S32 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



same reason, or because the parent moths will shun such fields, 

 knowing that their young progeny will not find there the neces- 

 sary food. Fall plowing, however, will have but little effect on 

 the worms in sod land, probably owing to the compactness cf the 

 sod when turned over, and it is in such land that these worms 

 especially abound. The best way to serve such ground is to 

 plant or seed it to crops that are least affected by the worms, or 

 to summer fallow or plant to crops that will not mature sufficiently 

 to be injured by them before the worms are prepared to assume 

 their chrysalis state. Where the sod ground is covered with dry 

 grass or other rubbish, burning it over late in the spring and then 

 turning it under will destroy many of the worms. Some recom- 

 mend in planting corn on ground stocked with worms to plant 

 three or four more kernels than are wanted in the hill, but one 

 worm is generally sufficient for a whole hill and often has appe- 

 tite enough left for the next, and is pretty sure to find it too, un- 

 less he is discovered at his work and crushed. 



The number of these and of many other of our insect enemies 

 might be greatly reduced by the means of lights put out at night, 

 either an open blaze or a sheltered light so placed that the insect 

 flying against it would drop into water or some sticky fluid. This 

 method is largely used in some portions of the country 3 and should 

 be resorted to generally, if we would hold our foes in check. 

 Nearly all, if not all of the nocturnal moths are our enemies and 

 a great majority of our worst foes are either nocturnal or crepus- 

 cular in their habits and can easily be lured to their destruction by 

 these decoy lights. The expense attendant upon this practice will 

 not be great and were it considerable, would be economy, for the 

 numbers of the destroying army will be greatly diminished by 

 the destruction of a few parent moths. 



Much might be accomplished in this direction by enlisting the 

 interest of the children in the work. Instruction given in regard to 

 our insect friends and foes would keep them on the watch, and a 

 slight bounty offered for the destruction of the insects now de- 

 vouring our crops would give a practical direction to their inter- 

 est, so as to greatly diminish the present numbers of the foe, and 

 would create such an interest in the subject of entomology in the 

 coming generation, that its importance would be better realized, 



