No. 4.] THE ARMY WORM. 285 



Powers, as follows: "In the summer of 1770 this whole 

 section of country was visited by an extraordinary calamity. 

 . . . It was an army of worms which extended from 

 Lancaster, New Hampshire, to Northfield in Massachusetts. 

 They began to appear the latter part of July, 1770, and con- 

 tinued their ravages until September. The inhabitants de- 

 nominated them the "Northern Army," as they seemed to 

 advance from the north or northwest and pass east and 

 south, though I do not learn that they ever passed the 

 high lands between the Connecticut and Merrimack rivers." 

 The caterpillar had "a stripe upon the back like black vel- 

 vet; on either side a yellow stripe from end to end; and 

 the rest of the body was brown. . . . There were fields 

 of corn on the meadows in Haverhill and Newbury standing 

 so thick, large and tall that in some instances it was difficult 

 to see a man standing more than a rod in the field from the 

 outermost row; but in ten days from the first appearance 

 of the Northern Army nothing remained of this corn but 

 the bare stalks! . . . About the first of September the 

 worms suddenly disappeared. ... In just eleven years 

 afterward, in 1781, the same kind of worm appeared again, 

 and the fears of the people were much excited, but they 

 were comparatively few in number, and no one of the kind 

 has ever been seen since." Webster states that in 1790 

 large numbers of army worms appeared in Connecticut and 

 were very destructive. 



In 1817 this insect appeared in Worcester County in great 

 abundance, and again in many places in 1860 (Fitch). 

 Fitch's report, though dated 1860 and published in 1861, 

 contains some internal evidence that events which occurred 

 in 1861 may have been included, and it is probable that 

 the invasion was in the latter year, as was the case in Mas- 

 sachusetts and in the country at large. Round records the 

 appearance of the army worm in 1882 in Massachusetts. 

 The next appearance of the insect in this State was in 1894, 

 when it was abundant in the southeastern part of the State, 

 and in some towns in Franklin County, followed in 1896 

 by its general abundance throughout New England. This 

 was the last time the insect was abundant until the present 



