THE ARMY- WORM. 15 



the as yet unsettled region in the far north, and people going 

 there to cut wild grasses for hay came back very much dis- 

 gusted, for instead of finding grasses they found multitudes 

 of such worms. As some of the descriptions given by the 

 newspapers would fit almost any crawling thing in nature, 

 Mr. Pettit, the assistant, made a trip to Northfield on July 

 20th, to ascertain the real character of the worm and to see 

 the extent of its depredations, as well as what means were 

 necessary to stop their ravages. In this special case the 

 army-worms were found in large numbers covering an area 

 of from four to five square miles near the city, and in scat- 

 tered patches over at least tw^enty miles in all directions 

 from it. Upon some farms they were so numerous and de- 

 structive that it did not pay to harvest the crop, while on 

 other farms one-quarter to one-half of it was destroyed. 

 The grain being almost ripe, the greener portions of 

 the fields contained the largest numbers of such worms, 

 though they were also quite numerous in the other parts of 

 the field. In some cases the oats were already cut and 

 shocked ; this did not, however, stop the depredation of 

 these worms, for they climbed the shocks and destroyed all 

 accessible grain in them. As a general rule the worms com- 

 menced their destructive work about seven o'clock in the 

 evening, and continued it until morning. As stated by the 

 assistant, the general direction of the moving armies was in 

 most cases toward the north. Mr. Geo. Lyman had a large 

 field which was completely destroyed ; to protect his unin- 

 jured grain in other fields he plowed five ditches between the 

 uninjured ones, turning the furrows toward the advancing 

 worms, and in this manner prevented the worms from reach- 

 ing the fields not yet invaded. These ditches stopped very 

 large numbers of the army-worms. The same plan was fol- 

 lowed by a number of other farmers, and whoever adopted 

 it had good results. 



In a number of other places where the plants were al- 

 ready nearly mature, or were badly rusted, only the husks 

 were green, and these were greedily devoured by the cater- 

 pillars, thus exposing the immature kernel. As is usual the 

 army-worms had already' done most of the dnmage before 



