
within the last few years. Like Young America—they seem now 
to be rapidly going in the direction of Kansas and California. 
The midge was not so destructive at its first appearance as after¬ 
wards. Its ravages very soon discouraged our farmers, and less 
and less wheat was sown till about 1855. Very little was sown 
in 1855. The harvests of 1855 and 1856 were the smallest we 
have had here. We have not wholly discontinued sowing wheat 
here at any time. In my own small way, I have continued to sow 
wheat every year, and never had less than half a crop, except 
once. In 1855, very little was sown; but, of that little, most of 
it escaped the midge; more was sown in 1856, and the crop in a 
great measure escaped; particular pieces on low ground suf¬ 
fered some ; the harvest of last year having generally escaped 
injury. We sowed last fall about as usual. I never saw or heard 
of the midge in this valley until about ten years ago. I have 
resided here since 1812. 
