Cut-Worms. 33 



Prof. Riley states: " We used chiefly clover sprinkled with Paris- 

 green water and laid at intervals between the rows, in loosely-tied 

 masses or balls, which served the double purpose of prolonging 

 the freshness of the bait and of affording a lure for shelter." 

 A modification of the method, employed by Dr. Oemler, of Savan- 

 nah, Ga., was that of preparing cabbage or turnip leaves by dipping 

 them in a well-stirred mixture of a tablespoonful of Paris green to 

 a bucket of water, or sprinkling the side- next the ground after first 

 moistening with a mixture of one part of Paris green to twenty of 

 flour, and placing them at distances of from fifteen to twenty feet 

 throughout the field to be protected. Two applications of this 

 character at intervals of three or four days, particularly in cloudy 

 weather, were usually successful in ridding the field of the pest. 



Trapping in holes. — An old method which is occasionally noticed 

 as attended with good results, is that of making several holes a 

 few inches deep about the hills, with a tapering stick to compress 

 the earth at the sides, into which the worms would fall and be 

 unable to crawl out. It is stated that in some instances where 

 this has been resorted to, some of the holes were found to have 

 been half -filled with cut- worms during a single night. They could 

 be killed by reinserting the stick, or left to die, or to devour one 

 another as some of the species are known to do when the oppor- 

 tunity offers in the absence of other food. 



Digging out. — The recommendations of digging out and destroy- 

 ing the cut-worms when the plants are seen to be cut off by them, 

 doubtless seems a poor remedy to those who have never tested it — 

 as requiring too much valuable time and labor, and therefore, not 

 available when large fields are to be protected. Its rejection or 

 even its non-acceptance should not rest upon a mere prejudice 

 against it, for if proven to be both practicable and effectual, it can 

 not fail of being one of the best, if not the best of methods of dealing 

 with this pest, for this simple reason : Many other methods merely 

 prevent the feeding upon the protected crop, but leave the hungry 

 creatures free, with appetites sharpened by delay, to attack and 

 destroy other and often more valuable crops. With a cut-worm 

 dug out from its retreat beside a wilted plant, and killed, there is 

 this satisfaction, not only that its career for further harm is ended, 

 but that it will not develop into a moth containing within its 

 abdomen two hundred or more eggs, each of which would later 

 produce a cut-worm. 



