HISTORY OF RAVAGES, 1846. 25 



In Georgia the ravages were as great as elsewhere, the counties along 

 the coast and those of the southern tier suffering the most. 



South Carolina was severely afflicted. Mr. Fuller, of Edisto Island, 

 Colleton County, writes as follows : * 



In 1846, they appeared on the 20th of July (a very unusually early date), and by 

 the 10th of September I suppose there was scarcely a cotton leaf or any tender por- 

 tion of the plants remaining, and the worms not fully grown, deserted the ravaged fields 

 in millions in search of food, failing to find which, they died from starvation. The 

 crop in this island was about 40 per cent, of an average one. 



Other parts of South Carolina report total loss, but reports of this 

 kind are always to be taken with some degree of allowance. No cater- 

 pillars were reported north of the State, nor were any reported from 

 Arkansas. 



So severe a year as this would naturally arouse the planters, as indeed 

 it did arouse them, to the necessity of knowing more about the habits of 

 these destructive insects, and of discovering some appropriate remedy 

 for their ravages. Up to this time very little had been written about 

 the chenille. Thomas Say had described the moth scientifically in 1827, 

 but had no opportunities for studying its habits. Dr. C. W. Capers, Hon. 

 W. E. Seabrook, Mr. Thomas Affleck, and one or two other intelligent men 

 had given the insect some attention, and had published more or less 

 about it; but all of their accounts were somewhat fallacious, and even 

 had they been perfect, they were too few and far between to have done 

 much good.t . 



*Dept. of Agr., Ann. Rept., 1856, p. 76. 



tMr. Seabrook gives the following interesting account of how an enterprising South 

 Carolina farmer saved his crop in 1843 : 



"The caterpillar appeared in several parts of the field of John Townsend, of Saint 

 John's, Colleton, early in August last. The plants were luxuriant in growth and 

 tender in weed and leaf, and the weather, being warm and rather moist, was altogether 

 propitious to the spread and multiplying of the worms. By the adoption of prompt and 

 vigorous measures, some of which are new, and a rigid perseverance in their execution, 

 his crop escaped unscathed, while'mauy of his fellow-laborers who lacked faith in any 

 remedy suffered greatly. In the attainment of his purpose the means resorted to by 

 Mr. Townsend were the following : 



"1. His people searched for and killed both the worm and the chrysalis of the first 

 brood. 



"2. On the appearance of the second brood he scattered corn over the field fro invite 

 the notice of the birds, and while they depredated on the worms on the top of the 

 stalks and their upper limbs, the turkeys destroyed the enemy on the lower branches. 



"3. When in the aurelia (chrysalis) state the negroes crushed them between their 

 fingers. 



"4. Some patches of cotton where the caterpillars Avere very thick and the birds 

 and turkeys could not get access to them were destroyed. 



"5. The tops of the plants and the ends of all the tender and luxuriant branches, 

 where the eggs of the butterfly are usually deposited, were cut oft'. 



" By these means, resolutely pursued, although at one time the prospect of check- 

 ing the depredators was most cheerless, not the slightest injury to the field was sus- 

 tained. The experiment cost Mr. Townsend 2i acres of cotton, about 15 bushels of 



