108 PRIZE ESSAY : 



the wire worm from destroying the young root, yet it can hare 

 no effect in protecting the stem which is so frequently cut off. 

 Ammonia, eyen in a state of great dilution, kills the worm, 

 which hrine fails to do. Under all circumstances, the most cer- 

 tain method of conquering the wire worm is to starve him out 

 by frequent ploughing and keeping the land perfectly clean. 



189. Sir Joseph Banks suggested the burying of slices of pota- 

 toes and turnips strewed over the field as traps to catch the worms. 

 The insectiverous birds are perhaps among the greatest enemies 

 of these ravenous depredators. In Europe they are preyed upon 

 by an ichneumon parasite, also by a small black shining beetle, 

 (Steropus madidus) and several other insects. 



189(0). The Hon. A. B. Dickenson, in an address delivered 

 before the Cortland County Agricultural Society, 1854, thus 

 facetiously describes his efforts to destroy the wire worm; "plough- 

 ing late in the fall will not kill all of them, but most of them. 

 In three years, I think they may all, or nearly all be destroyed, 

 and it is the only remedy I know of to destroy the most mis- 

 chievous and ruinous of insects the farmer has to contend with. 

 I have heard it said that five bushels of salt to the acre would 

 destroy them, or 100 bushels of lime. I have tried both, and 

 have sowed 10 bushels of salt to the acre, and they only laughed 

 at my folly, and tried 100 bushels of lime, as recommended, and 

 they fattened on my bounty. I have only proved one remedy 

 for the rascals, and that is to break the sod, and sow it with 

 buckwheat ; plough late and as often as possible in the fall, and 

 then sow peas in the spring ; with the like ploughing next fall, 

 they will not disturb any crop the next season." 



