CANKER-WORM. 



251 



ternal structure is dissolved into a liquid, and nothing 

 is entire but the exterior cuticle, which breaks on being 

 touched. 



The canker-worm is spoken of in the Bible among 

 the judgments which were to be sent upon the children 

 of Israel, and is said to have been observed first in the 

 Southern States, where it is probably a native. It is 

 certain that it must have spread by some means inde- 

 pendent of itself, as the female, being destitute of 

 wings, is forbidden to range. It may have been 

 brought to New England by bringing trees from the 

 Southern States upon which the eggs were deposited, 

 or brought, in the larva state, into all populous parts of 

 the United States, by falling from trees upon carriages 

 and travellers passing under them. This conjecture is 

 rendered probable, by its being in all places which 

 have intercourse with such parts as are infested with it, 

 and by its being unknown to new settlements. 



There is a tradition among some of the oldest in- 

 habitants of New England, that the forest-trees were 

 destroyed very generally by this worm at one time ; 

 the precise period when this occurred I have not been 

 able to ascertain. The night of the 17th of May, 1794, 

 was so cold as to produce ice one third of an inch 

 thick ; at that time a great part of the canker-worms 

 were hatched ; to these the frost was so fatal that very 

 few were seen. A person who paid very diUgent atten- 

 tion saw but one male the next year. I am firm in 

 the belief that frost would not kill them at any time 

 except when in the larva or caterpillar state. 



Having given the best description of the canker- 

 worm that the above limits would allow, I will now 

 proceed to describe some of the remedies or pre- 

 ventives. It will appear, by reflecting upon the pecu- 

 liar construction and habits, that the females, being 

 destitute of wings, and under the necessity of ascend- 

 ing the trunks of the trees, any apparatus that would 

 prevent them from ascending, in case they laid their 



