STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
857 
ARMY WORM. ITS ATPEARANCK IS 1770. 
Bat the most full and interesting account which we have of its 
appearance at this time, is that of the Rev. Grant Powers, in his 
Historical Sketches of the Cods Country, the Northern part of 
New Hampshire. He says : In the summer of 1770 an army of 
worms extended from Lancaster, N. H., the shire town of Cods 
Co., to Northfield, Mass., almost the whole length of the Granite 
State. They began to appear the latter part of July, and con¬ 
tinued their ravages until September. They were then called the 
“ Northern Army,” as they seemed to advance from the North or 
Northwest, to the South. It was not known that they passed 
the highlands between the rivers Connecticut and Merrimack. 
Dr. Burton, of Thetford, Vt., informed the author that he had 
seen the pastures so covered with them, that he could not put 
down his finger without touching a worm, remarking, that “ he 
had seen more than ten bushels in a heap.” They were unlike 
any thing that generation had ever seen. There was a stripe upon 
the back like black velvet, and on each side a stripe of yellow 
from end to end, and the rest of the body was brown. They 
were seen not larger than a pin, but in maturity were as long as 
a man’s linger and of proportionate thickness. They appeared 
to be in great haste, except when they halted to feed. They 
entered the houses of the people and came up into the kneading- 
troughs, as did the frogs in Egypt. They went up the sides of 
houses and over th*em in such compact columns that nothing of 
the boards or shingles could be seen. Pumpkin-vines, peas, pota¬ 
toes and flax escaped their ravages. But wheat and corn disap¬ 
peared belbre them as by magic. Fields of corn in the Haverhill 
and Newbury meadows, so thick that a man could hardly be seen 
a rod distant, were in ten days entirely defoliated by the “ North¬ 
ern Army.” Trenches were dug round fields a foot deep, as a 
defence, but they were soon filled and the millions in the rear 
passed on, and took possession of the interdicted feed. Another 
expedient was resorted to : Trenches were cut, and then sticks 
six inches in diameter were sharpened and used to make holes in 
the bottom of the trenches within two or three feet of one ano¬ 
ther to the depth of two or three feet in the bottom lands, and 
when these holes were filled with worms, the stick was plunged 
into the holes, thus destroving the vermin. In this way some 
corn was saved. About the first of September the worms sud¬ 
denly disappeared. Where or how they terminated their career 
