ClJT-WOEMS. 13 



Onions. — Upon four acres of ground in Chautauqua Co., N. Y., 

 onions had been cultivated for sixty years. In one of these years, 

 the plot was sown and weeded out the second time, all standing 

 well. The cut-worms commenced their work, and notwithstanding 

 bushels of them were killed they cut off every onion, and on the 

 fourth of July the land was plowed up for another crop. 



Probably the most severe attack upon onions is that which was 

 reported from Goshen, Orange Co., 

 N. Y., early in June of 1885. A cut- 

 worm was found to be rapidly destroy- 

 ing the crop, and to threaten the 

 extinction in that vicinity of an indus- 

 try, the annual value of which was 

 stated to be half a million of dollars. 



The attack was investigated by the 

 Entomological Division of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and the insect 

 engaged in it ascertained to be the ~^^^^^^^p^° 



"Dark-sided Cut-worm" Agrotismesso- FlG . 17 ._ Ageotis messo ^ : the 

 no Harris, represented in Figure 17, larva and moth. 

 together with the moth that it produces. So abundantly did the 

 worm occur, that according to the report of Mr. J. B. Smith 

 made to the Department, "three little girls had picked in the 

 morning a three-quart pail full. In one spot, less than fifteen 

 inches square, forty full-grown larvae were taken." In another 

 report it is stated : "It is common for a family to pick ten or twelve 

 quarts by day, and the same number at night by the light of lamps. 

 These most industrious people have to work day and night to keep 

 down these pests and save their crops." (See Professor Riley's 

 Eeport in the Ann. Bept. Gommis. Agricul, for 1885, pp. 270-275.) 



The crop in this locality suffered also severely from the above 

 attack the following year (1886). The usual annual yield of the 

 onion fields of Orange county, of from 500,000 to 600,000 bushels, 

 was, it is estimated, reduced one-half (Country Gentleman for 

 October 7, 1886, p. 750). 



Beans. — The tender stems of young beans furnish tempting food, 

 and every gardener knows the frequency with which the young 

 plants are found in mornings with the stem severed in such a 

 manner, as to leave no doubt of the presence of the cut- worm. \ The 

 "W-marked Cut-worm, Agrotis clandestina (Harris), is a common 



