1880. 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



99 



How the Army Worm was Circumvented in 

 Harford County. 



Messrs . Editors : We notice In Th<: .Smh of to-day 

 that a e^entlemen in Kc-nt foiinty, Md., has saved his 

 crop of wheat and corn from tlie ravau;e8 of the army 

 worm by tlie use of salt spiiuklcd in a ditch duij 

 eighteen inches deep. Had Kent county been visited 

 by as lartce an army as we liad, tliis remedy would 

 have jiroved very expensive, and, we think, ined'ect- 

 ual. Our ditches are made concave in sliape, and 

 are only six to eiijjlit inches deep, witli pits, holding 

 from one to two bushels each, dug about every (ifty 

 feet. All of this is done at a comparatively small 

 cost, and the worms eoncentratiui; in the pits can be 

 destroyed by the use of coal oil, which is less expen- 

 sive than the salt. The ditch, by this means, is kept 

 clean of dead worms, which. If allowed to aceumu- 

 lale, would prove' a britli^e for others to pass over. 

 Our method has proved cll'eclual In savins; nearly two 

 hundred acres of our Eiryptlau sweet corn, and has 

 been successful wherever tried. 



The farmers highly appreciate the interest The 

 Sun. has taken to give inl'ormatiou regarding the 

 army worm. We have received letters from persons 

 in this and other States who have r«id the accounts 

 in T/ie Sun, and who desire further information re- 

 garding the extent of the ravages and the progress 

 of the worms. To all interested we are glad to re- 

 port that the army worm has almost entirely disap- 

 peared from this vicinity, large numbers having 

 died in the wheat tields. Anxiety on the subject is 

 therefore abated. Truly yours, 



S. N. Hyde* Son. 

 Boolhby Hill, Harford co., Md., .June 10, 1880. 



Our farmers in Lancaster county wlio have 

 tried the ditch, are entirely satLslied with it, 

 as the best and cheapest plan to capture the 

 vvorius, so loncf as it is not si)oiled by heavy 

 rains. Some make perjiendicular holes ten or 

 fifteen feet apart. After the worms are trap- 

 ped they can be killed bj' various means. 



The following from Prof. Comstock, Ento- 

 mologist of the Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington, according to the testimony of 

 some experimenters is not conclusive, so far as 

 rolling is concerned. Tliey sa}- the inequali- 

 ties of the surface, and the heavy stravv of 

 grass or grain protects many from destruction. 



How to Destroy Army Worms. 



In case the worms do appear in cultivated lands 

 the best plan of action to follow is to prevent the 

 spreading of the insect. This may be done by de- 

 stroying them or by confining them to the fields in 

 which they appear. The best method of destroying 

 them is by crushing with rollers, or by poisoning 

 with arsenic, Paris green, or London purple. Either 

 of these substances can be applied rapidly by mixing 

 with water and using a fountain pump or garden 

 syringe. In many instances, however, these reme- 

 dies are impracticable. The second line of defense 

 remains, and if well carried out the result will not 

 merely tie the confining of the worms to the fields in 

 which they appear, but the destruction of them also 

 when they attempt to migrate to other tields. This 

 is done by the means of ditches and pits dug around 

 the infested field or that to be protected. The ditch- 

 es can be made quite rapidly. First plough a furrow 

 with the "land side" next to the field to be protect- 

 ed, and then with a spade make this side of the fur- 

 row vertical, or if the soil he compact enough to ad- 

 mit of it, overhanging. When the ditch is complet- 

 ed, holes should be dug in it from one foot to IS 

 inches deep and from twenty to thirty feet apart. 

 The sides of these holes should also be vertical, or If 

 possible overhanging. The worms, unable to climb 

 up the verticic side of the ditch will crawl along the 

 bottom of it and fall into the holes, where they will 

 soon perish. Where the soil is sandy, so that the 

 ditch cannot be with a vertical side,- it should be 

 dug deeper than in any other cases and the side 

 made as nearly perpendicular as possible, so that 

 when the worms attempt to crawl up, the sand will 

 crumble beneath them and cause them to fall back 

 agaiQ . 



J. Henbt Comstock, 

 Entomologist, Department of Agriculture. 



A Reply from Secretary Edge, of the State 

 Board of Agriculture. 



In answer to some inquiries from Chester 

 county aliout the army worm, Thomas J. 

