192 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



" "When a crop is badly infested, I think it would be well to cut it before it is quite 

 mature ; most of the larvae would then be taken into the barn, where the conditions 

 would not be so favourable for their development, and those which did survive and become 

 moths, would have less chance of doing damage next season. Harvesting when not 

 quite mature, would not materially affect the value of the crop, which would already be 

 damaged by the caterpillars. Sowing oats and pease together I think is well worth a 

 careful trial, especially when good seed is required. The pease can easily be separated 

 from the oats by a fanning mill." 



THE ARMY WORM. 



(Leucania unipuncta, Haw.) 



Tig. 2— The Army 

 Worm. 



Attach — Brown, or sometimes blackish, striped caterpillars (Fig. 

 2), eating the leaves and stripping the stems of grasses and many 

 other low plants. When attacking cereals, frequently cutting off the 

 heads. When full-grown, over an inch and a half in length, and, 

 when occurring in large numbers, migrating in bodies from one food 

 patch to another. On reaching full growth, the caterpillars burrow 

 into the ground and turn to light brown chrysalids, from which in 

 about two or three weeks the moths emerge. 



These (Fig. 3) are of a warm 

 satiny-brown colour sprinkled with 

 minute black specks and with a 

 small but distinct white spot in the 

 middle of each upper wing. They 

 are very active. When the wings 

 are closed, the moth measures about 

 an inch in length. 



The life-history of the Army Worm in Canada is 

 as follows : There are two broods in the year. Eggs are 

 laid in autumn and hatch in ten or twelve days. After 

 feeding for a short time, the small caterpillars, like 

 many of the cut-worms, become torpid and pass the 

 winter beneath tufts of grass and other low herbage. 

 In the following spring they complete their growth, 

 feeding on the young grass and grain crops, and 



These lay eggs for the second brood, which is usually much the more abundant and 

 destructive. By the latter part of July, in this part of Canada, the young caterpillars 

 are large enough, when abundant, to attract attention by their depredations. They are 

 full grown by about the first week in August, when, burrowing an inch or two into the 

 ground, they change to chrysalids and emerge as perfect moths towards the end of the 

 month. 



The chief complaints of depredations by the Army Worm this season have been 

 received from North-western Ontario, along the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. 



"Mattawa, Ont., July 11. — Inclosed you will find specimens of a worm or cater- 

 pillar which is invading gardens and fields in myriads. It has already done considerable 

 damage to corn, and is now attacking everything else, and I am afraid it will destroy 

 everything, unless you can advise some remedy. We have more or less of them every 

 season." — C. G. Hurdman. 



" Baillieboro', Ont., July 16. — I am sending you a sample of worms which have got 

 into my pasture. They eat everything and appear to increase very rapidly. It is low, 

 flat land, such as they call ' beaver meadow.' " — R. H. Wood. 



Fig. 3. — Chrysalis and moth of the 

 Army Worm. 



produce the moths in June. 



