Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1845-05-01
the Report of the Commissioner of Patents
The HeSsian Fly.
OBSERVATIONS COMMUNICATED BY
!. G. HERRICK. LIBRARIAN OF YALE
COLLEGE.
nRSERVATIO

Will II ~
The insect commonly called the HeSsian fv
which has for so many years ravaged the wheat
fields of our country, appears to have been
wholly unknown here before the American rev.
ouiiUn. lisusually stated that the insect was
frs, noticed in the year 1875 or 1879, on STA
ten Island and the westerly end of Long Island,
and was generally supposed to have been in
induced among straw brought hither by The
Hessian troops in the service Of Great Britain
The ravages of the insect soon attracted gene
raj attention and as early as the year 1888.
serious sppreaensions were excited in England
hat The destroyer might be conveyed ihiiher in
great that The government took up the matter !;
lhe priry council sa, day after day, anxious
y debating wha, measures should be adopted
10 ward off the danger of a calamity more TO
be dreaded, as they well knew, than the plague
or peslence; expresses were sent off in all
directions 10 The officers OF the customs a, the
oupOrs, respecting the examination OF cargoes;
dispatches written to the ambassadors in
france, Austria, Prussia and America, TO gain
hat information, Of The want OF which they
we're now so sensible; and so important was
ne business deemed, that the minutes of The
| council, and The documents collaied filled up.
wards 200 octave pages" (Kirby and Spence,
l. 5Ol On the 25th Of June of that year, an
order in council was issued, prohibiting The en-
rance into Great Britain of W heat raised in any
oI ihe territories Of The United States; intend.
og, by this measure, 10 keep ou, The much
dreaded enemy. Soon after the arrival of the
news OF this order, the supreme executive coun-
| cll Of Pennsylvania addressed letter of inQui-
y'o The e" Philadelphia Society for promoting
agriculture" who promptly replied lha, the
plant Of the whea, alone was injured, and that
he insect was not propsgated by sowing the
R'aln which grew on fields infected with it,
The prohibition was doubtless based on the er.
roneOrs representation of Sir Joseph Banks and
Dr Blagden, which they continued to enforce
''en after they were better instructed by DR..
VuHie. Il is sufficiently remarkable, that. al
'h"ngh 'he wheat was prohibited an entry" it
was allowed 10 be stored so that the Hessian
n.y. II concealed among the grain, would, after
all have had good opportunity 10 escape into
he country. lie eigh, or ten months, the gov
s'nment bought the imprisoned wheat at prime
los', kln-dried il, and resold il al great loss.
and almost Immediately took of the prohibition
Memoir Of Currie. ii, 65.) e
In The course Of few years after this. the
'esslan fly was found in every part OF our
'unfy where wheat was cultivated. From
he period of the revolution down to The present
ne, no insect in The land has received SO much
public attention, or has called out SO many
cores OF pages OF observation and speculation.
hese are 10 be found scattered through maga-
>ass' agricultural journals. and common news
P'pes. Bu'. in defiance OF them all. the Hes
an ny continues its destructive work, and Is
'Fpbably as iule under the actual control oil
''n as II was half century ago.
Whether tbs insect was an original iuhabi-