200 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



ascending trees, grapevines, rose and berry bushes and 

 eating out the fruit and leaf buds. Newly set orchards 

 have thus been killed, and for a long time no one could 

 find out what did the damage, supposing that it must be 

 some winged insect. A man, happening to go through 

 his vineyard at night, heard the gnawing of innumerable 

 jaws and by striking a match solved the mystery. ^ 



Plants may be generally protected from cutworms by 

 folding a piece of stiff paper around the stem so that it 

 goes into the earth an inch and reaches two or three 

 inches above the surface. Young trees may be treated in 

 a similar way, or tin cans, from which the solder has been 

 melted, may be placed around them ; but if cutworms 

 are numerous and their food is scarce, they will climb 

 over paper or tin. Their climbing may be prevented by 

 tying a band of cotton batting so as to form an inverted 

 funnel around the trunk of the tree ; but when this is 

 done the worms often girdle the tree below the band. 



The Indians used to practice hand picking of cutworms 

 in their primitive cornfields, and this has been the most 

 satisfactory method of dealing with the pest ever since. 

 But toads and robins should have delegated to them all the 

 "picking." I shall refer to their work more at length in 

 succeeding chapters. Poison baits and sprays have proved 

 only partially effective. 



Grasshoppers, or Locusts, of any species are well adapted 

 for elementary lessons on account of their large eggs. 

 These are laid during late summer or early fall and may 

 readily be found in flask-shaped packets, an inch or more 



1 M. V. Slingeiland. "Climbing Cutworms," Bulletin 104, Cornell 

 University Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N.Y., 1S95. 



