STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
685 
HESSIAN FLY. 
APPENDIX. 
Historical Notice of the first starting of the Hessian Fly in this Country 
In the account of the Hessian Fly given in my last Report, I state that 
it is a European insect, which was introduced into this country, probably 
in some straw used in package, by the Hessian troops which landed on 
Staten and the west end of Long Island, August 1176, but it did not be¬ 
come so multiplied as to attract general notice in that neighborhood, until 
1779; and from thence as a central point, it gradually extended over the 
country in all directions, advancing at the rate of from ten to twenty miles 
a year. 
In my History of the Hessian Fly, published in the Transactions of the 
Society for the year 1846, I endeavored to present as particular an account 
of the introduction of this insect and its subsequent advance from one 
locality to another as the information which I was able to find upon this 
subject enabled me to prepare. In that article, (page 325) the following 
statement is given of the first starting of this insect in this country: 
“ From the ‘ flax seeds’- casually lodged in the imported straw, only a 
few flies would probably be evolved, to deposit their eggs upon the young 
wheat in the autumn of 1776; nor would these have multiplied to such an 
extent in the following spring as to attract attention at the time of harvest. 
But, increasing with each successive brood, by the harvest of the following 
year, 1778, we might anticipate its being observed, and by a year thereaf¬ 
ter, it would become so numerous that its real character would no longer 
be in doubt. And in accordance with this, we are informed by Colonel 
Morgan, that ‘the fly made its first appearance in 1778;’ and Mr. Clark, 
who in 1787 went to Long Island expressly to gather authentic information 
respecting this insect, says in his report, ‘ I satisfied myself in the following 
particulars, namely: first, that the Hessian Fly made its first appearance 
there about the year 1779, so as to injure, and in some cases to destroy 
their crops of wheat.’ And an anonymous writer- in Carey’s Museum 
(vol. i, p. 143) gives the same year as about the period of its discovery. 
We therefore regard the year 1779 as most probably the date when its 
ravages commenced.” 
The opinion which I thus expressed becomes somewhat modified by a 
statement which I meet with in the lately published Colonial History of our 
State, vol. viii, p. 783, which indicates that this insect had become more 
multiplied and had penetrated farther into the country in the year 1779 
than my previous information had led me to suppose. From the document 
alluded to it appears that in December, 1779, a tory named John Pell, of 
