The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1900-08-03
Around the County.
Hoop CANAL. July 31th 1900.


Nellie McReavy, the Misses Brooks are
also visiting friends at Union City.
Mrs F P Storey. of Fremont. and fami.
ly came to Union City last week where
they expect to rusticate for few weeks.
They were there five years ago.
Word has come of the death in Kansas
of the father of Joseph Thomas of Holly at
the age of ninety four. Mr.. Thomas went
back to see him last fall The children of
]. Harden Nance, Mrs. Oscar Ali and
Isaac Thomas are his great grandchildren.
| Miss Ada Buck, of Seattle. is visiting at
Thomas Webb's at Riverside.
! The fishing party from the Canal under
Albert Pfundt of Holly, who went to San
Juan Island few weeks ago. report very
poor success. having caught only seven.
WUR-RUMs. There is one common
topic of conversation on the Canal, among
the learned and ignorant, the rich and
poor, the old and young, the whites and
Indians without respect to color, race or
previous condition of servitude. Some
call them army worm, some the va
rigated cut-worm, some the grey cut-worm,
some a little black worm, some caterpil-
lar, some leucania unipunctata, some the
larva of moth called the Peridroma saucia
and some of the noctuid moth, but what
ever the real name, all know what is meant
and some simply call them They.
They have eaten the potato tops in some
places completely. take nap in the sun
shine on the nettles; thistles and beets are
alike destroyed. they climb the grass and
oats and ferns, then go down into the
ground and eat the potatoes and beats, in
fest the meadows which have been moved
by the thousands, hide under the winrows
of hay, came up to the top of the stubble
by the ten thousands put up their noses in
the sun and cry. give, give, get on to
the hats of the hay pitchers start down
their pockets crawl inside of their shirts,
go to the top of the highest pole on the hay
rack an keep sharp lookout. Seventy
were counted around one turnip, hundred
around another, and hundred and TWEEN
ty five around another. They enter the
houses at Lake Cushman, are said to have
driven the campers into the hotels, be-
cause they went into the bedding, also have
stripped the vine maple trees and tackled
the alder SO that one man was heard to say
that he thought of offering them his crop
of hay, if they would strip all the trees on
his ranch then eat the limbs and trunks,
and go down into the ground and devour
the roots. Some say that paris green will
kill them, but one man tried it and they
crawled away as lively as ever: others say
that lime and ashes will destroy them,
but another man tried it and they lived
in it for hours and another said that they
ate the lime and fattened on it. Arsenic
of lime and emulsion of coaloil are recon-
mended to lay them out, but the question
is asked what is the use of doing them with
it, when they go down into the ground by
the hundreds or thousands, and travel at
the rate of a half mile a day. Hand pick
! ing is recommended, but what good will
| that do when there are tens of thousands
or millions. Chickens and turkeys are
recommended, but while they seem to do
| well in a small place, there are not enough
to take fftieth part of them. So the cry
comes from Union City, Riverside, Upper
Skokomish, and the reservation, Hoodsport
Huma Huma, Holly and Brinnon, in fact
all places on the canal as far as heard from
except Tahooya, worms, more worms
most worms, worms, wormer worrnest.
Tahooya alone when last heard from had
not the plague. A singular thing about
them is that they are civilized worms, that
is they go to gardens, houses and cultiva-
ted fields and take the thistle, nettles, and
ferns, but on the road between Riverside
and Union City and also between the re-
servation and Hoodsport while there are
plenty of nettles thistle and ferns no worm
| have touched them. Mrs Thomas Webb
says that early in the sixties when her
father, ] T Knox, had charge of the reser-
vatian, they appeared in a similar way.
! Mr. Knox set the Indians women at work
! picking them off of the potatoes, but after
working at it for two or three days, they
gave it up as useless, and both Mr. Webb S
potatoes and those of the reservation were
stripped.
The report of the weather bureau for
/ July gives fifty three hundredths of an inch
of rain, which is trife over the average
for the past six years. The average for
August has been seventy-four hundredths,
ranging from five in I8oo During the
past month the average temperature has
been 90 deg, little less than the average
which is "a. 5 deg. The range of the Their
mometer has been from AZ deg to 50 deg.
There have been three cloudy days, eight
partly cloudy, the rest clear, and five upon
which rain has fallen S.
/ Harrison and her Neighbors.
IN 1000