Cleveland, and Horatio
Seymour."
"During the next period of ten years, bringing us to ISoO, the
agriculture of the County appears to have been in a transition
state." "While some of the farmers had, as a main business of
the farm, embarked in rearing cattle, and others in increasing their
sheep, many had not abandoned the idea, that wheat might still
be a staple product of the County for exportation. They still per-
sisted in the business, notwithstanding the increasing failures of the
crop, caused by the exhaustion of the soil, ravages of the Hessian
fly, spring killing, blight or rust. But in 1827 or 1828, an ene-
my to the wheat crops appeared, which baffled all the efibrts of the
farmer to evade. The insect commonly, but improperly, called the
weevil — that name belonging to an insect that preyson the wheat
after it is fully ripened and harvested. The insect alluded to is a
small, orange-colored maggot, and commits its depredations on the
berry, while in the milky state, leaving the head and almost disap ■
pearing from the grain, when ripe. By a late writer in the Cul-
tivator^ it is called the wheat midge. As early as 1829, its rav-
ages had increased so that, in some towns, in the County, scarcely a
field escaped."
" When the wheat crop failed, those engaged in the business had
to resort to some other branch of farming. The tenacious quality
of much of the soil of the County, forbid the cultivation of hoed
crops, and the raising of pork, as a substitute. I have before
remarked, that the Merino sheep had been spread through the
County with wonderful rapidity.