26 



their characters, but as the habits of those residing in the ground are 

 very similar, any remedy applicable to one species will, in all proba- 

 bility, be equally applicable to another. 



In this country wheat, corn and other cereals, grass, potatoes and 

 some other vegetables have suffered more or less from the attacks of 

 the wire-worms, but not to such an extent as in European countries. 

 But little complaint against them has heretofore been made in Illi- 

 nois, but by turning to the Prairie Farmer of May 16th, 1861, the 

 reader will find that I have looked forward to the day when the com- 

 plaint which now comes from the farmers of Macoupin would be 

 heard. I then stated that, "When the prairie sod is torn up and the 

 roots have decayed, we may expect the Illinois wire-worms to attack 

 our wheat, rye, oats and barley. (And I might have added corn, pota- 

 toes and meadows.) How to take time by the forelock and forestall 

 this danger I am unable to say." And I may add here that the pro- 

 bability- i-^, unless measures are taken to prevent it, they will become 

 more and more troublesome ; possibly not to the extent they are in 

 England, but in numbers sufficient to greatly injure and materially 

 lessen the crops of our farmers. Mr. Curtis, in his "Farm Insects," 

 in which wire-worms form the subject of the sixth and seventh chap- 

 ters, says that of all the insect enemies with which the farmer has to 

 contend there are none which are more fatal in their effects and more 

 difficult to overcome than the wire-worms. Instead of being limited 

 to a single species or order they may be almost termed omnivorous. 

 There is scarcely a product of the farm or garden that is exempt from 

 their ravages. 



The plants which they are known to attack areas follows: Grass, 

 corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, potatoes, turnips, beets, cabbages, aspar- 

 agus, carrots, onions, lettuce, squash-vines, grape, hops, strawberries, 

 iris, pinks, carnations, dahlias, lobelias, and other garden flowers. 

 But grass roots appear to be their private food, and, as a rule, they are 

 more abundant in cultivated ground which has recently been in sod ; 

 it is here they generally breed and increase, and, as is remarked by 

 Dr. Fitch, " the)' abound alike in the roots of the coarsest sedge and 

 other wild grasses on the borders of marshes and in those of our most 

 delicate pasture grass. I have met with them boring into the bul- 

 bous roots and timothy, and sending out a swarm of elaters from the 

 fibrous roots of the quack-grass." Mr. Curtis has observed that where- 

 ever grass will grow the wire worm may be found. Pasture and 

 meadow lands are usually stocked with them ; and we may fairly pre- 

 sume that our prairie soil which yet retains its native' sod is well sup- 

 plied with them, and that when their native food is cut off they will 

 turn to those cultivated most similar in character to their tastes. 



As corn is usually the first thing planted in this country on land 

 broken up from the sod it is the crop oftenest attacked by the wire- 

 worms and the one in regard to which we hear most complaint. In 

 England, oats being the crop which usually follows is the one that 

 suffers most ;and it has been observed there that the danger is greater 

 the longer the land was in grass. 



Wheat is subject to their attacks and is sometimes greatly injured 

 by them ; in Canada and the eastern States this crop has often suffer- 

 ed to a considerable extent by the attacks of a species known as the 

 "wheat wire-worm" which has recently been ascertained to be the 



