262 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science 
digging trenches. Several groups of from fifty to one hundred of 
these men were assembled, and the facts regarding the habits of the 
pest were imparted and control measures recommended. The most 
remarkable and outstanding feature of the situation was the near- 
panic caused by the absolute lack of any reliable knowledge whatever 
concerning a pest with which practically every entomologist is familiar. 
After a hurried conference with the county agent, a definite plan of 
action was formulated. Obviously the first thing to be done was to 
allay the popular fear due to the exaggeration of the threatened dan- 
ger, and next, to organize the community for a definite plan of control, 
based on methods known to be effective. The mayor was advised that 
his proclamation need not be published. When it came to organization, 
the county agent was in his element. Through the Secretary of the 
Farm Bureau, a general call was sent out asking for representatives 
from every township in the county. The line call was sounded on the 
country telephones and a whole line was given the information at once. 
Each township chairman designated the representatives for his town- 
ship to report at the Court House immediately. As soon as they 
arrived, a mass meeting of several hundred farmers was held. Any 
available hall being too small to accontmodate half the crowd, the 
writer stood on a large boulder in the Court House yard and looked 
down on a most painfully attentive audience. A few brief facts con- 
cerning the life history and habits of the pest were given, emphasis 
being put upon the fact that practically all of the worms would dis- 
appear into the ground in less than a week and that an army worm 
never traveled any great distance as a worm. Assurance was given 
that the control measures recommended, namely, the combination of dust 
furrows and poison bran mash, had been frequently demonstrated and 
found to be thoroughly effective. Instructions for the construction of 
the dust furrow barriers and the preparation and application of the 
bran mash were given in detail. The recommended dust furrow barrier 
is made as follows: Throw a furrow with a plow toward the oncoming 
worms. Dress up with a shovel the straight side, which is toward the 
protected crop, so that a small bank of loose soil or dust comes flush 
with the top of this straight side. At frequent intervals, say 12 to 15 
feet, dig shallow post holes in the bottom of the furrows. The worms 
coming into the furrow, try again and again to climb out over the 
straight side. They can easily climb the hard straight side until they 
reach the loose soil or dust which gives way under them and back 
they fall. After several vain attempts they crawl along the furrows 
until they drop into the holes where they can be killed by oil, burning, or 
merely mashed with a suitable chunk of wood. If left to themselves, 
very few caterpillars either in the furrows or the post holes, survive 
the hot sunshine of the next day. The standard bran mash was 
recommended to be applied wherever the worms were present and the 
crop was such that they were capable of causing further injury. 
As to organization, under the leadershp of their chairman, the 
farmers of each township were to work as a unit, concentrating their 
efforts on the worst infested farms first. In case a township in the more 
heavily infested portion of the county needed help, the chairman was 
