Importance of a Fly.
Thefollowing facts may give our readers some idea of the vast importance to the British treasury of a little insect, called the hop fly, orAphis 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, buttowards 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?