l8g5.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 67 



IGNORANCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF ENTOMOLOGY 

 IN THE YEAR OF 1853. 



By T. B. AsHTON, Tonganoxie, Kan. 



It may be of interest to the readers of Ent. News to know 

 the opinion of so well informed and truthful an entomologist as 

 the late Dr. Fitch, who had ample facilities to make correct ob- 

 servations as to the existing ignorance on the subject of insects 

 and their habits, that was generally prevalent in this country six 

 years prior to the organizing of the Entomological Society of 

 Philadelphia. I make the following extract of a letter written by 

 Dr. Fitch to Mr. Johnson, and first published in the ' ' Journal' ' of 

 the New York State Agricultural Society, July, 1853. Since the 

 date of this letter, his seventeen years' of labor as New York State 

 Entomologist, did very much to educate and enlighten an igno- 

 rant public on the subject of Entomology, and great credit is due 

 to his industry in spreading through the land a correct knowledge 

 of insects during his useful life. Forty-one years have passed 

 since this letter was written, and what a wonderful contrast — the 

 ignorance of Entomology at that time and the general knowledge 

 of it to-day ! 



"Salem, N. Y., June 30th, 1853. 

 " Hon. B. P. Johnson — 



" My Dear Sir: ****** 



" But a still more remarkable instance of the excessive multipli- 

 cation and consequent havoc caused by an insect not previously noticed 

 has occurred in this vicinity since I received your letter. Indeed, it sur- 

 passes everything of the kind that has hitherto been experienced in this 

 county since the date of its settlement. On the 19th inst. a man from 

 Cambridge inquired of me whether I had observed the worms upon the 

 apple trees, saying that all the orchards in that town were being stripped 

 of their leaves. Next day, on going to my apple trees, I found the worm 

 alluded to, upon all of them, committing great havoc; and a gentleman 

 from the Argyle informed me that within two or three days past they had 

 been observed overrunning all the apple trees there. Upon the 23d inst. 

 the Circuit Court being in session in the village of Salem, I saw persons 

 from most parts of the country, and learned that this worm was ravaging 

 every orchard within our borders without exception. Some idea of the 

 value of our orchards and the amount of damage which this pest threatens 

 to do us may be formed from the fact that, two years ago, to supply the 

 vacancies produced by trees that had perished, and to plant new orchards 

 upon some farms, an agent from one single nursery disposed of young 

 trees in their county to the amount of 1 10,000. As it well may, therefore, 



