Cornell University, 

 Ithaca, N. Y., Nommler 16, 1895. 



Honorable Commissioners of Agriculture^ Albany: 



Sir. — Although cutworms are amongst the most familiar of 

 insects, their habits are yet little known to most persons. This is 

 particularly true of those species which ascend young trees at night 

 and eat out the buds. These climbing cutworms have done much 

 mischief in parts of western New York in the last year or two, and 

 Mr. Slingerland has taken up the study of them under the auspices 

 of the Experiment Station Extension bill, and this account of his 

 researches in the field and laboratory is submitted for publication 

 under that law (Chapter 230, Laws of 1895). The need of this 

 investigation is the greater because these worms are afield in the 

 most unseasonable hours of the night, when their depredations 

 escape the observation of the fruit-grower. Many persons regard 

 them with especial apprehension from the fact that, aside from the 

 havoc which they make, they seem to demand that if the grower 

 plants trees in the daytime, he must stand by them all night. For- 

 tunately, such exacting requirements are not necessary; and, being 

 assured at the outset that the later pages of the bulletin contain efii. 

 cient directions for circumventing the injury, the farmer may read 

 the histories and habits of these interesting insects with composure. 



L. H. BAILEY. 

 41 



