180 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



specimen remained alive. Please send me some more, and if possible in a tin box with 

 plenty of food. There are two kinds of these cutworms much alike, and I cannot, from 

 the specimen I have, tell whether they are of one which matures early, or of the other 

 which does not reach full-growth sometimes till July. In this case exact identification) 

 is very important before I can advise you what crop to sow on your land. Corn for 

 ensilage may, I suppose, with you be sown as late as 12th or 14th June, turnips up 

 to 20th June and rape or Hungarian grass up to 1st July. Spreading lime would 

 have no effect whatever on these caterpillars." 



" June 2. — We send you another sample of cutworms, as requested, and have culti- 

 vated the field again. We are now waiting your answer to know when we shall be safe 

 to sow again. If it would be safe to sow oats soon, we should prefer that crop." — 

 [J. YuiU & Sons.] 



Reply : " I am in receipt of your letter of the 2nd inst. as well as the cutworms 

 sent. These are the Glassy Cutworm, the caterpillar of the Devastating Dart Moth 



{Hadena devastairix, Brace). I have waited a day or 

 two before answering your letter so as to be able to say — 

 what I now believe to be the case — that you can sow oats 

 safely on your land. If you have any convenience for 

 turning chickens or turkeys on to the field for a day 

 before the oats are sown, they would doubtless destroy 

 large numbers of the caterpillars or their chrysalids. I 

 shall be very much obliged to you if you will let me hear 

 from you later in the season what success you obtain 

 from sowing oats on this land so late in the season. 

 You will, I suppose, probably cut them for green feed. 



" The other cutworm referred to which resembles very much the Glassy Cutworm, but 

 is whiter and has a redder head, is the caterpillar of the Amputating Brocade Motb 

 (Hadena arctica, Bdv.), a species which also attacks the roots of grasses and grain, Thia 

 caterpillar does not reach full-growth usually till after 

 the middle of June." 



" Dec. 28. — We broke up about 30 acres of sod 

 land. The autumn before being so dry, we did not get 

 it ploughed. Ten acres of this were sown in peas, the 

 remainder was sown in oats. There were no cutworms 

 in the peas, but all the oats that were sown on sod were 

 eaten more or less. About ten acres was eaten clean 

 out. Following your advice, we turned the turkeys j.jg_ 9. -The Glassy Cutworm Moth. 

 and chickens on the fields and have no doubt but they 



would have cleaned the cutworms, had it not been that the crows took so many of the 

 young chickens that we were obliged to bring them home. 



" On the eighth of June we sowed with peas and oats, about 3 parts oats to I of 

 peas. This crop was not injured by the cutworms. We had a very heavy crop which we 

 cut a little green and are using for fodder." — [J. Yuill & Sons.] 



Fig. 8.— The Glassy Cutworm. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST 



iCaloptenus spretus, Uhler). 



It is now some years since any serious injury has been reported in Canada by the 

 Rocky Mountain Locust, although from time to time mention was made in newspapers 

 of the temporary spread up into Southern Manitoba, of small swarms from parts of the 

 Turtle Mountains in North Dakota, where the species breeds probably every year. 

 Such was the case in the autumn of 1897, and the females were seen laying their eggs 

 on the farm of Mr. John Scott, near Deloraine. From these eggs enough young locusts 

 hatched in the spring of 1898 to cause considerable loss in grain crops. The season was 



