31 



best time, that is to say, the spring of the season during which it is to 

 lie fallow. 



As starving them out is the whole object of this remedy, if the same 

 result can be accomplished without losing entirely the use of the 

 land, as a matter of course the latter is to be preferred, and farmers 

 will adopt it when they cannot be induced to adopt the other. If ex- 

 periment shows that any of the three crops mentioned, or any other 

 one is so obnoxious to the worms that they will not, under any circum- 

 stances, feed upon it, then the land can be planted in this crop and 

 if the clean and thorough culture spoken of is carried out, the remedy 

 will be as complete as though the land was fallow. 



As the worms do in fact eat into the kernel of the corn, it is more 

 than probable that there is some solution which may prevent this if 

 the corn is soaked in it. And I will here quote what I have hereto- 

 fore stated in answer to an inquiry from the Prairie Farmer on behalf 

 of a correspondent, first giving the substance of the letter. "Having 

 seen something in the Farmer about the wire-worm, the remedies sug- 

 gested, etc., would like to ask if any one has ever tried soaking corn 

 in blue-stone solution ? "Is blue-stone injurious to corn, and is not 

 Copperas water, when very strong, to seed corn? The wire-worm in 

 this county (Shelby) was very troublesome last spring, and this spring 

 the ground is full of them, only waiting to devour the corn as it is 

 planted and something must be done to prevent their ravages or we 

 will suffer great inconvenience from them; would like to see the sub- 

 ject more fully discussed in the Farmer." 



"Your correspondent, R. T. May hew, inquires what will be the 

 effect upon corn and the wire-worms, if the corn is well soaked in a 

 "blue stone" (sulphate of copper) solution, and also if soaked in a cop- 

 peras solution ?" 



"Having submitted that portion of the inquiry which relates to the 

 effect upon the corn to a chemist, he says that he does not think either 

 solution would injure the corn unless very strong. 



" Both these remedies I am satisfied have been tried, in fact copperas 

 I know has, but I cannot say precisely what was the result, except 

 that (in the case of the Macoupin county farmers) it was not satisfac- 

 tory. In some cases such applications have occasionally proven bene- 

 ficial, but by no means specifics, nor can we expect anything to be a 

 specific which does not eradicate the worms. In a case like the 

 one before us, where the time for planting is close at hand, and the 

 ground teeming with worms, the farmer, if compelled to use all his 

 ground, must fight the battle as best he can with such temporary ex- 

 pedients as experience or his own ingenuity may devise.. Science in 

 such cases can aid him but little, pluck and perseverence are his chief 

 weapons, just as the general who, neglecting to take the proper pre- 

 cautions in time, allows the enemy to burst in upon him where there 

 is no retreating, must depend upon the bravery and pluck of his 

 troops to save him from defeat, as the chances for strategy then are 

 far. 



" If a portion of the ground can be allowed to remain idle, let the 

 directions given in my former article on this pest be followed^ as the 

 plan there proposed gives more promise of success than any other of 

 which I have any knowledge. 



