THE CATERPILLAR PLAGUE. 



17 



three years before the commission took hold. When they hatched 

 out in the spring our fence would be one living mass. My sister 

 and myself blistered the paint all off the fence with the scalding 

 water that we poured on. When they were small it was almost 

 impossible to keep them off one's person. It is a fact that we have 

 scraped a quart of eggs at a time off the trees. We did the best 

 we could to keep them down, but we could not get them all, for 

 many would hide away and lay their eggs. (Mrs. William Belcher.) 



In 1889 the walks, trees and fences in my yard and the sides of 

 the house were covered with caterpillars. I used to sweep them 

 off with a broom and burn them with kerosene, and in half an hour 

 they would be just as bad as ever. There were literally pecks of 

 them. There was not a leaf on my trees. Back of the house and 

 across the railroad track was a large tract of young-growth oaks 

 and maples. They were all stripped. The caterpillars did not 

 leave a leaf. The trunks and branches were covered with their 

 cocoons. The cocoons hung in bunches as big as a pint dipper. 

 The stench in this place was very bad. (Mrs. S. J. Follansbee, 

 35 Myrtle Street.) 



When the caterpillars were small they would spin down on their 

 threads and blow out into the street or even entirely across it. 

 The caterpillars were a dirty pest. You could hardly go out of 

 doors or sit down anywhere without getting them over you. Trees 

 were either completely stripped so that not a green thing was to 

 be seen on them, or else were eaten so that the skeletons of the 

 leaves only remained. The caterpillars were very numerous on a 

 large tree behind my house. I have scraped them off by the quart 

 on the fence and shed adjoining the tree. They clustered as 

 thickly as bees swarm. Before caterpillar time we used to see 

 bodies of trees plastered all over with their egg clusters. They 

 were so thick on certain trees that they reminded me of shells at 

 the sea-shore. (J. H. Rogers, 17 Spring Street.) 



I lived on Spring Street when the caterpillars were thickest 

 there. The place simply teemed with them, and I used to fairly 

 dread going down the street to the station. It was like running 

 a gantlet. I used to turn up my coat collar and run down the 

 middle of the street. One morning, in particular, I remember that 

 I was completely covered with caterpillars inside my coat as well 

 as out. The street trees were completely stripped down to the 

 bark. . . . The worst place on Spring Street was at the houses of 

 Messrs. Plunket and Harmon. The fronts of these houses were 

 black with caterpillars, and the sidewalks were a sickening sight, 

 covered as they were with the crushed bodies of the pest. (Sylvester 

 Lacy, 9 Daisy Street.) 



