16 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



AN EARLY REFERENCE TO THE OCCURRENCE OF THE 

 ARMY WORM IN PENNSYLVANIA, NEW 

 YORK AND CANADA. 



BY F. M. WEBSTER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



The year 1743 seems to have been the first of which we have 

 what is generally accepted as undoubtable evidence of the occur- 

 rence of this pest in the United States in destructive numbers. 

 This information has always been based solely upon a statement 

 made by Chas. L. Flint in a report on the Climatology of New 

 England,* and is as follows: In 1743 there were "millions of 

 devouring worms in armies, threatening to cut off every green 

 thing. Hay very scarce, £7 and £8 a load." 



There, however, is another bit of evidence of this outbreak of 

 the Army worm in the year 1743 that appears to have been entire- 

 ly overlooked. This is contained in a small but somewhat rare 

 volume, by John Bartram, printed in London, England, in 1751. f 



Mr. Bartram, as he states, "set out from his house on Skuyl- 

 kil River the 3rd day of July, 1743." Under date of July 16th, 

 near the Indian town of Tohicon, situated between the east branch 

 of the Susquehanna and the main river, he says: "Here I observed 

 for the first time in this journey that the worms which had done 

 much mischief in the several parts of our Province by destroying 

 the grass and even corn for two summers, had done the same thing 

 here, and had eaten off the blades of their maize and long white 

 grass, so that the stems of both stood naked four-foot high ; I saw 

 some of the naked dark-coloured grubs half an inch long, the most 

 of them were gone, yet I could perceive they were the same that 

 had visited us two months before; they clear all the grass in their 

 way in any meadow they get into, and seem to be periodical as 

 the locusts and caterpillar, the latter of which I am afraid will do 

 us a great deal of mischief next summer." 



Under date of 28th of the same month, having reached Oswego, 

 New York, Mr. Bartram makes this entry in his record: "This 

 was a rainy, thundering warm day, and two deputies arrived from 

 the Oneidas. News came that the worms had destroyed abundance 

 of corn and grass in Canada." 



*Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of 

 Agriculture, 18.54 (printed in 1855), p. 36. 



t Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, 

 Animals, and other matters worthy of notice. Made by Mr. John Bartram in 

 his travels from Pennsylvania to Onondago, Oswego and the Lake Ontario, in 

 Canada, to which is annexed a curious account of the Cataracts at Niagara. 

 By Mr. Peter Kalm, a Swedish gentleman who travelled there. London: 

 Printed for J. Whi&ton and B. White, in Fleet Street, 1751. 

 January, 1913 



