April, '16] TALBERT: EXTENSION ENTOMOLOGIST 289 



of the wheat fields of central Kansas. Hurry-up telegraph messages 

 and long distance telephone calls concerning the army Avorms poured 

 into the office of Professor Dean, head of the Department of Ento- 

 mology, Kansas State Agricultural College. 



"When the extension entomologist arrived at Nickerson, Kansas, 

 to investigate the trouble, to his surprise about thirty farmers met 

 him at the station in automobiles. Many specimens of the worms 

 and their work upon the wheat were shown. After a brief discussion 

 of the pest and the measures of control at the railroad station, we were 

 taken to a wheat field about seven or eight miles from town. Here 

 we found about one hundred and twenty-five farmers present and 

 after another discussion of the pest we proceeded to the wheat field. 

 After a thorough investigation of several fields it was found that 

 most of the worms were present along the ravines, around straw piles 

 and places where the wheat grew the rankest. 



That afternoon a meeting was held in the town hall at which more 

 than two hundred farmers were present. A two-hour discussion of 

 the army worm and the Hessian fly held almost every farmer in the 

 hall during the warm afternoon. A night meeting was held in a 

 neighboring town at which 75 farmers attended. The farmers were 

 interested because their wheat was being completely destroyed by 

 the worms and they could plainly see that unless something was done 

 at once their wheat crop would be ruined. 



A formal declaration of war was issued against the worms and the 

 ammunition used consisted of the poison bran mash made according 

 to the Kansas Agricultural College formula, 20 pounds of wheat bran, 

 1 pound of Paris green, 3| gallons of water, 3 oranges or 3 lemons 

 and 2 quarts of molasses. The poison bran mash was sown broadcast 

 in the wheat fields during the later afternoon and at night. In most 

 cases it was not necessary to sow the entire fields because the worms 

 were often damaging only the rankest growing wheat. An effort was 

 made, however, to sow the poison bran wherever the worms were 

 numerous enough to cause any noticeable injury. 



More than two hundred farmers made use of the poison bran mash 

 on that evening and out of about half that number reporting the 

 following morning every one said that the poison bran mash was 

 almost 100 per cent effective. It was difficult to find a single live 

 worm where the bran was sown. The dead worms were so thick over 

 the surface of the ground that it was difiicult to make a shoe track 

 without crushing a half dozen or more worms. One farmer in describ- 

 ing the results said : " I hunted an hour in my wheat field this morning 

 to find a live worm. In all I found one and it died while I was watching 



