548 NEW JEKSEY AGEICULTUEAL COLLEGE 



the same time from the same place, was almost universally distributed, 

 though it did little or no injury. Wire-worms were reported as cutting 

 corn^badly at Woodstown, Salem county, May 30th, and were not 

 later referred to. Sqtiash hugs were "numerous^' at Cold Springs, 

 Cape May county, May 30th, and this seems to have been rather ex- 

 ceptional, because I did not see them anywhere in my trips in any 

 numbers. "Bugs" on sweet potatoes were reported once only, from 

 Berlin, Camden county, June Gth, and the tortoise beetles, or their 

 larva?, the peddlers, were probably intended. So, when Goshen, Cape 

 May county, sets out, under the same date, that "melon vines are be- 

 ing destroyed by insects, necessitating the replanting of some entire 

 fields," it is probable that the striped beetle was at fault, though it 

 may have been cut-worms. Under date of June 20th, South Bound 

 Brook, Somerset county, reports the ''grain moth more numerous than 

 for several years," but nothing that indicates a general increase has 

 yet come to hand. 



June 37th, Titusville, Mercer county, claimed that "a worm similar 

 to the potato staJk-lorer is doing much damage to tomatoes and corn," 

 and while this is the only reference to the matter in the Crop Bulletin, 

 a great deal of injury was actually caused in many localities,, espe- 

 cially in gardens. Finally, "grasshoppers quite numerous in places" 

 comes from Eowland's Mills, Hunterdon county, August 15th, without 

 any statement that any harm was done by the insects. 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



Porthetria dispar Linu. 



The o-ypsy moth is a well-known European insect, which was intro- 

 duced into Massachusetts in 1868 or 1869 by the naturalist, Leopold 

 Trouvelot, who was then engaged in a series of experiments with silk- 

 producing caterpillars, native and exotic, hoping to find a substitute 

 for or a supplement to the Chinese silk-worm. In some way this par- 

 ticular species escaped from confinement and established itself out- 

 doors, under natural conditions. Although this fact was at once made 

 public, it attracted no especial attention and the spread was at first 

 very slow. It was not until 1889 that there was any extensive out- 

 break, and then it was found that the insect had gained a foothold in 

 thirty townships, all adjacent to each other. In the elaborate report on 



