18 The Bulletijst. 



ing leaves, but those that are most destructive to corn do their damage 

 by eating off the young stalks at or near the surface of the ground. 

 Sometimes the severed stalk (if it be young and small) is dragged par- 

 tially into the ground. The worms usually remain quiet during the day 

 and feed mainly at night. Sometimes, however, they will work during 

 the day if the weather be cloudy. Cool weather seems to sharpen their 

 appetites. When the larvse become grown (which varies according as 

 the moth is to emerge in spring or fall), they change to pupce in the 

 earth, an inch or so under the surface, sometimes only barely covered 

 by the soil. Those that are to emerge in spring change to pupae about 

 the middle or latter part of May; and it is because these larvse become 

 mature at this season that they cease their injuries, and not usually be- 

 cause of any epidemic of disease among them. In the pupa state they 

 are without legs or wings, and take no food — it is simply a stage 

 of transition from the larvse to the adult moth. After a few weeks 

 in the pupa stage the adult moth bursts from the pupa-shell. Most of 

 the Cut-worm moths are dull gray or brown in general color, marked 

 with lighter streaks or spots, and with the hind wings lighter in color, 

 sometimes of a pinkish hue. When the wings are expanded they meas- 

 ure from one to two inches from tip to tip. These moths fly mostly at 

 night and are often attracted to bright lights and not infrequently 

 enter houses and flutter about the lamps or walls. The females deposit 

 their eggs on trash, grass or weeds, in sod or weedy lands, and the larvse 

 become partly grown by winter and hibernate as already explained. 



Summary. — Cut-worms are the larvse of night-flying moths. They 

 pass the winter as larvse, eat voraciously in the spring, become mature, 

 pupate, and emerge as moths in early summer or fall, according to the 

 species. June, September and October seem to be the principal months 

 for egg-laying. Eggs are deposited in weedy or sod fields, after which 

 the moths die. The larvse pass the winter in a partly grown condition 

 in the fields. With these points clearly understood it will be easy to 

 comprehend the f olloAving remedial suggestions : 



KEMEDIES. 



As the eggs are laid principally in sod or weedy lands, corn planted 

 on land just from sod or weeds is likely to suffer from Cut-worms. They 

 are often numerous in clover sod also; yet corn after clover does so 

 remarkably well that in general it pays to take the risk. If the corn 

 must come after a growth of grass or weeds, then by plowing the land' 

 in fall or winter many of the Cut-worms will be killed or starved before 

 spring. This result has been several times reported by farmers. In 

 1905, Mr. G. M. Bentley, at that time an assistant in this office, made 

 some observations on Cut-worm injury to tobacco in Wake County. On 

 a small plat which was plowed March 19th, he found seven plants de- 

 stroyed, while on an adjoining plat of same size, with same number of 



