LEPIDOPTERA. 3^ 



piece of four acres." Mr. Footc's statement, founded on an 

 estimate of the time employed in digging up and killing the 

 cut-worms, and the increased produce of the field, is conclusive 

 in favor of this mode of checking the ravages of these insects. 



Mr. Deane states that he "once prevented the depredations 

 of cut-worms in his garden by manuring the soil with sea-mud. 

 The plants generally escaped, though every one was cut off in 

 a spot of ground contiguous." He acknowledges, however, 

 that " the most effectual, and not a laborious remedy, even in 

 field-culture, is to go round every morning, and open the earth 

 at the foot of the plant, and you will never fail to find the 

 worm at the root, within four inches. Kill him, and you will 

 save not only the other plants of your field, but, probably, 

 many thousands in future years." Mr. Preston, of Stockport, 

 Pennsylvania, protected his cabbage-plants from cut-worms by 

 wrapping a walnut or hickory leaf around the stem, between 

 the roots and leaves, before planting it in the ground. The 

 late Honorable Oliver Fiske, of Worcester, Massachusetts, 

 says, that " to search out the spoiler, and kill him, is the very 

 best course ; but, as his existence is not known except by his 

 ravages, I make a fortress for my cabbage-plants with paper, 

 winding it conically and firmly above the root, and securing it 

 by a low embankment of earth." 



In the summer of 1851, one of our agricultural newspapers 

 contained an account of certain naked caterpillars, that came 

 out of the ground in the night, and, crawHng up the trunks of 

 fruit-trees, devonred the leaves, and returned to conceal them- 

 selves in the ground before morning.* Perhaps these depre- 

 dators were the same as the following. Roses, currant-bushes, 

 and other shrubs, and even young trees, often lose their tender 

 shoots, by having them cut off and devoured during the night. 

 This is the work of a naked caterpillar, which generally grows 

 to a larger size than the common cut-worm, and, fike the latter, 

 may be found by digging at the root of the plant. One of 

 these spoilers, which was turned out of his burrow early in 

 June, measm-ed an inch and a half in length. His body was 



* See Massachusetts Ploughman, for June 28, 1851. 