 Edge, Secretary of the State Board of Agri- 

 culture says : 



1 have received several specimens (some of them 

 from Chester county) of what has been styled the 

 " army worm," but thus far have had none of the 

 true army worm of the West. Thus far all the 

 specimens sent have been the now common timothy 

 ironu, which we have known in Chester county from 

 boyhood. lam not prepared to say that the true 

 army worm has not been found in Chester county, 



but if so I have not yet seen it there. The cut mjrin 

 family has a large number of members, any one of 

 which, If existing In sullielent numbers, is capable of 

 doing all the damage attributed to the " army 

 worm ;" and under peculiar and local causes and 

 circumstances unij out of these many families may 

 Increase so rapidly as to cause great damage. It 

 seems to be a law of nature that after mild winters 

 wc have heavy losses from insect enemies. Every 

 few years it would seem that some one of the many 

 classes of insect enemies obtain an advantage and 

 for a short time do much damage, but this seldom 

 lasts more than two S'asons at most. .Ml of our 

 insect pests have their special enemies, which keep 

 them in check. But as was the ease with the "oat 

 midge " a few years ago, these enemies fail to per- 

 form their mission for a year or two, and wc have to 

 record a loss like that of tin: present season. From 

 what I can hear I am inclined to think that at least 

 two members of the "cut-worm" family have l)eeuat 

 work in Chester county during the present season — 

 neither of them, however, new to entomologists — 

 and if the same local causes exist next season we will 

 probably hear from them again. 



The "Timothy Worm" is also a LewMnia, 

 and when it occurs abundantly, does as much 

 injury as the unipuncla, but we never know it 

 to be general, although we have known of 

 both these worms in this county for twenty 

 years. 



Whether they are identical with those that 

 infested the wheat in this county, I hope to 

 demonstrate before the season ends, as I have 

 both of them now in pupation. 



What a Western Man Knows About It. 



Wade II. Brown,of Radnor, Delaware county, gives 

 some facts concerning the army worm, coupled with 

 the experience he has had with them in the State of 

 Missouri for many years. "In the first place, says 

 Brown, "farmers in this section of the country need 

 not fear the worm, so far as tlie early crops are con- 

 cerned. The worm's birthplace is generally in places 

 where grass, hay or leaves are left to decay, in and 

 around rotten wood, fence corners and waste places, 

 but he is never known to appear on a well kept farm, 

 where there is nothing favorable to its birth, such as 

 leaves blown together and there left to rot, and the 

 other inducements above recorded. For a good pro- 

 duction of this worm, there must be an open and 

 favorable winter— similar to our last one — which is 

 no doubt the cause of their being so numerous in 

 this section of the country at present. After open 

 winters, he said, you may prepare for the army 

 worm. If we have a hard winter there Is no need 

 of fearing him. Where there are warm beds of 

 rubbish, there you may expect to And him. 



The worm, he informs us, cannot possibly hurt 

 the wheat crop here this year, from the fact that the 

 wheat already has the rust badly, and as the worm 

 only eats the blades and seldom or never touches 

 the stalk, the consequence is that the blades, 

 when rusty, injure the stalk, and when eaten by the 

 worm, is an advantage rather than an injury to the 

 wheat proper. As to the hay crop, Mr. Brown says 

 that the farmers need not worry over it. Togo right 

 to work and cut the grass is the proper way to get 

 rid of the worm and thus thwart his efforts at de- 

 struction. In most places the hay is ready for cut- 

 ting and hauling in. The oats crop is now all the 

 worm has to invade, but our informant states that it 

 can easily be cheated out of this luxury in the fol- 

 lowing manner : The worm cannot climb broken 

 earth i and to plough a furrow around a field of oats 

 will soon settle the question. He says the worm is 

 the most clumsy, ignorant and easily beaten of anv 

 he has ever seen. It appears earlier In the West 

 than it does in the East, but the farmers of the State 

 of Missouri are thoroughly acquainted with it, and 

 there is little or no fear manifested by them. 



Mr. Brown says he has seen them invade a corn- 

 field on two sides, but finding the corn of consider- 

 able growth and quite old, leave it without doing 

 any damage. The worm only eats young plants, 

 that which ii full of life-giving substance. The corn 

 crop this season being a little backward, he says 

 they may do considerable damage to it If not at- 

 tended to at once. He is afraid the worm will at- 

 tack the late crop here, but to use the ditch or fur- 

 row Is death to it in all cases. 



The worm never gets far away from the place of 

 its birth, for when it starts out on Its voyage of life it 

 expects nourishment at the outstart, but, not finding 

 anything, soon sickens and starves to death. There 

 is one fact which Mr. B. has always noticed, that 

 the worm cannot travel an ascent of 4.5 degrees or 

 on sandy earth. In his own State he said he knew 

 of an instance where a farmer saw the worms march- 

 ing toward his fields by the millions, and hurriedly 

 getting ready his plough, made deep furrows. Then 

 getting a number of boys with hoes, they awaited 

 their approach. They came, made an effort to climb 

 the furrow, but fell back In armies and were mashed 

 into jelly by the boys. The sight and stench was a 

 sickening one, but the remedy was final, for all were 

 killed and the worm was not seen again until the 

 next season. 



