20 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



testimony of Mr. J. W. Grace and the evidence of a strong probability 

 as to its occurrence there in 1793. 



We find no evidence of its reappearance again until 1.804, although it 

 must have been seen in small numbers. 1804 was the first of the series 

 of three great caterpillar years (1825 and 1846 being the other two), 

 which gave rise to the almost universal theory that the greatest ravages 

 of the chenille were to be expected every twenty-one years. In this year 

 it swept over every portion of the cotton belt, which at that time com- 

 prised a fair part of South Carolina, the coast and southernmost coun- 

 ties of Georgia, the country for some distance back of Mobile Bay in 

 Alabama, and counties of Mississippi and Louisiana along the great 

 river. Concerning this year Dr. Phares has the following in his lecture 

 before the Woodville Farmers' Club, May 4, 1809 : 



In 1804*the cotton-worm made one of its widest and most devastating invasions. It 

 was, I believe, on this occasion that Father St. Pierre was most earnestly entreated by 

 his simple-minded parishioners of Louisiana to furnish holy water with which to 

 repel "les chenilles." In districts further north, where they came later, they were 

 finally exterminated by a snow storm. 



Between 1804 and 1825 there were no general incursions. The cater- 

 pillar appeared many times, but in limited districts. Perhaps the sever- 

 est of these limited appearances was in 1814 in portions of Louisiana. 

 Mr. Winfree says : * "In 1814 or thereabouts they ate the cotton down 

 to the ground in Iberville Parish in June." Dr. Phares remarks: "In 

 1814 perhaps it was they came in June in portions of Louisiana, the 

 plant being very backward in consequence of a very cold late spring, 

 they ate it down to the ground so that not a lock of lint was matured 

 nor a seed saved." 



A good idea of the destruction in 1825, the second of the general in- 

 vasions, is again to be gained from Dr. Phares' paper. He says : 



In 1825, the destruction was general in extent, embracing all the cotton States; the 

 late Mr. Affleck in one of his papers asserting that the destruction was "universal and 

 complete." I must here be permitted to say that it was not " complete," as I most dis- 

 tinctly remember and know I saw fields in which many bolls were fully matured and 

 gathered before the chenilles injured the plant, and considerable quantities of very 

 superior cotton were made. This was the first year that I saw the chenilles, and cir- 

 cumstances so impressed me that my recollections of their appearance are more vivid 

 than of any time since. 



The insect was again destroyed by a storm, as we have seen happen less extensively 

 several times since; the wind and rain beating them down, and the water sweeping 

 them along and forming immense heaps in some places. 



Mr. Affleck's phrase "universal and complete" was certainly used with 

 justice so far as a great part of the cotton belt was concerned in 1S25. 

 An old correspondent in Conecuh County, Alabama, places the loss this 

 year at 90 per cent., while Mr. Fuller, of Edisto Island, South Carolina, 

 states that old planters informed him that the entire crop was lost. On 

 the other hand, Dr. Capers dismisses this year with the remark, " In 

 1825 they were spreading, but perished again by a storm." 

 * De Bow's Review, 1847, vol. iv,p. 251. 



