Corn Grubs, or Cut Worms. Fall Ploughing. 91 



negligent and slovenly farming, although it may some- 

 times succeed. 



I am your very obedient servant, 



Richakd Peters. 

 Roberts Vaux, 



Sec. to the PhilacK Soc.for 



Promoting Agriculture. 



NOTE. 



Read February, 1817. 



The means by which fall-ploughing accomplishes the destruction 

 of the grub, are not of so much consequence as the fact of that 

 operation producing the effect. And that, in the greatest number 

 of instances, it so does, and spring ploughing does not, has very 

 many respectable authorities to prove. One will be seen in this 

 volume, communicated by Mr. Adlum\ which places the matter be- 

 yond a doubt. There may be some apparent exceptions, which if 

 carefully examined into, would not have weight sufficient to oppose 

 the general current of facts. 



Whether the plough reaches the recesses of the depositories of these 

 vermin, or exposes the sod to dry and perish, so as not to afford 

 food for their progeny when in their infant state, is a matter of 

 more curiosity than real use. It would not seem that they lie too 

 deep for the operation of the plough, either directly or consequenti- 

 ally. Holes pierced into the corn hills, 6 or 8 inches deep, by a 

 dibble or pointed stick, are traps into which if the grubs, when in 

 their most powerful stage of growth, fall, they are incapable of as- 

 cending ; and thousands thus perish. It is most probable that, at 

 the time of fall-ploughing, they are sufficiently within reach of ex- 



T 



