n all countries where it would
grow. In 1776 there was entailed upon America an enduring calamity, in
consequence of the introduction of the Hessian or wheat fly, which was
supposed to have been brought from Germany in some straw, employed in
the debarkation of Howe's troops on the west end of Long Island. From
that point the insect gradually spread in various directions, at the
rate of twenty or thirty miles a year, and the wheat of the entire
regions east of the Alleghanies is now more or less infested with the
larva, as well as in large portions of the States bordering on the
Ohio and Mississippi, and on the great Lakes; and so great have been
the ravages of these insects that the cultivation of this grain has in
many places been abandoned.

The geographical range of the wheat region in the Eastern Continent
and Australia, lies principally between the 30th and 60th parallels of
north latitude, and the 30th and 40th degrees south, being chiefly
confined to France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sicily, Greece, Turkey,
Russia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Prussia, Netherlands,
Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, Northern and Southern Africa,
Tartary, India, China, Australia, Van Diemen's Land, and Japan. Along
the Atlantic portions of the Western Continent, it embraces the tract
lying between the 30th and 50th parallels, and in the country
westward of the Rocky Mountains, one or two more degrees further
north. Along the west coast of South America, as well as in situations
within the torrid zone, sufficiently elevated above the level of the
sea, and properly irrigated by natural or artificial means, abundant
crops are often produced.

The principal districts of the United States in which this important
grain is produced in the greatest abundance, and where it forms a
leading article of commerce, embrace the States of New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky,
Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa. The chief
varieties cultivated in the Northern and Eastern States are the white
flint, tea, Siberian, bald, Black Sea, and the Italian spring wheat.
In the middle and Western States, the Mediterranean, the Virginia
white May, the blue stem, the Indiana, the Kentucky white bearded, the
old red chafet, and the Talavera. The yield varies from ten to forty
bushels and upwards per acre, weighing, per bushel, from fifty-eight
to sixty-seven pounds.

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