Agricultural pests Control -- United States -- History

Scope and Contents The larvae of the Hessian fly (Mayetolia destructor), which destroyed wheat crops, began spreading across America from the Northeast in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (it reached Monticello around 1811 and now resides wherever wheat is grown in the United States). Jefferson took an interest in studying and stopping or eliminating the pest but, overwhelmed by political duties (and Federalist stabs at his scientific pursuits of all kinds), left Thomas Mann Randolph and Samuel L....