86 



fifth of the whole product of the south. Throughout all that region — the cotton helt as 

 it is termed — the worms were pretty equally active in their operations. We may safely 

 estimate then, that the total loss to the cotton growers of the Southern States in 1887, 

 occasioned by these insects, was not far from the appalling sum of sixty millions of 

 dollars. It is a wonder that so shrewd a people do not see that it would pay them well 

 to expend a hundred thousand dollars a year upon practical entomology, if it resulted in 

 the saving of even one-tenth of this enormous sum. 



Caterpillars Stopping Trains. 



We have occasionally observed in the newspapers brief notices of such occurrences, 

 but have rarely been able to learn what particular insect was referred to. A correspon- 

 dent cf Insect Life, (Mr. S. Webster, of Mattawamkeag, Maine), has sent the editors the 

 subjoined account of a stoppage on the new line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, in 

 Northern Maine, occasioned by caterpillars ; the report is taken from the Upper River 

 News of that State. Mr. Webster has also stated that in the Northern Penobscot region, 

 the same worm defoliated most of the orchards, and all of the poplars, leaving them as 

 bare as in mid-winter. From specimens sent it was ascertained that the insect was the 

 Forest Tent caterpillar, (Clisiocampa sylvatied) : we give an illustration of this familiar 

 ,pest, fig. 47. Mr. Webster found that it seemed to prefer poplar, and also fed upon oak 



and cherry, and after these were stripped it attacked the elm, gray birch, willow, rock 

 maple and some other trees. 



"The grand march of the caterpillars. — They blockade a train on the Canadian Pacific. — 

 Freight locomotives and railroad men powerless. — Mosquitoes join in the raid and 

 do bloody work. — Additional motive power and sand effect their release. 



" The first freight train run in connection with the Bangor and Piscataquis over the 

 Canadian Pacific, met with a novel and what at one time threatened to be a serious as 

 well as a laughable mishap on Sunday. Our managing editor was in it. At a point a 

 few miles from Sebois, on the Canadian road, the Messrs. Pierce Brothers, of Milo, had 

 collected 1,500 ship knees, and Superintendent Van Zile sent down a big engine and 

 eleven flats to draw them up to Brownville crossing. 



" They were loaded, and the return trip of fifteen miles was begun, which occupied 

 ten hours. When the train had proceeded a few miles, and when it was on a short grade, 

 it was brought to a standstill by an army of small, gray caterpillars, greasing the track 

 and driving-wheels to such an extent as to almost entirely suspend friction between the 

 rails and the driving-wheels. In some places they were half an inch thick, and the army 

 stretched out eleven miles. 



