53 
NEWSPAPER NOTICES OF INJURIOUS WESTERN OCCURRENCES. 
Through the kindness of Mr. V. K. Chesnut, the writer received 
some clippings from a Seattle (Washington) daily journal. One dated 
July 25,' 1900, contained a column notice of this insect, identified as 
Peridroma scmcia, with quotations from different persons who had 
suffered from its ravages. From these accounts it appears that the 
insect was first noticed in Seattle during the first week of Jury. One 
person reported that he had gathered two hundred ' c worms " from about 
the roots of a single cabbage plant, the stem of which was completely 
honeycombed. A like number was collected from under a shingle 
overnight. 
Another newspaper from the same city published an account stating 
that the entire productive area of King County, in which Seattle is 
located, was being devastated. In this account it is stated that this 
cutworm "is migratory and travels across country as does the army 
worm of the East." General complaint was being made from all 
directions. In the city of Seattle this cutworm was destroying lawns, 
flower and kitchen gardens, and truck of all kinds; in the suburbs it 
was everywhere and destroying everything. In the country its rav- 
ages were general. "One day a field would appear perfectly free 
from it, and the next the worm would be swarming over everything. 
* * ' : It burrows in the earth and attacks the tubers of potato, 
destroying them as ruthlessly as it does the foliage. One potato was 
shown that had buried under its skin a half. dozen big repulsive worms. 
The pest is no less a thing than a plague, and from the way it is start- 
ing out it will occasion untold damage to all kinds of crops." 
It was stated in this account, among other things, that "it looks as 
if the farmers will have as serious a time with this new pest as they 
have ever had with the hop louse; certainly its appearance has created 
more general alarm than any pest that has ever made its appearance 
in the past." 
The California Fruit Grower of August 11, 1900, had some notes 
on the occurrence of this species, which was stated to have appeared 
in different places in Washington and Oregon a little after the middle 
of July. The damage was greatest to garden vegetables, including 
late potatoes, but root crops, wheat, hops, and fruit trees- were also 
damaged. The cutworm was described as being so ravenous that it 
ate clover at the roots. Tar applied at the base of the poles in hop 
fields protected hops. In the first ten or twelve days after the appear- 
ance of the pest about half of the entire vegetable crop was destroyed 
in some sections. At Fern Hill, Wash., the cutworms were eating 
fruit and leaves of pear trees; at Melbourne they were "cleaning up 
everything. " half a dozen of the pests being present on every square 
foot of ground; at Kalama the cutworms were "doing great damage 
to all growing crops, climbing trees and nipping the fruit, eating 
potatoes in the ground as well as the tops." 
