Cut-Worms. 29 



if they be buried in it, they will not eat young corn if there is a 

 little salt in its sap. 



Should the salt not be applied until after the corn has shown 

 itself above the ground, it might kill the plants : applied as above 

 directed, it will do no harm. [Country Gentlemen, for Feb. 27, 1873, 

 p. 132, c. 2-3.) 



Another method of protection with salt is said to be, to soak the 

 seed corn in a strong brine for twenty-four hours before planting. 

 It is asserted that it prevents it from being eaten in the ground, 

 and hastens its germination by from one to two days. This may 

 prove to be quite as effectual in protecting from cut-worm as the 

 application of salt upon the ground. 



A writer in the Rural New Yorker (Feb. 18, 1888, xlvii, p. 108) 

 prevented injuries to corn, in a field which upon plowing he found 

 " alive with half-grown cut-worms," by sowing broadcast over the 

 field, the day after its planting, 250 pounds of salt to the acre. Not 

 a single hill was cut by the worms. 



Copperas. — The publication of the first of the above methods 

 called out the following, which the writer thinks " is more easily 

 applied and equally effective," as it had been employed by him- 

 self and others for twelve years, and always with success, even 

 upon new ground and clover land. It had been tested by planting 

 portions of fields without the preparation, and these portions, in 

 several instances, required replanting two or three times : 



" Put the seed corn in a tight tub or barrel, and pour in enough 

 water to keep it well covered after it swells. For each bushel of 

 corn add a pound or a pound and a half of copperas dissolved in 

 warm water. Stir well, and allow the corn to remain in the cop- 

 peras water twenty-four or thirty hours. Stir several times while 

 soaking. Then take out and sprinkle a small quantity of land- 

 plaster over — enough to prevent the grain from sticking together — 

 and plant. When prepared as directed, if a change should occur in 

 the weather to prevent planting, the corn may be spread out upon a 

 floor and allowed to remain until good planting weather. It will 

 turn black in drying, but that does not matter" (Country Gentle- 

 man, for March 20, 1873, xxxviii, p. 179, c. 2-3). 



Saltpeter. — A saltpeter solution has been recommended for pour- 

 ing about the roots of plants infested with cut-worms. It is said 

 to kill the pests while at the same time it operates as a nitrogenous 

 fertilizer, aiding the plants to resist attack. 



