1705-1800. 19 



From this description, incomplete and inaccurate as it is, our cotton- 

 worm can be recognized ; and this, taken in connection with Huebner's 

 description of Aletia as from Brazil, and with Mr. Grote's testimony 

 upon this point, renders the identity of the destructive Northern and 

 Southern insects highly probable, to say the least. 



And now to our account of the ravages of the chenille. 



The early explorers of the West Indies found cotton growing wild, 

 and the first settlers began its cultivation. We learn from an old ac- 

 count* that early in the last century the cotton-cultivators were accus- 

 tomed to the injuries of a worm which appeared in great numbers. In 

 Guiana the chenille was certainly known by the earliest cultivators of 

 cotton in that country (1705 to 1752). In the Bahamas the caterpillar 

 was also destructive from the first cultivation of cotton. 1788, however, 

 so far exceeded all previous years, that we always find it particularly al- 

 luded to. In this year, between March and September, no less that 280 

 tons of cotton, at a moderate estimate, were devoured by this worm.t 



In 1794 the worms were again very abundant and the crop on several 

 of the islands suffered severely. On Acklin's Island two-thirds of the 

 crop was lost, and this was also the approximate loss on this island in 

 1788.| In 1801, the cotton-crop having failed for a number of years, a 

 committee^ of the members of the general assembly of the Bahamas was 

 appointed to draw up a series of questions inquiring into the causes of 

 this failure, and to forward them to the most intelligent planters on the 

 islands. Mr. McKinnon says, concerning the result of the investigation : 

 "Amongst the causes assigned for the severe and general disappoint- 

 ment, the most prominent is the destruction committed by those most 

 baneful insects, the red bug and the chenille." 



In 1801 and 1802 there was an emigration of French cotton-planters 

 from Martinique to Southwest Georgia on account of the ravages of the 

 caterpillar in the West Indies, || and on many islands the cultivation of 

 cotton was entirely stopped. 



The first recorded appearance of the cotton worm in the United States 

 was, as we have already stated, in 1793. In that year it swept the cot- 

 ton fields of Georgia and South Carolina, doing a great deal of damage, 

 more particularly in Georgia. "In that year," says Mr. Spalding, "the 

 destruction was complete. From Major Butler's field of 400 acres only 

 18 bags were made." fl In 1800 there was another general appearance of 

 the worms, and in that year the crops in South Carolina suffered equally 

 with those in Georgia. Dr. Phares and Dr. Capers state that this was 

 the first appearance of the worm in South Carolina, but we have the 



* Winterbotham's European Settlements in West Indies, 1795 ? 



tffist. Civil and Commercial of the West Indies. Bryan Edwards, Phila. 1805. 

 Ill, 96. 



t McKinnon's Tour through the West Indies, 1802-1803. 



$ Ibid. 



|| See Appendix I, report of A. R. Grote. 



^ Seabrook's Memoir, p. 42. 



