The) Army-worm. 257 



in their wanderings, readily tumble into these holes and cannot 

 get out. Bushels of them have been trapped in this way, and 

 then killed with a little kerosene or by burning some straw scat- 

 tered along the furrow. The holes or pits in the furrows are very 

 essential to the success of this preventive method. It has been 

 aptly said : ' ' To one who has never before seen the army-worm 

 in its might, the sight of the m3^riads as they returned thwarted 

 in their endeavors to cross a ditch or furrow, or of the living, 

 moving, and twisting mass which sometimes fills a ditch to the 

 depth of several inches, it is truly interesting. " In some soils 

 a little extra work will be necessary to keep one side of the fur- 

 row perpendicular and to keep the earth loose and friable in the 

 furrow ; some accomplish the latter by dragging brush along the 

 furrow. A ditch or several furrows well taken care of in this 

 way will afford an almost impassable barrier to the worms, as 

 many, who followed the directions carefully last year, can testify. 

 It is such an easy matter to make a furrow and as one is not so 

 effectual a barrier as a ditch, we advise that two or more parallel 

 furrows be made, so that the worms which may scale the first one 

 will be confronted by another. 



A strip of coal tar will effectually stop the worms as long as it 

 remains sticky, but it has to be renewed once or twice a day and 

 is thus expensive. There were some reports that the worms 

 would not cross a strip of salt, and that when sprinkled with salt 

 they die. Mr. Wm. R. Huntington, Rome, N. Y., reported to 

 -us the following experiment with salt : *' After hearing that salt 

 would kill them, I took a pailful and went into a corn field where 

 there were lots of worms. I found some on the ground and put 

 salt all around them and on them. They would curl up and after 

 a short time, a minute or two, would crawl away as lively as ever. 

 I next went to some hills of corn that were badly eaten and cov- 

 ered with worms. I put at least a handful of salt on a number of 

 such stalks, covering up many of the worms, but I could not see 

 that it had any effect upon them. The next day I found the same 

 worms, apparently, eating close to the salt. I had already put a 

 ditch around this piece which held them where they were, so I 

 did not experiment any farther with salt, not having any faith in 

 it." Whenever practicable, it is always a good plan to make a 



