42 SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF 



The very earliest record which we find of its appearance in this 

 country is in Flint's 2nd Report on the Agriculture of Massachusetts, 

 where it is stated that in 1743 " there were millions of devouring 

 worms in armies, threatening to cut off every green thing." 



In 1770 it spread over New England in alarming numbers. Dr. 

 Fitch in his 6th Report quotes the following full and interesting ac- 

 count from the Rev. Grant Powers's Historical Sketches of the Coos 

 Country in the Northern part of New Hampshire. " In the summer of 

 1770 an army of worms extended from Lancaster, the shire town of 

 Coos County, N. H„ to Northfield, Mass., almost the whole length of 

 the Granite State. They began to appear the latter part of July, and 

 continued their ravages until September. They were then called the 

 'Northern Army,' as they seemed to advance from the north or north- 

 west to the south. It was not known that they passed the highlands 

 between the rivers Connecticut and Merrimack. Dr. Burton, of 

 Thetford, Vermont, informed the author that he had seen the pastures 

 so covered with them, that he could not put down his finger without 

 touching a worm, remarking that ' he had seen more than ten bushels 

 in a heap.' They were unlike anything that generation had ever 

 seen. There was a stripe upon the back like black velvet, and on 

 each side a stripe of yellow from end to end, and the rest of the body 

 was brown. They were seen not larger than a pin, but in maturity 

 were as long as a man's finger and of proportionate thickness. They 

 appeared to be in great haste, except when they halted to feed. They 

 entered the houses of the people and came up into the kneading 

 troughs as did the frogs in Egypt. They went up the sides of the 

 houses and over them in such compact columns that nothing of the 

 boards or shingles could be seen. Pumpkin-vines, peas, potatoes and 

 flax escaped their ravages. But wheat and corn disappeared before 

 them as by magic. Fields of corn in the Haverhill and Newbury 

 meadows, so thick that a man could hardly be seen a rod distant, 

 were in ten days entirely defoliated by the 'Northern Army.' Trenches 

 were dug around fields a foot deep, as a defence, but they were soon 

 filled and the millions in the rear passed on and took possession of 

 the interdicted feed. Another expedient was resorted to : Trenches 

 were cut, and thin sticks, six inches in diameter, were sharpened and 

 used to make holes in the bottom of the trenches within two or three 

 feet of one another, to the depth of two or three feet in the bottom 

 lands, and when these holes were filled with worms, the stick was 

 plunged into the holes, thus destroying the vermin. In this way 

 some corn was saved. About the first of September the worms sud- 

 denly disappeared. Where or how they terminated their career is 

 unknown, for not the carcass of a worm was seen. Had it not been 

 for pumpkins, which were exceedingly abundant, and potatoes, the 

 people would have greatly suffered for food. As it was, great priva- 

 tion was felt on account of the loss of grass and grain." 



