90 THE NEXT GENERATION 



1864. " The beetle has. crossed the Mississippi River into 

 Illinois at several points. ... It is committing the most destruc- 

 tive ravages on the potato crop in the vicinity of Warsaw, 

 Illinois, but it has not yet reached a point lying thirty miles 

 east of us in such numbers as to be noticed by the farmers." 



1865. If reports are correct, "the insect has traveled 

 three hundred and sixty miles in six years. At this rate it 

 will reach the Atlantic in fourteen years (i.e. 1879)." 



1868. A few advance agents of the moving army appeared 

 in Ohio. The army itself was still one hundred miles to the 

 rear but coming steadily on. Dr. Tower says that this advance 

 guard, no doubt, traveled by accident on the coal barges which 

 passed up and down the Ohio River. They were blown onto 

 these barges while on the wing. 



l8jl. " The chief event of the history of this year's 

 spread is the invasion of Canada." A man describing the 

 way they travel writes : "In the spring the Detroit River 

 was swarming with the beetles, and they were crossing Lake 

 Erie on ships, chips, staves, and any floating object." 



1874. " The center of the interest was along the Atlantic 

 coast, where in many places the beetle was abundant and 

 did much damage." 



/c?75. " At the beginning of this year the beetle was dis- 

 tributed along the seacoast from New York to Chesapeake 

 Bay, and by the end it had overrun most of the remaining 

 territory of the coast states. It reached Boston, Massachu- 

 setts, in the autumn. It penetrated farther into Vermont 

 and was reported from New Hampshire and Maine." 



l8j6. "It is related that they were washed ashore in 

 such numbers as to poison the air with the ' noxious vapors ' 

 arising from their decaying bodies." The captain of a New 

 London vessel relates that while at sea (Long Island Sound) 



