10 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



under 16 headings, of various insects among which may be recog- 

 nized chinch bug, pea weevil, bHster beetle of potatoes, cankerworm, 

 plum curculio, peach-tree borer, cucumber beetle, and squash bug. In 

 addition, an account is given of the cotton caterpillar and of an un- 

 known pine-tree borer said to have caused the death of great numbers 

 of pine trees in South Carolina. 



J. D. Tothill has studied the history of the early outbreaks of the 

 forest tent caterpillar (see Report of the Entomological Society of 

 Ontario, 1917). He shows that Smith and Abbot stated in 1797 that 

 this insect, " is sometimes so plentiful in Virginia as to strip the oak 

 trees bare." He also states that as early as 1791 there was an out- 

 break of an insect in Vermont, which was probably the forest tent 

 caterpillar. 



As time went on there was a rapid extension of agriculture toward 

 the West, and the rapidity of its extension increased with each decade ; 

 the cultivation of new crops was begun, and new pests were brought 

 in from foreign countries, at first slowly, but in gradually increasing 

 numbers. 



As agriculture expanded, agricultural newspapers began to be 

 founded and from time to time published articles dealing with insect 

 problems ; and naturally the attention of a few able men was drawn 

 to the real study of insects from the practical point of view.^ 



It is interesting to note that from 1771 until 1880 (more than a 

 hundred years) there were only 60 men in the whole of North America 

 who wrote worth-while notes or articles on injurious insects (six of 

 the sixty were Canadians). Between 1771 and the outbreak of the 

 Civil War there were only 23 such writers. During the war three 

 more began to write, and before 1870 ten more. Between 1870 and 

 1880, 23 additional writers had published on one phase or another of 

 the subject. 



Comparatively few of these writers were competent entomologists. 

 Some were farmers or fruit-growers, others were physicians, and 

 others were teachers. None received compensation for their work until 

 T. W. Harris was given a small sum for the preparation of a report 

 on the injurious insects of Massachusetts in 1841 ; and the first offi- 

 cial entomologist to be appointed was Asa Fitch in New York in 

 1853; T. Glover received the first Federal ai)p()intment in 1854. 



^ Prof. F. M. Webster published an article in Insect Life, Vol. 4, pp. 262-265 

 and 323-326, March and June, 1892, in which he mentions a number of important 

 observations recorded in early numbers of the American Farmer, Farmers' 

 Cabinet, the American Journal of Science, and The Cultivator. 



