112 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



are first dipped in a well-stirred mixture of a tablespoon- 

 ful of Paris green to the bucket of water; or they may 

 be first moistened, then dusted with a mixture of one 

 part of Paris green to twenty of flour, and placed care- 

 fully with the dusted surface next to the ground. Two 

 such applications, particularly in cloudy weather, at in- 

 tervals of three or four days, will suffice to allow the cut- 

 worms to make away with themselves, which they gen- 

 erally do with perfect success. This plan, of protect- 

 ing the various crops, is the best that I have found. 

 Whoever adopts it, will rid himself of the pest at least 

 cost and trouble, and will not be compelled to replant 

 constantly, or to sow his seed so thickly as to provide: 



"One for the black-bird, one for 'he crow, 

 Two for the cut-worm and three 



NATURAL ENEMIES OF CUT-WORMS. 



In the front rank of all insectivorous birds as a destroyer 

 of cut-worms stands prominently the much slandered 

 crow. He is up early enough to catch the worm, before 

 it descends; but, if need be, he digs it up. The good the 

 crow accomplishes in killing cut- worms, tomato- worms, 

 and field mice, far outweighs the value of the few grains 

 of corn he may pilfer, and he should therefore be pro- 

 tected instead of being persecuted. 



Domestic poultry are also useful aids in destroying 

 cut-worms. The common mole, it is true, does consid- 

 erable damage by burrowing between the roots of grow- 

 ing crops; but he is wrongfully accused of feeding upon 

 grain, and roots of crops, for he is exclusively insectiv- 

 orous, and he probably devours numbers of cut-worms. 

 Fortunately for the mole, and for the farmer, too, at- 

 tempts to poison it with corn soaked in strychnine are 

 based upon the fallacious belief that he feeds upon the 

 grain. 



Notwithstanding the subterranean and nocturnal habit 



