76 



cabbage, tomato, pepper, and other plants. I find that tbe Cut-worms are working 

 on most all of tbem. I have been making green clover traps and collecting them 

 under tbe buncbes of clover, then burning tbem under these and in the ground 

 beneath. I have found as many as 64 worms uuder one bunch that we had placed 

 between the ridges of sweet potatoes. I first soaked the green clover in Paris green, 

 but I think I did not get it strong enough, as I found only a few dead ones under the 

 traps. Pie-plant or rhubarb leaves are also good. They may be put under tbe half 

 of a large drain tile split in two, and the south end stopped up with dirt so as to keep 

 the leaves from drying out. The worms may then be hunted every day under tbe 

 leaves and killed. Cabbage and turnip leaves are also good. Can you give me any 

 other information on this subject ? I have concluded now to try soaking the plants 

 in a solution or tea made of red pepper just at setting them in the ground. I make 

 it ljy boiling the pepper in soft water and then letting it get cold, when the plants 

 may be dipped into it. In my next experiment I will try common kerosene (coal-oil) 

 with soft water well agitated, and set the plants out immediately after dipping them 

 in it.— [A. L. Thompson, Homer, 111., May 20, 1889. 



Reply. — * # » I'jje remedy which you have applied, viz, the poisoned clover, 

 was first suggested in 1882 by Professor Riley, and was first experimented with so far as 

 we know by Dr. A. (Eraler, of Wilmington Island, near Savannah, Ga., who found it 

 exceedingly successful, and who was enabled to almost entirely rid his land of Cut- 

 worms. In our opinion you will find it a much better means of fighting the worms 

 than either of the other remedies which you mention, and we would advise the great- 

 est care in tbe trial of a kerosene remedj', lest the plants should be killed. It will 

 be well in fact to emulsifj^ the kerosene witb soap and water and then dilute it con- 

 siderably before dipping the young plants in it. Even then success can not be relied 

 upon. * * * —[May 23, 1889.] 



An Army- Worm Note from Indiana. 



I recently had my first experience with the Army-Worms, which were discovered 

 June 17 in a piece of rye growing on reclaimed swamp land commonly called " muck." 

 We confined them to the rye, which they soon cleaned up. The piece contained about 

 nine acres, and at one time, or when the worms were nearly developed, and about one 

 and one-half inches long, as much as five acres were literally covered with them. An 

 open ditch on one side, filled with swift-running water and ditching and pitting on 

 another, turned them into a wood pasture of blue-grass, where I called in about 150 

 hogs, old and young, that quickly devoured those already in and all that came after. 

 But I also began plowing under the rye stalks and stubble by encircling the whole 

 piece, and they could not well travel across plowed land, so those confined within the 

 circle became lank and lean soon after, but on about June 25 they disappeared some- 

 what suddenly, but how I do nob know. Now, I would like to have some information 

 as to the nature of the Army-Worm and the facts as to their origin in such immense 

 quantities. If they bad been propagating year by year along the fences and by-places 

 adjacent to this field, which had been previously for four successive seasons cultivated 

 in potatoes, no injury came from them and none were noticed about the field. The pre- 

 vious seasons were very dry and last winter was mild, with little freezing and scarcely 

 any rain, and just suited the insect fraternity. Or might the fly have come in vast 

 numbers during the very warm days of April from a southern region and deposited 

 their eggs in the rank growth of rye growing in a loose porous soil that was laden with 

 vapor like matter that may have been attractive to the fly ? Scores of acres in rye in 

 this vicinity, growing on the same kind of soils, were destroyed in the same manner, 

 although the farms and fields were not contiguous to each other. No other crop was 

 attacked or injured. A good deal of theory and speculation has been discussed by 

 the Granger brethren hereabouts as to their origin, nature, disappearance, and re- 

 appearance. I have no complete works on entomology and can get no clear idea of 

 their history. Chambers's Encyclopedia, which I have, says but little and nothing 



