THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 91 



as in sand, and they are all the more exposed to their numerous mid- 

 night enemies which are ever watching for them. 



For the common field cut-worms, I am convinced that there is no 

 better remedy, as a rule, than minting and killing them. It is gen- 

 erally believed that ashes and lime used about plants will keep off 

 cut-worms, and I might fill pages with recorded experiments, going to 

 prove the good effects of these substances. The experimenters gen- 

 erally forget, however, that there is a period in the life of these worms 

 •when they of themselves go down in the earth and disappear, and 

 anything applied just before this happens is sure to be heralded forth 

 as a perfect remedy. Experiments show, however, that when placed 

 in a box with separate quantities of ashes, lime, salt and mold, they 

 will burrow and hide in all of them, but especially in the ashes and 

 mold. Soot seems to be more obnoxious to them, and, although I have 

 not yet had an opportunity to give it a thorough test, I do not wish to 

 discourage its trial. Fall plowing, to be efficacious, must be done very 

 late in the fall, when the worms are numbed with cold, and then I 

 think it is of doubtful utility further than it exposes them to the at- 

 tacks of enemies, including birds. 



In a case like that, communicated by Mr. Allen, it would pay to 

 dig a narrow ditch around the part of the field infested, the outward 

 side to be mide smooth and slanting under; for these worms cannot 

 crawl up a perpendicular bank of earth. On the same principle, many 

 an one may be entrapped by making smooth holes with a stick around 

 hills of corn or other plants, and on going over the same ground the 

 next day, those that are thus entrapped can be crushed by the end of 

 the same stick. In corn fields that have been subject to the attacks of 

 cutworms, it is well to plant so much seed as will enable them to 

 glut their appetites without taking all the stalks in the hill, and in 

 this light the following lines contain a deal of wisdom : 



" One for the black-bird and one for the crow, 

 Two for the cut-worm and three to grow/' 



INSECTS INFESTING THE POTATO. 



As the potato forms one of our leading articles of diet, and is 

 universally cultivated, an accurate knowledge of the insects which 

 attack it, is of the utmost importance. A very full account of them 

 was given in the October and November numbers of the American 

 Entomologist, and since the editions of those two numbers are en- 

 tirely exhausted, I cannot do better than to transfer it, for the most 

 part, to the pages of this report, with such additions and alterations 

 as I have since found necessary. 



We often see paragraphs in the papers, stating that "THE Potato- 

 Bug" has been very abundant and destructive in such a month and at 



