530 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
themselves upon some of our wild grasses. Their numbers must 
therefore have been very limited at that period. But when 
wheat was introduced and became extensively cultivated, it 
gave them such an ample supply of most palatable nourishment 
that they have gradually increased and are now excessively 
numerous all over our land, laying every wheat field under con¬ 
tribution for their support. And I doubt not it is from the 
numbers of these and other insect depredators which abound 
upon our wheat, that we are no longer able to produce such 
crops of this grain as were uniformly harvested formerly, when 
our lands were newly cleared. How is it possible for wheat to 
grow with any thriftness when it is incessantly assailed by such 
hosts of these enemies, bleeding it at every pore ? And if any 
mode could be discovered by which our wheat could be pro¬ 
tected from these depredators, I do not doubt that on our old 
lands which have been under cultivation a century, we could 
now, with our improved methods of tillage, rear crops of this 
grain, surpassing those which grew upon the same lands when 
they were newly cleared. And if wheat could thus be grown, 
the intrinsic worth and the market value of lands in the old 
settled sections of our state would be advanced probably one- 
half. 
At the time of placing the specimens from which the accom¬ 
panying illustrations were taken, in the hands of the draughts¬ 
man, I supposed I should obtain some one or more of the larvae 
of these insects, in its perfect state, and thus be able to present 
its history with some approximation to completeness, in the pre¬ 
sent report. But my efforts to rear them have been unsuccess¬ 
ful. And it will scarcely be worth while to state the situation 
in which one and another of these worms is found, and the 
manner in which it mines or otherwise injures the straw, until 
the particular species by which the mischief is done in each case, 
can be identified and named. For the present, therefore, I 
merely state what will serve to explain the accompanying figures, 
and give the reader some acquaintance with this group of flies 
as they appear upon the wheat in their perfect state. 
These flies form a particular tribe or sub-family, named the 
Oscinides, the members of which may be distinguished from 
