THE CATERPILLAR PLAGUE. 15 



grating against eacli otlier. In the months of July and August I 

 have gone out in the moining and raked up from under the elms 

 a pile of leaves three or four feet high. These leaves had been 

 cut off by the caterpillars, and usually there was a worm on the 

 under-side of every leaf. I would pour kerosene over the mass 

 and set it on fire, and the squirming of the caterpillars would 

 cause it to rise up as if it had life of its own. The caterpillars 

 used to cover the basement and clapboards of the house as high as 

 the window-sill. They lay in a solid black mass. I would scrape 

 them off into an old dish-pan holding about ten quarts. When it 

 was two-thirds full I poured kerosene over the mass of worms and 

 set them on fire. I used to do this a number of times a day. It 

 was sickening work. I have used in burning caterpillai's five gal- 

 lons of kerosene in three days. I have seen my fence black with 

 the small caterpillars when they first hatched out in the spring. I 

 used to kill them on the fence by pouring scalding water on them. 

 The caterpillars used to be very thick in the grass, and there 

 would be one under every fallen leaf. On certain occasions 

 callers have had to wait at the front door until I could sweep the 

 caterpillars off the steps so that they could come in without get- 

 ting the worms on their clothing. (Mrs. Thomas F. Mayo, 25 

 Myrtle Street.) 



On the morning of the fourth of July, 1889, my domestic and 

 myself went around the whole of our fence and gathered ten or 

 twelve quarts of caterpillars. A little while afterwards they ap- 

 peared to be just as thick as ever on the fence. On another occa- 

 sion we gathered two quarts of eggs and caterpillars from the 

 fence on one side of the yard only. ... It is not easy to give 

 outsiders an idea of how bad the caterpillars were. If the State 

 had not done something, I honestly think we should have had to 

 move away from here. For several summers the women folks on 

 our street made a regular business of killing caterpillars. We got 

 fairly worn out catching them. I have seen Mrs. Mayo, across 

 the way, sweep the caterpillars up in the gutter in great piles and 

 burn them. . . . Another of our neighbors had the whole front of 

 her house practically covered with caterpillars. One could hardly 

 go out- doors without getting caterpillars on the clothing. You 

 could see them travelling about. When they were thickest we did 

 not pretend to go out the front door at all. We had the front 

 doorsteps torn up, and found underneath a good many nests. 

 There were thousands of eggs and caterpillars under the underpin- 

 ning of the houses. In 1889 they got into our cellar, and we had 

 it whitewashed. When the caterpillai-s were very small they would 

 get all over the washing when it was hung out. There were no 



