28 



destroying the wire-worms which I have adopted for some years, my 

 ground being full of them, so that I could neither grow sweet-williams 

 picotees, bulbs, lettuce, nor, indeed, any succulent plant without their 

 boring, running up and eating the hearts out. Near these [plants I 

 now place half a potatoe, with the eyes cut out to prevent its growing, 

 and run a pointed stick through the middle of it and peg it into the 

 ground, covering it over with about one inch of loam and in a day or 

 two I have pulled out by the tail from fifteen to twenty of them from 

 one slice of potato." 



Some place these slices of potatoes on the surface, while others, as 

 the writer of the above quotation, place them under the surface. But 

 they should always be sliced, as the worms are much more apt to be 

 attached to them in this condition than when whole. Slices of apple, 

 turnip, beet, parsnip, carrot, cabbage and lettuce will perhaps answer 

 equally as well for this parpose as the potato. 



If they should become very troublesome in a vegetable garden, or 

 iiower bed, this method of trapping and destroying them would prob- 

 ably be the best that could be adopted. Digging after and picking 

 them out is likely to injure the plants almost, if not quite, as much 

 as the worms. 



Hand-picking in England has given us some idea of the number of 

 these worms found in a given area in badly infested land. In one in- 

 stance 18,000 were picked from an acre and a half; in another, 60,000 

 from three acres; in another, 41,600 from five acres. 



Applications of salt, lime, soot, etc., to the soil have been recom- 

 mended, and, as maintained by some, practiced with success. But it is 

 more than likely that in the cases where marked beneficial results have 

 followed such applications that they were made just before the great 

 mass of the worms passed into the pupa state. Such has, doubtless, 

 often been the case where similar remedies have been used for the 

 •' white grub," and followed by Avhat was supposed to be complete 

 success. 



That "wire-worms" and "white grubs*' dislike alkalies cannot be 

 doubted, and if the application is as heavy as the vegetation will bear, 

 and is followed by ruin, thus carrying down into the soil to the roots 

 of the plants, it will doubtless tend to preserve the crop; but it will 

 neither destroy them r>\- drive them away, and, as a matter of course, 

 will afford only temporary relief. As has been observed by Mr. Cur- 

 tiss, wire-worms will not voluntarily leave the field in which they are 

 hatched until they have arrived at their perfect state and become 

 beetles. The Hon. A. B. Dickenson makes the following statement in 

 reference to his experiments : " I have heard it stated that five 

 bushels of salt to the acre, or one hundred bushels of lime, would 

 destroy the wire-worms. I have tried both, and have sowed ten bush- 

 els of salt to the acre, and they only laughed at my folly. I tried one 

 hundred bushels of lime, as recommended, and they fattened on my 

 bounty." This testimony is strong against the use of these applica- 

 tions, but we must allow something for the strong expressions of a pub- 

 lic address; and, in addition to this, we do not know the condition or 

 character of the soil, or kind of crop upon it, at the time these appli- 

 cations were made. But Mr. Dickenson's testimony is corroborated by 

 the mass of testimony on this point, and accords with reason when 

 .applied to our knowledge of the insects and of their life and habits. 



