CUT WORMS. 408 



Thus they are often found in tlie same grass field of varying 

 sizes. The third spring they transform to pupa?, and in May 

 the beetles begin to appear. It is during tlie second summer 

 that they do the most harm. They are now large and sleek, and 

 when they are very numerous, as is often the ease, they some- 

 times do great damage, not only lo grass but to our cereal crops 

 and corn. 



Fall plowing, by giving the birds and other insectivorous an- 

 imals a better chance, is often practiced with excellent results in 

 fighting these pests. Sometimes swine is turned into the mead- 

 ows where they fatten on the grubs Instead of on the grass which 

 the grubs have already ^ troyed. Xothing is better wliere a 

 field is badly infested than to turn in swine. In lawns the bare 

 space must be spaded up and either sodded or else new grass 

 seed sown. Rolling, which is sometimes advised, will do little 

 or no good. I have already spoken of birds. The crow, black- 

 bird, or purple grackle is specially serviceable. I have seen a 

 flock of those birds clean a lawn in exceedingly quick time. 

 Predaceous wasps and beetles also prey upon these grubs! They 

 are also often seen to afford a pasturage for large fungous 

 growths, which destroy them. Not only do white grubs do harm 

 to our grasses, but they also attack corn, wheat and strawberries 

 which are planted upon sod, and the latter when grown for a 

 series of years in one place. 



Agrotiaiis. Cut Worms. 



Order Lepidoptera. Family Noctuidce. 

 Not only the real cut worms of the genera Agrotis, Hadena, 

 and Mamestra, but many species of the same genera that do not 

 cut off the food as do the typical cut worms, are often injurious 

 to the grasses. From the very nature of our grasses much harm 

 might be done, and yet, unless it were very great, go unnoticed 

 by the practical man. It is more than likely that with the more 

 intensive agriculture of the future, made necessary by a more 



