5G Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



wards from the furrow by the use of a spade. The worms collecting here 

 may be killed by dragging a log along the furrow ; or holes may be dug in 

 it at intervals, in which they will rapidly collect, where they may be mashed 

 by thousands. It should be remembered that measures of this sort which 

 will not piiy for ordinary farm crops, may nevertheless be employed with 

 great profit for products as valuable as the strawberry. 



Cutworms. Agrotis, sp. 

 Order Lepidoptera, Family Noctuida). 



An illustration of the damage to strawberries which these insects are liable 

 to do under favoring conditions is afforded by the account given by Mr. 

 Saunders, in the article already cited, of the injuries due to a species occur- 

 ring in Canadn, but the name of which he does not mention. He says: — 



"This is an insect which has been most unusually injurious during the 

 past season on the fruit plantations of Mr. Mountjoy and Mr. Bunning, on 

 the borders of Like Huron, near Sarnia. At first its habits were not under- 

 stood, and it pursued the 'even tenor of its way' uninterrupted night after 

 night; the perplexed fruit-growers not knowing why it was that every day 

 the foliage on their fruit trees and strawberry patches grew slimmer. But 

 soon it was found that the enemy was a night worker, and this knowledge of 

 its habits was at once turned to account, and night watches instituted, with 

 the view of counteracting this insidious foe, and with good results, as many 

 as eighteen hundred having been killed by Mr. Mountjoy in one night. 



" Their manner of life may be thus described : The moths from which the 

 worms are produced appear on the wing during the month of August, and 

 soon after pair and deposit their eggs on the ground or on some other plant 

 or other substance near the ground; they probably hatch in the fall, and 

 feed for a time on the leaves of grass and other plants then abundant; and 

 after attaining but a small measure of their growth, they burrow into the 

 earth, and there remain in a torpid state during the winter; but the warmth 

 of spring revives them, and soon they are abroad and active. During the 

 first few weeks, while they are still small, the quantity of food they con- 

 sume is not sufficient to attract much attention ; but as they approach 

 nearer maturity, that is, about the time when the trees first put out their 

 tender foliage, the quantity of food they consume is enormous. In the day 

 time they rest tolerably secure from harm, by burrowing a short distance 

 under ground, and towards night they sally forth from their hiding places to 

 begin their work of destruction. They are extremely active in their move- 

 ments, and travel over quite a space of ground in a very short time, eating 

 almost everything green in their way; they climb the trunks of trees, and 

 consume not only the young foliage, but the buds also, leaving the limbs 

 almost bare, and before the light of another day dawns they retreat to their 

 hiding places and rest in quiet. When full grown they burrow deeper into 

 the earth, and form for themselves an oval cell or chamber, in which they 