Mr. Brown says he has made the army worm a 

 study for years, and seems thoroughly posted in its 

 doings from infancy. 



Practical as Mr. Brown is represented to be, 

 it is just po.ssible lie may be mistaken in some 

 of his conclusions. But no matter about that, 

 there is much in his paper, both interesting 

 and useful. We think, however, tliat more 

 army worms die from parasitic infestation 

 than is ever 8usi>ected by the average obser- 

 ver. On the -J.'itli of .hiiic we placed three of 

 tliese worms (varying in color) in a small 

 bottle and corked it up, intending to till in 

 some alcohol, which we forgot to do before we 

 left tluMn. On the following morning wo 

 found them all dead, and two large white 

 maggots had issued from thont. 



These doubtless were the larvaj of a species 

 of Tuchinu-Jly. This may be said to be two 

 out of threo. On the same day (25ih) we put 

 about two dozen of them in two boxes of 

 etirth, covered with gauze, and plac(^d some 

 timothy in the bo.xes for them to feed upon. 

 Half of these were dark colored and the other 

 half light, and we kept them separate. Three 

 days thereafter the larger number had bur- 

 rowed into the groimd to puiiate; a few were 

 still feeding, and half a dozen others were 

 emaciated or dead, and we found a score or 

 two of white cocoons, like those of Micro- 

 (jnMer, often found on the bodies of the tobacco 

 worm, [Sphinx) only that they did not a<lhere 

 to the bodies of the worms, but to clods of 

 earth, or the stalks of timolliy upon which 

 they had been feeding ; one cluster contained 

 about twenty of these cocoons. How many 

 of the.so parasites were taken into the eartli, 

 in the bodies of these worms, we are unable 

 yet to determine. These circumstances, we 

 think, largely account for the mortality of 

 the army worm, and illustrate why in subse- 

 f|uent seasons their presence is not recognized. 

 Besides, if the ground where they existed this 

 season in great numbers, is turned down in 

 the fall for a winter crop, or in early spring 

 for a spring crop, the eggs would not be likely 

 to hatch, nor the young worms reach the sur- 

 face if they did. Moreover, a severe winter 

 with alternations of freezes, thaws, rains, and 

 snows, would be likely to destroy the vitality 

 of the eggs, and thus defeat them. 



To Destroy the Cabbage Worm. 



The complaint still continues of the ravages of the 

 cabbage-worm and a demand for a remedy fo^t. In 

 an agricultural journal a few weeks ago, a corres- 

 pondent told of his troubles last year and that they 

 were already beginning this season, and asUed for 

 some way to dislodge tlie worm. Several knowing 

 persons responded, and in looking over their reme- 

 dies we did not regard one of them as furnishing 

 what was needed. But we can tell the inquirer and 

 all others what is a remedy for the cabbage worm, 

 whicli is within every one's reach, If it Is properly 

 applied. It Is simply to sprinkle over the parts of 

 the cabbage plant, where the worm usually operates, 

 a pinch of ca;/ennc or rcft />e/)/>er. Nothing more 

 or less. Keep a few ounces on hand and use it when 

 needed, but use it carefully ,so as to reach the insect, 

 so as to dislodge it. — Gertnautomi Telegraph. 



This is a simple remedy, and we have faitii 

 in it, because we have known it to kill other 

 insects (aphids) long ago, and have often re- 

 commended it. A strong decoction or emul- 

 sion of red pepper thrown on the plants 

 through a spraying machine, would perhaps 

 be more effectual' than the iwwder, as it 

 would be more likely to reach the pests. It is 

 good to destroy the red spider and other "ver- 

 min" in conservatories, or green houses. 

 Here is another to the same effect: 



The green cabbage \vorms which are becoming so 

 widely diffused In this country are the larvte of a 

 white butterllv known as Pieris rapte, a European 

 variety. They are very destructive, and devour vast 

 quantities of cabbage in every district they have In- 

 vaded. One way of repressing the pest is catch the 

 butterflies with small hand nets. The eggs are laid 

 singly OD the underside of the cabbage-leaf, and 

 much may be done by crushing them before they 

 hatch. After they appear a strong decoction of red 

 or black pepper Is a good preventive of their ravages. 



AVe would also add, look for the pupa which 

 may be found suspended in the vicinity of 

 the cabbage patches, and sometimes even on 

 the leaves. Low, narrow benches, between 



