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warm weather continue, great injury will result to the entire crop, 
as it has been sown much earlier than usual, and has looked re¬ 
markably fair. Later sowing, with a greater breadth of spring 
wheat, is the only remedy now offered. Will other parties in differ¬ 
ent sections make an examination and send notes?”—C., Syracuse, 
N. Y. 
While, so far as we have been able to learn, no serious damage, 
if any, has been done to wheat in New England by this pest since 
1854, in Western Canada it again became abundant in 1874, but 
most injurious in 1876 and 1877. In 1876 it appeared in great force 
in the townships of Amabel, North Bruce, Grey and Kippel. 
In 1878 the losses were still heavy in Southern and Central Mich¬ 
igan, but in 1879 the insect seemed to be moving northward, the 
greatest amount of injury being sustained in the northern part of the 
State, the fly being scarce in the middle of the. State. 
As regards its abundance in southeastern Michigan in 1878 and 
1879, Mr. F. S. Sleeper, of Galesburg, near Kalamazoo, writes me 
as follows: 
“In February, 1878, I noticed what was to me something new. 
The month was very warm and spring-like. For nearly three weeks 
the temperature did not reach the freezing point. About the middle 
of the month I noticed many flies flying over the wheat and depos¬ 
iting their eggs, but, so far as I could see, none reached the ‘flax¬ 
seed’ state. I have several times noticed the fly depositing her eggs 
as late in the autumn as October 26. 
“Since the summer of 1877 no very serious damage was done until 
last spring (1879). Then the fly put in an appearance. On the 
26th of May, above one field of wheat the air was almost black with 
them. I never saw such a sight before. I had fears that the fall- 
sown wheat would be badly damaged, but it is not so, as none but 
early-sown wheat is damaged in the least. I presume it is owing to 
the fact that September was cold, so that probably the sudden 
atmospheric changes destroyed all that had not reached the pupa 
state.” - 
In 1878 it did great damage in Dickson county, Tennessee. In 
Maryland, the winter wheat in the neighborhood of Baltimore, Md., 
was, in 1879 and the spring of 1880, seriously affected. In Central 
New York, in Seneca and Tompkins counties, considerable damage 
was done in 1878 and 1879. About Watertown, N. Y., some injury 
was done in 1879, one field of wheat being ruined. 
In 1879 apprehensions that injury would be caused by the fly were 
felt in Lowell, N. C. 
These facts indicate that the losses from the Hessian-fly are 
greatest in the grain raising areas of the middle and northwestern 
States, and adjoining regions of Canada, and that the New Eng¬ 
land States have been comparatively free from their attacks, though 
this is perhaps mainly due to the fact that so little wheat is culti¬ 
vated there. No statistics as to the losses have ever been collected, 
either by the State or national governments, but they have been suf¬ 
ficient to occasion much consternation and alarm at certain years. 
By reference to the chapter on the supposed periodicity in its 
attacks or years of maximum abundance, the reader may learn ap¬ 
proximately by the history of the past how often its more serious 
attacks may be probably renewed. 
