agricultural experiment station. 189 



Cut- Worms. 



The following letter regarding cut-worms was received at the 

 Station. We place it aud the answer on record as containing 

 information perhaps important to others. 



Farmixgtox, Me., 6, 5, 1891. 

 Dear Sir : 



, I send you by this mail specimens of a worm which is 

 destroying a lawn in this place, in front of and around our 

 county building. The soil is sandy and it has been top dressed 

 for several seasons to get the lawn ; and now the turf is about 

 two inches thick. Rear of the building is a cemetery, been 

 there for over a century. 



Will you kindly look into this matter ; tell us what the worm is, 

 how to prevent further ravages by it, and what to do to kill out 

 the thousands of worms now eating away at the grass roots. 



I shall make an. item about this lawn, also say I have sent 

 specimens to the State College ; and I hope you will write an 

 article upon them to print in my paper. Nobody here, thus far 

 has ever seen these worms here before. 



Yours very truly, 



John M. S. Hunter. 



Answer to Mr. Hunter's Letter. 



Oroxo, Me., July 24, '91. 

 Editor of Farmington Chronicle: 



The specimens which you sent me some time ago for examina- 

 tion prove to be the Glassy Cut-worm known to entomologists as 

 Iladena devastatrix, (Brace) . There are a great many species of 

 the so-called Cut-worms ; some of them climb trees and eat the 

 foliage, while others work about the roots or base of plants. 

 They all do more or less damage and work at night. As 

 a class they are hard to manage. When they are not numerous 

 and affect gardens, digging them out of the hills where their 

 depredations are noticed, or putting bunches of hoy or small 

 boards on the ground for them to hide under, and then examining 

 and killing them, have proved good remedies. 



When they affect field crops, meadows or lawns the treatment 

 would have to be different and on a more extensive scale. If the 

 lawn has been so far affected that the grass is dead and 

 re-seeding will be necessary, the ground should be plowed next 

 Spring and before the seed is sown a load of fresh cut grass 



