jC- 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



53 



The Skunk as a Tomato-Worm Destroyer 

 —St. Joseph, 3Iich., Oct. U, 18C9.— I want to 

 speak a word for the much abused animal we 

 all so much dislike to come in contact with, 

 known sometimes as the "Essence-pedlar," 

 but more commonly as the Skunk. My tomato 

 vines (some four hundred) and potato vines, 

 with the exception of the "Peach Blows," 

 wei'C covered this year with the Tomato Worms. 

 The tomatoes, although repeatedly cleared of 

 them, were fiually completely stripped of 

 foliage ; but yet the worms held ou. All at 

 once the worms began to disappear, and soon 

 there was not one to be seen. At the same 

 time, there were found numerous holes among 

 the plants, and fresh ones every day, about 

 6 inches deep, dng by some animal. I had 

 often noticed in the evening the odor of a 

 skunk, and the tracks of that animal were dis- 

 tinctly seen. Now I am satisfied that the skunk 

 has proved himself a valuable friend, for by his 

 well known habit of feeding on worms, grubs, 

 etc., he has completely rid my grounds of 

 this nuisance, even burrowing in the earth for 

 the worms that had gone into winter quarters. 

 We say most emphatically, don't kill the skunks. 

 L. P. Haskell. 



Bau Buiis — Charleston, Coles county, III., 

 June 8, 18G!i. — The prospect for a large crop of 

 apples is growing beautifully less every day. 

 Trees that were loaded with young fruit two 

 weeks ago, are now in many instances almost 

 stripped by the Codling Moth. The Cut Worm 

 [White Grub? — Eds.] is doing much mischief 

 in our county; especially is this the case in 

 tields that have recently been meadows. One 

 man had eighty acres of corn cut smooth by this 

 insect last week; in other cases the amount 

 destroyed ranges from live acres up to forty. 

 The Army Worm (genuine) and the Cliiuoh 

 Bug walk through our meadows and our fields 

 of corn and of spring wheat, as if they owned 

 the soil, making clean work as they go. 



M. C. McLain. 



•^WiiiTE Gkub Fun<:us— Vineland, N. J., Aug. 

 11, 18G9.— In the spring of 1865, when I was 

 botanizing in Benton county, Iowa, I saw great 

 numbers of the common White Grub with the 

 curious fungus growing out of their mouths. 

 There were literally thousands of them scat- 

 tered over quite a tract; yet in no instance did 

 I ever see one of these "sprouts" with the 

 least shade of green color; they were all of 

 them white at the base, gradually deepening 

 into a purple color at the tip. 



Mrs. Mary Treat. 



Arjiy Worms — Benton, Franklin county, 

 III., June 10, 1869.— The Army Worms are 

 destroying about all the pastures in this vicin- 

 ity, but confine themselves chiefly to rcdtop 

 grass; they have also destroyed considerable 

 corn. I have myself twenty acres of redtop; 

 and unless they stop working upon it inside of 

 two ■weeks, it will be entirely ruined for hay. 

 There arc a few stalks of timothy and clover 

 among my rcdtop; but the worms have eaten 

 all the redtop from around them, and left the 

 timothy and clover scarcely touched. The 

 worms confine themselves to the lowest part ol 

 my pasture, where the grass is the largest. They 

 work upon the grass along the edge of the field 

 of winter wheat, but the wheat itself they have 

 not up to this time touched. A. A. Hyatt. 



The Plum Curculio — Grayson, Ivy., Sept. 

 27, 1869. — Touching the Plum Curculio, I may 

 state that, having occasion to build a hen-house 

 where a plum tree stood, instead of removing 

 the tree I enclosed the trunk and trimmed oil" 

 the branches to the roof. Result: I have tor 

 two years past gathered perfect fruit from the 

 tree, and have not found one specimen stung 

 by any insect. A temporary hen-coop con- 

 structed under another plum tree the past sea- 

 son partially succeeded, whilst the trees not so 

 protected lost all their fruit by the curculio. 

 John C. Bayi.kk. 



Asi"ara<;us Beetles — Old IFc^tbury, L. 1 , 

 N. Y., June Wi, 1869. — I learn from the aspar- 

 agus-growers of Oyster Bay, that the Aspara- 

 gus Beetle — owing to their carelessness in not 

 cutting everything down and making clean 

 work last year — is becoming more plentiful 

 again. But I believe they can keep the insect 

 under control, if they are not too careless. The 

 culture of asparagus is largely increasing in the 

 vicinity of New York, and large quantities are 

 again reshipped to Boston and neighboring 

 cities. Isaac Hicks. 



Scarcity of the Corn-wor.m and Boll- 

 worm — Pickens' Station, Miss., Azig. 1, 1869. — 

 The Corn-worm— the species which eats the 

 silk and the end of the ear, and which you say 

 is the same as the Boll-worm — is quite scarce 

 this year, and singularly enough the Cotton 

 Boll-worm is also very scarce. A very warm 

 dry spell, about the time corn silked out last 

 year, is supposed to have killed them. Last 

 year the ravages of the Boll-worm were fearful 

 in this section. This year we hope for a little 

 rest, and exemption from the scourge. 



B. II. Bkodnox. 



