INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN. 279 



REMEDIES. 



The means and methods to be taken looking to the control of cut- 

 worms and the protection of certain crops from their ravages are similar, 

 regardless of whether we are dealing with the dingy cutworm, the varie- 

 gated cutworm or any of the other species hereinafter described. It is 

 well known that the fields that have been in meadows for two or more 

 years, and are then plowed up and sown to corn or other crops, are 

 much more liable to be injured by cutworms than are fields which have 

 been cultivated for the past two or three years, or even for the past 

 year. Meadows and pastures are very apt to become infested with cut- 

 worms in a year or two. While these insects may not attract any special 

 attention in such places, because of the fact that there exists a great 

 many plants in proportion to the number of worms, yet, when such fields 

 are plowed up and a cultivated crop sown to take the place of the other, 

 these cutworms, deprived of the great bulk of their food, and the number 

 of the substituted plants in the field many times reduced, become thereby 

 proportionately greater in numbers. Hence it is that when these cut- 

 worms feed their injury becomes apparent; and in the case of corn, this 

 is still more true than it is with wheat. 



It is no uncommon occurrence to have to plant corn two and three 

 times before one can get a stand, on account of the presence of cutworms ; 

 and in the case of wheat fields, it is not uncommon for large areas to 

 be completely cut down by these creatures. It is not my intention in 

 this connection to enter into a discussion of the work or the methods of 

 fighting the cutworms in garden vegetables or such field plants as tobacco, 

 potatoes, etc., and hence the methods here suggested are to be regarded 

 as applying only to corn, and incidentally to wheat. 



It is advisable to plow the meadow in which wheat or corn is to be 

 planted just as early in the spring as possible, so that the cutworms 

 will be deprived of their natural food in the form of grasses and weeds, 

 and when they come out in search of suitable plants will be forced to 

 abandon the plowed fields and seek other places where a supply of food 

 can be obtained. This applies likewise to the fall sowing of wheat. If 

 these intended wheat fields are plowed early, the larvae there will be 

 likewise forced to abandon those fields, so that by the time the corn or 

 wheat is up, the cutworms will not be found, at least not in sufficient 

 quantities to cause any alarm. The practice, so general in many locali- 

 ties, of plowing the wheat field and sowing it to corn, and later of plow- 

 ing a corn field and sowing it to wheat, is not especially favorable to the 



