42 



itself on the side of hills or the upper portion of slojies where the veg- 

 etation is scattered. Its near ally, J>. arro/mft, is found throughout 

 North America following civilization in cattle yards, roads, and streets. 

 He had also seen the dead locusts in one locality in eastern Colorado 

 and considered that they had been killed by hail. 



Mr. Popenoe said that ho had really found that they had stopped 

 trains, but upon steep grades only and by greasing the rails. 



Mr. Osborn has found this species in southwestern Kansas in the 

 higher portions of river valleys and feeding upon the grass along the 

 roads. 

 - Mr. Beckwith presented the following : 



NOTES ON A CORN CRAMBID. 



By M. H. Beckwitii, Newark, Del. 

 [Secretary's abstract.] 



For three years the author had heard complaints in the southern 

 counties of Delaware of an insect called by the people a "Cutworm." 

 This year at the experiment farm at Dover many hills were destroyed by 

 this insect which he had had an opportunity to study. The land was in 

 Timothy last year and jjlanted to Corn the present season. Large num- 

 bers of the larva^ were found, sometimes 30 in a hill, working around the 

 outside of the stalk below the surface of the ground in silken galleries, 

 but not boring into the heart of the stalk. He had sent specimens of 

 the moth which he reared to the Department of Agriculture and it 

 had been determined for him as Gramhns caliginosellus. He had tried 

 Paris green, but does not know with what effect- 

 Mr. Smith had heard of a similar attack on Corn in New Jersey. He 

 advised the farmers to put on a heavy dose of kainit just after plowing 

 and had heard no more complaints. 



Mr. Osborn suggested that if the insect works like CrambtisexsiccaUts 

 plowing at the right time will prove effective. 



Mr. Howard said that the insect was abundant in 1886 at Beunings, 

 Md., and that the only remedy which he was able to* suggest at that 

 time was plowing immediately after harvest. 



Mr. Alwood doubted whether kainit would act as well as the refuse 

 salt from meat-packing establishments, which he had found to be a good 

 cut- worm remedy if sowed before planting. 



Mr. Smith recommended kainit because it is a fertilizer as well as an 

 insecticide. 



Mr. Alwood stated that kainit is a bad form of potash for tomatoes 

 and potatoes. 



Mr. South wick said that his grandfather used to drop a salt herring 

 into each corn hill as a preventive against Cutworms. 



