STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
751 
MIDGE. ARRIVES IN EASTERN NEW YORK AND MAINE. 
Here in Washington county, N. Y., one hundred and fifty miles 
south of Canada line, previous to the arrival of the midge we had 
intelligence of its cutting off the wheat crops to the north of us 
in Vermont, and that it was steadily advancing towards us. The 
larv® or little yellow worms were found in our wheat here in 
1830, and in 1832 they had so multiplied as to completely des¬ 
troy the crop in many fields. This was the year in which the 
malignant cholera swept over our land, and it was a common re¬ 
mark that what the pestilence spared famine bade fair to destroy. 
It was currently reported that by mowing the wheat and dry¬ 
ing it for hay while it was yet green and the worms were small, 
it would destroy them. This practice was resorted to in numer¬ 
ous instances, in fields where such multitudes of worms were 
found in the wheat ears as to render it evident that none of the 
kernels would fill. But no benefit was perceived to result from 
this measure. For two or three years the wheat crop continued 
to be ravaged in this manner, when further attempts to raise this 
grain were abandoned, only small patches of wheat being after¬ 
wards seen here and there, in this quarter of the country. 
Previous to the arrival of this insect, a considerable quantity 
of wheat was annually sent to market from this county, but at 
no time since has it been able to grow but a small fraction of the 
amount it has needed for its own consumption. 
Some two years later the midge was progressing on its way 
south, through the adjoining counties of Rensselaer and Saratoga, 
devastating the wheat fields there in the same manner it had done 
here. I well remember the merriment that was occasioned in one 
of the villages of the latter county in the year 1834, by an aged 
and respectable though illiterate farmer, reporting through the 
place that “ them pesky weasels had destroyed all his wheat.” 
Yet thousands of our people continue to this day to speak of this 
insect under a name that originated in ignorance little less 
gross. 
In the year last mentioned, the midge having advanced east¬ 
ward across Vermont and New Hampshire, began to show itself 
in the state of Maine ; and in the opposite direction, it had be¬ 
come 60 numerous around Montreal as to injure the crop there. 
In 1835 and ’6, over all the territory to which it had now ex¬ 
tended and where wheat still continued to be sowed, it was so 
extremely destructive, that further attempts to cultivate this 
