28 " Bulletin op the New Yoke State Museum. 



Mr. Jno. G. Jack, of Chateaugay, Quebec, has reared from a 

 dead cut- worm (species unnamed) a large number of minute 

 Hymenopterous parasites, belonging to the Ghalcididce, which he 

 has identified as Gopidosoma truncatellum Dalman, a figure of which 

 is given in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1883 

 (Report of the Entomologist), pi. xi, figure 6 (Canadian Entomolo- 

 gist, 3»rai, 1886, p. 23). 



Another chalcid parasite, Gopidosoma celcence, has been described 



by Mr. L. O. Howard (Bull. No. 5, Bureau of Entomology — U. S. 



Dept. Agriculture, 1885, p. 11), as having been reared, in the female 



only, in large numbers, from Mamestra renigera Steph., collected 



as St. Louis, Mo. 



Preventives and Remedies. 



Quite a large proportion of the voluminous literature of cut- 

 worms to which we have referred, as distributed throughout our 

 agricultural journals, consists of methods of prevention and remedy, 

 almost every one of which we are asked to accept as effectual, and 

 very many of them as " superior to all others." And still the cut- 

 worm remains with us and obstinately refuses to be exterminated. 



It is not the purpose of this paper to present a compilation of 

 what has been written upon the subject, but rather to give an 

 abstract of what is known upon it. Nothing, therefore, would be 

 gained by referring to the many remedial measures proposed which 

 have not stood the test of experiment, or to those which do not 

 give promise of accomplishing the desired results inexpensively and 

 with that amount of labor which can easily be spared from the 

 •other pressing duties of the opening agricultural year. 



The following are some of the methods that we deem the most 

 valuable : 



Salt. — A correspondent of the Country Gentleman [E. H.], from 

 Chester, Pa., gives the following method of protection by the use 

 of salt, which, after having tested its efficacy for several years, he 

 pronounces "cheap, of easy application, and perfectly sure : " 



a Immediately after the corn is planted, sprinkle on the hill over 

 the covered grains, about one tablespoonful of common salt to each 

 hill." 



The explanation given for the protection of the plants is, that 

 the salt as dissolved by the rain, dew or other atmospheric moisture, 

 is carried down to the roots and taken up by them into the circula- 

 tion ; and that although salt in itself will not injure cut- worms even 



