No. 3. 



The Cut-Worm. 



95 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 



The Cut-Worm. 



SiR^ — How almost universal is the notion 

 that the cut-worm feeds upon the grass which 

 is turned down on the sod late in the spring, 

 as a seed-bed for the corn-crop ! Now, I be- 

 lieve he is of a very different disposition, and 

 not likely to prefer old sod to new corn ; for, 

 if this were so, our friends — even those who 

 are accustomed to delay their ploughing for 

 the purpose of thus feeding them — would not 

 so otlen be compelled to re-plant, for the third 

 time, their corn-crops, while such abundance 

 of sod still remains in the land, preserved, 

 too, for the especial purpose of saving the 

 crop from destruction : depend upon it, such 

 is not the fact, and I have abundant reason 

 to know that the notion is erroneous. 



I am an advocate for autumnal ploughing 

 to the greatest extent, especially as prepara- 

 tory for the corn-crop on lay, or old sod land, 

 and I will tell you why. This lay, we will 

 suppose, has been fed with horses and cattle, 

 perhaps for several years ; and we know that 

 it is from the droppings of cattle that the 

 bugs of every description make their nests, 

 in which to deposit their eggs or nits ; and 

 every one must have observed the curious 

 manner in which the different species carry 

 on this labour, and how, that as soon as they 

 have accumulated a sufficient quantity of 

 dung to form a ball, they sink it to a certain 

 depth into the soil, by undermining it, so as 

 to let it drop by its own weight so gently as 

 not to disturb or change the position in which 

 it was carefully placed before the operation 

 of undermining was commenced. Now, I 

 have no doubt, this ball of dung has, by some 

 process, been rendered water and weather- 

 proof on its top surface, and that, therefore, 

 it is capable of resisting tiie rain and frost of 

 the winter unharmed, sheltered by such a 

 weather-proof, neatly-formed, and elegantly- 

 rounded roofing above. But the act of turn- 

 ing the sod before winter, reverses the order 

 of this wise arrangement, and not only ex- 

 poses these balls to the action of the rains 

 and frosts, but, supposing the top of each ball 

 to be water-proof, it then becomes an imper- 

 vious cup, in whicli tlie water might be sup- 

 posed to be retained, to the destruction of the 

 egg, or whatever the deposit might have been. 



Now this theory if you please, appears so 

 feasible, that one would suppose it might 

 carry some weight with it^ on that very ac- 

 count, and yet an old neighbour at my elbow 

 is even now exclaiming, "I tell you I have 

 tried it, and it will not do any how you can 

 fix it ; it is all theori, and that you may de- 

 pend upon." But I tell him I have found 

 that it will do, if the work be properly done ; 

 but then all the land jnust be turned up, for 



if half of it be left unremoved, it is but rea- 

 sonable to expect that at least one-half the 

 number of nests will remain uninjured ; and 

 these will furnish myriads of cut-worms to 

 prey upon the corn-crop. And my old friend 

 admits that he has not been over-particular 

 in his ploughing, considering it, at that sea- 

 son of the year, only a piece of sham-work, 

 as he calls it, with the furrow-slice about 

 eighteen inches wide, and not always ploughed 

 clean or turned over — a sort of raftering, as 

 he terms it — so that, from his own account, 

 it is easy to conceive why he has not found 

 autumnal ploughing effectual for the purpose 

 of destroying the cut-worm. I am particu- 

 larly nice about this part of the business, for, 

 after ascertaining the depth to which it is ne- 

 cessary to penetrate, to turn up the dung- 

 balls, I am careful to set the plough thereto, 

 and then, by not taking a furrow wider than 

 I can turn well over, and determining not to 

 leave an inch of the land unremoved, I am 

 sure to succeed in my plan of destroying the 

 eggs of tiie cut-worm, which is far better 

 tjian to keep them to feed in the spring upon 

 tlie sod turned down for their benefit; for I 

 say, as did your correspondent, at page 376 

 of the 4th vol. of the Cabinet, " I could not 

 bear to turn cut-worm feeder." 



But, what would we say to a gardener 

 who should argue against autumnal cultiva- 

 tion, with the view to supply his vermin with 

 plenty of food in the spring? Farming is 

 gardening in all true principles ; and it is a 

 fact, that spade-labour in the field would re- 

 lieve us from nine-tenths of the evils that we 

 have at present to encounter, as is well known 

 in those countries where, unfortunately, the 

 price of manual labour is so poorly paid as to 

 warrant its adoption. I know, that to many 

 it appears almost paradoxical, how we, in 

 this country and climate, with a set of agri- 

 cultural implements far superior to those in 

 use in any other country under the sun, con^ 

 trive to do so much of our field-labour so in- 

 effectually as we do; and were it not for the 

 notion I have taken up — and which I have 

 reason to believe is just, namely, that all our 

 occupations are performed too hastily — I 

 should myself be quite unable to account for 

 it ; and here is the proof— my old friend at 

 my elbow is at this moment boasting of hav- 

 ing ploughed two acres and a half a day, 

 " ploughing round and round, with a furrow 

 about a foot and a half wide, with a pair of 

 horses, tickling up their tails" as he expresses 

 it, " in a way 't would do you good to look 

 at," Depend upon it, this is the cause ; but 

 if we would give our lands three-times the 

 ploughing and/oHr-times the harrowing, roll- 

 ing and cleaning, that they now receive, and 

 allapplied with J?ue-times the care, we should 

 find the benefit resulting therefrom to be ten- 



