FIGHTING THE CUT- WORM. 247 



affairs is either to continue starvinpf and wait for better times or to 

 solve the question of food supply by cutting off the succulent plants 

 and wilting' them. This done, the food is in a palatable condition 

 for them. For this reason we have cut-worms only in the spring 

 and not late in the season. 



This peculiar habit of cut worms of preparing^ their food is a 

 habit we can make use of to lessen their injuries and to kill then;* 

 Knowing that such insects prefer wilted foliage, we can supjply this 

 and be certain that they will accept such a kind invitation by eating 

 the food. If we poison the wilted food we furnish our enemies, the 

 cut-worms will be killed in large numbers. The proper way to 

 carry out this plan is to tie together small bundles of such plants 

 as ^ass, clover or any surplus of young cabbage plants we may 

 have to spare. These bundles, which should be about three inches 

 in diameter, after being dipped in water containing a large amount 

 of Paris green or London purple, are now laid among the rowsof 

 plants that we wish to protect, and our traps or baits are ready for 

 action. The bundles should be laid about si.K feet apart and onlj- 

 in such parts of the fields or gardens as will be first reached by the 

 cut-worms. Close attention will show that not all parts of the 

 garden or fields are equally infested with cut-worms, but that thej- 

 invade certain places from one or more well defined directions. As 

 cut-worms hibernate, they usually select such suitable places as 

 offer superior shelter and good drainage, cousequentlj', the more 

 elevated parts of the ground or soil well overgrown with grass. 

 The former gives good drainage, the latter g'ood shelter. Such 

 places can be easilj' detected in any garden, and b^' laj'iug our traps 

 in their vicinity most of the cut-worms will find them and be killed 

 before reaching other parts of the field. Whoever applies such 

 remedies must not expect that he will find large numbers of dead 

 cut-worms on the surface of the ground or under the bait, as such 

 is not the case. The caterpillars, having eaten of the prepared bait, 

 soon feel the effects of the poison and will be kept running about 

 by the resulting pains. In a number of cases, where crops of onions 

 were badly infested and where this remedj' was applied, a close 

 search was made for dead cut-worms. It was found that under the 

 baits a number of cut-worms were dead or in a dying condition, but 

 more were found as far as ten feet from the baits. These dying cut- 

 worms were not found on the surface of the ground, but they had 

 burrowed into it in the usual way and were dying in such situa- 

 tions. 



Another and a very efifective bait is also an excellent one topuse 

 against cut-worms. It is a bait made of rye flour or rj'e and wheat 

 bran mixed well with one of the arsenical poisons. The mixture 

 should contain enough Paris green or London purple to become 

 distinctly colored by these substances. If a tablespoonful of such 

 bait is dropped near the plants to be protected, the worms will not 

 be slow to find and to eat it. Such baits are especially valuable in 

 case the plants to be protected are grown upon land which hut 

 shortly before was a meadow, pasture or timothy field, as fields in 

 which the sod has not been disturbed for soiue years form the 



