856 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
ARMY WORM. COMMON SOUTH. HARK WITH US. 
of trains upon the railroads being stopped and detained by en¬ 
countering a dense host of worms, covering the track sometimes 
for a distance of two or three miles, and causing the wheels of 
the locomotive to slip upon the rails as though they were oiled. 
I have always supposed it was this army worm to which these 
notices referred, there being no other worm known in our country 
or in the world, that comes abroad, covering the ground in this 
manner. 
The Western States also have been visited by it, though more 
rarely. In the northern part of Illinois, it appeared at numerous 
points in 1842, again in 1845, and again three years ago. 
Here at the north, in New York and- New England, a worm 
having the same habits had been known to occur, though at very 
long intervals, and from the little that was stated respecting it, 
it seemed quite probable that the insect which we had here was 
a different species from the army worm of the Southern and 
Western States. So rarely has it made its appearance here that 
we have been able to find its occurrence recorded in but four in¬ 
stances since the country has been settled. 
As the short accounts which we have of its appearance on 
these different occasions, will be as interesting and instructive as 
anything I can present on this subject, I may here repeat them. 
The first instance in which we find its occurrence clearly indi¬ 
cated, is in the year 1743, when it is merely stated, that “in 
Massachusetts this year, there were millions of devouring worms 
in armies, threatening to cut oft' every green thing.” (Flint’s 2d 
Report, Agric. of Mass., p. 36). 
Twenty-seven years afterwards, in 1770, was the most remark¬ 
able period of its occurrence which we have ever had, previous 
to the present year. In Noah Webster’s work on Pestilential 
Diseases, (vol. i, p. 259), we find the following notice of it: 
In 1770, a black worm about an inch and a half long, devoured 
the grass and corn. Never was a more singular phenomenon. 
These animals were generated suddenly in the Northern States 
of America, and almost covered two or three hundred miles of 
country. They all moved nearly in one direction, and when 
they were intercepted by furrows in ploughed land, they fell into 
them in such numbers as to form heaps. They sought shelter in 
the grass, a hot sun being fatal to them. They disappeared sud¬ 
denly about the close of June and beginning of July. 
