CULTIVATION. 59 



find a worm very near the mouth of these little holes* 

 Destroy it, and all you can find, and thus save your crop. 

 This searching for worms must be kept up till they cease 

 to do mischief. All plants missing in the field should be 

 renewed from the bed at the first opportunity. The 

 morning is the best time to find the worms, as they are 

 near the surface of the ground ; later, they retire into the 

 ground to appear again near sundown, and work during 

 the night and' early morning." 



Thomas describes tobacco worms as "hatched from 

 eggs deposited by what is called the tobacco fly/ It is a 

 large, dusky-brown, winged miller, nearly as large as a 

 humming-bird. It lays its eggs on fair evenings and 

 moonlight nights in July and August. It can be seen 

 almost any clear evening, among what are called ' Jimson- 

 weeds,' sucking the flowers. The eggs will hatch out in 

 24 hours, and the worms commence eating when less than 

 J inch long, and continue to eat till they attain the length 

 of 4-5 inches. One worm, in 6 weeks, will destroy a 

 plant so completely as to render it utterly valueless. This 

 pest is .vastly more numerous in some seasons than in 

 others. Four years ago there were scarcely any ; but 

 for the last three years they have been destructively 

 numerous. The worming of the crop, when they are nu- 

 merous, is, by far, the most disagreeable and tedious labour 

 attending it. Much of the value of the crop depends 

 upon the care or inattention of performing this part 

 of the work. The crop may have been planted in good 

 time ploughed, hoed, primed, suckered, topped, cut, and 

 cured well ; yet it may have been so riddled by worms 

 as to be comparatively good for nothing in market; 



