STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
149 
MIDGE. ITS AMEpiCAN H1STOBY. 
(Bulletins Soc. Entom. 1856, p. viii.) M. Bazin is assiduously 
continuing his observations upon the habits of these wheat in¬ 
sects, submitting specimens of them to Dr. Sichel and M. Amyot, 
distinguished entomologists of Paris, for the authentic determi¬ 
nation of their scientific names. He has heretofore done me the 
favor of forwarding to me specimens of these insects, and the 
past winter, with another suite of specimens from him came one 
of the most precious remittances which could be made me from 
abroad for aiding me in the researches in which I am now en¬ 
gaged. This was a vial filled with different insects just as they 
are promiscuously gathered by the net in the wheat fields of 
France. I am^ hereby enabled quite accurately to compare the 
insect enemies which the cultivators of this grain in Europe have 
to contend against, with those which we are obliged to encounter 
here. And the result of this comparison as contained in a sub¬ 
sequent page of this report cannot fail of deeply interesting the 
reader. 
Its American History. 
Previous to the arrival of the wheat midge upon the American 
continent, a malady in the wheat appears to have sometimes 
occurred, which produced a similar appearance in the grain to 
that now caused by this insect. One of my neighbors has here¬ 
tofore informed me ho has a very clear recollection of the fact, that 
in his youth a field of wheat on his father’s farm upwards of forty 
years ago presented the same aspect with which we are now 
familiar in fields infested by the midge — this field yielding but a 
scanty crop of very inferior grain. I have supposed it was pro¬ 
bably some similar appearance seen in the wheat, that has led 
Mr. Elner Rowell to state that the midge occasioned injury in 
some places in Athens county, Ohio, in the year 1821. (Pat. 
Off. Report, 1852—’3, p. 252.) And to see if any further light 
could be obtained on this subject, in the Circular soliciting infor¬ 
mation upon the wheat midge issued by the State Agricultural 
Society in May, 1858, the query was inserted — “ Before the midge 
came in your vicinity, is any instance remembered thirty years 
ago or more, in which a field of wheat was badly injured in the 
same manner it now is by this insect — with the heads rough and 
ragged and the kernels shrivelled ? If so, state the year and the 
particulars so far as remembered.” A negative response was 
