An insect which was supposed to have come over with the Hessians, and which was destructive to wheat.
1786. We are sorry to find that the Hessian Fly has made its progress so far through New Jersey…. A gentleman in the neighbourhood of Princeton recommends roasting of wheat in the fall and spring, to prevent injury from the Hessian Fly.—Virginia Gazette, Oct. 18.
1787. Here I saw the Hessian fly, as it is called, which has done immense injury to wheat.—M. Cutler, ‘Life,’ &c. (1888), i. 246. (N.E.D.)
1787. See notices in American Museum, i. 133, 324, 529; ii. 175, 298, 458–9.
1787. That pernicious insect commonly known by the appellation of the Hessian bug.—Id., ii. 459.
1790. Hessian Fly. We are sorry to learn that the Wheat Insect has not yet ceased to be troublesome.—Gazette of the U.S., Phila., Nov. 3.
1799. The Hessian Fly visited us long before the French Revolution had commenced.—The Aurora, Phila., May 7.
[This was in answer to certain preachers who alleged that the Fly was sent as a “special judgment.”]
1821. The culture of wheat, since the Hessian fly made its appearance, has been chiefly discontinued in Connecticut.—T. Dwight, ‘Travels,’ i. 49 (New Haven).
1821. [The Hessian Fly] was first found in a field of wheat, on or near the Hessian encampment in the neighbourhood of Brooklyn, and opposite to the city of New-York. This was in the year 1784. [A description of the insect follows.]—Id., iii. 286.
1847. Anterior to the revolutionary war, the Hessian fly was unknown in this country. No allusion to an insect of this kind has been found in any American work, or in the journal of any foreign traveller, nor since its appearance has it been intimated that any of our citizens had ever observed it prior to that date…. We regard the year 1779 as most probably the date when its ravages actually commenced.—Dr. Asa Fitch’s ‘Pamphlet on the Hessian Fly,’ pp. 11–2.
