180 
[Assembly 
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 surpasses every thing of the kind that has been hitherto 
' experienced in this county since the date of its settlement. On 
the 19th instant, 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 Argyle informed me that within two and three days past 
they had been observed, overrunning all the apple trees there. 
Upon the 23d instant, the circuit court being in session in the 
village of Salem, I saw persons from most towns of the county, 
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 utf, maybe 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 this county, to the amount of $10,000. 
As it well may, therefore, this worm at present forms the leading 
topic of conversation in every circle, and our newspapers are 
giving notices of it in their columns. And the crude and errone¬ 
ous notions that are being formed and circulated respecting it ? 
show, in a most humiliating manner, the gross ignorance which 
pervades our country, upon topics of this kind. One gentleman 
tells me, that in a conversation with the most noted and experi¬ 
enced nurseryman in our county, they had mutually come to the 
conclusion that this worm had been bred by what in his neigh¬ 
borhood is termed “ the little green insect.” On inquiry, I ascer¬ 
tained that this little green insect, so called because they know no 
other name for it, was nothing more nor less than the Aphis malt, 
or Apple-leaf Louse. And the idea that this louse breeds these 
worms, is rather more wild than it would be to conjecture that 
fleas breed bed-bugs. One of our most intelligent and successful 
farmers, who sometimes wields his pen as well as his scythe and 
hoe, favored me with the recherche information, that this is the 
