The following facts may give our readers some idea of the vast
importance to the British treasury of a little insect, called the hop
fly, or _Aphis Humelia_.
In the year 1822, on the 14th of May, the hop duty, on a fair estimate,
according to the prospect of the crop, was laid at £100,000; the fly,
however, appearing pretty plentifully towards the end of the month, it
was estimated as likely to produce only £80,000. The fly increased, and
by the end of June the duty had gone down to £60,000; by the end of
July, to £30,000; by the end of August, to £22,000, and by the end of
December to £14,000. The duty actually paid this year was £15,463 10s.
6d.
In 1825, the duty commenced at an estimate of £130,000; but, owing to
the excessive increase of the fly, it had in July fallen to £16,000;
at the beginning of September it rose to £29,000, but towards the end
fell again to £22,000. The amount paid was £24,317 0s. 11d.
In the following year, the summer was remarkably dry and hot; the
thermometer for several nights continued above seventy degrees all the
night through. The crop of hops was immense; scarcely a fly was to be
found, and the duty, which was estimated in May at £120,000, rose to
£265,000, and the amount actually paid was £262,331 0s. 9d., being the
largest amount ever known.
From this, it will appear, that in duty alone, a little insignificant-
looking fly has a control over £150,000, or 700,000 dollars, annual
income to the British treasury! Supposing the hop grounds of England
capable of paying this latter duty annually, which they certainly are,
it is very manifest that in 1825 these creatures were the means of
robbing the treasury of over £100,000; this seems a large sum, but it
is only a small part of the amount actually destroyed, for we here
only speak of the tax, and not of the entire value of the hops
destroyed. This, no doubt, is three times as much as we have
estimated, for the duty alone. In some years it is probable that the
hop fly destroys hops in England to the value of nearly two millions
of dollars! Is not this driving business on a large scale?
[Illustration]
June.
This first month of summer is said to derive its name from Juno, a
Roman goddess, in honor of whom a festival was celebrated at the
beginning of the month: its zodiacal sign is Cancer, which the sun
enters on the 21st. Summer is now fully established, and even in New
England the grumblers say nothing of easterly winds, and confess that
it is warm enough. In the southern states, the people are beginning to
fear the return of fevers; beside, the days and nights are there too
hot for comfort――and, therefore, those who can leave home are about
departing for the north.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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