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MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



FIGHTING THE CUT-WORM. 



BY PROF. OTTO LUdGER. 



(Extract from Minnesota Experiment Station Bulletin No. 43.) 



The term cut-worm applies to caterpillars which have the injur- 

 ious habit of cutting- off or cutting- into the food plants so as to wilt 

 or kill them. Usually this takes place in the early spring and only 

 very seldom later in the season. This peculiar habit, so well known 

 to farmers, gardeners and florists, is evidently caused by the fact 

 that such caterpillars prefer wilted to more succulent food. This 

 preference for wilted food seems to be a very general rule among all 

 insects, since but very few enjoy very succulent foliage, but become 

 sick if forced to consume it. Preferring more mature leaves or foli- 

 age not filled with sap, they select this more suitable food later in 



The cut-worm and its parents the owlet moths. 



the season, and as at that time there is an abundance of it the cater- 

 pillars are not forced to prepare it for themselves by cutting off the 

 plants. Earh' in the spring, matters are different; all the plants 

 are just unfolding their new foliage or forcing their first delicate 

 leaves full of sap towards the light. The warm and genial air of 

 spring, which starts all vegetation tor a new cycle of life, also 

 awakens such young caterpillars as hibernate. After the long fast, 

 enforced by cold and absence of food, their natural voracity is still 

 greater than usual, and they are not slow to attack their food-plants, 

 which are. however, not yet'in a suitable condition, being still too 

 ■watery. The only way for the caterpillar to overcome this state of 



