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COT-WOnMS. YODNG WORUS IK AOTDUN. PALL PLOWIRQ TO DESTROY TBEH. 



The eggs are dropped at the surface of the ground, around the roots of 

 grass and other herbage. The worms hatch and feed during the autumn, 

 coming abroad by night and eating the most tender vegetation which they 

 are able to find, and during the daytime witlidrawing themselves under 

 the ground to hide from birds and other enemies, and feeding upon the 

 roots of the vegetation which they there meet with. Grass appears to bo 

 their favorite food, and its young, tender blades and rootlets furnish most 

 of these worms their subsistence through the first stages of their lives. 

 During the autumn the earth is so profusely covered with vegetation and 

 these worms are so small that no notice is taken of them or the trifling 

 amount of herbage which they then consume. They become about half 

 grown wlien the cold and frosty nights of autumn arrive, whereby they 

 are no longer able to come out to feed. They tlien sink themselves deeper 

 than usual into the ground, going down to a depth of three or four inches; 

 and there, each worm, by turning around and around in the same spot, 

 forms for itself a little cavity in which to lie during the winter; and it 

 there goes to sleep, and lies torpid and motionless as though it were dead. 

 The soil at the depth where these worms are lying very slowly and gradu- 

 ally becomes colder and colder as the winter comes on, and at length freez- 

 ing, these worms reposing in it are also frozen. And when the warmth of 

 spring returns, the ground thawing and becoming warm in the same 

 gradual manner, these worms slowly thaw and awake from their long sleep 

 and return again to life. The case is analogous to what occurs with our- 

 selves when we have a finger or a foot frozen. On coming into a warm 

 room, if we keep the frost-bitten part covered with snow or immersed in 

 ice-cold water, whereby it very slowly thaws and the circulation gently 

 and gradually returns to it, the part readily recovers; whereas, if instead 

 of this, we hold it to (he fire and thaw it suddenly and abruptly, high in- 

 flammation and gangrene follows, and we lose the limb. And so, if these 

 Cut-worms lying in the ground should be suddenly frozen or thawed, it 

 would le fatal to them. 



This brings to our view an important measure which is much practiced 

 for the purpose of destroying these worms and securing the corn crop from 

 their depredations. Our farmers quite generally endeavor to break up 

 their planting ground in the autumn, rather than in the spring, under the 

 idea that tliey thereby disturb these worms in their winter quarters and 

 expose them to the cold and frost, whereby a considerable portion of them 

 are destroyed. And I believe it is the general experience of our farmers 

 that corn planted upon ground which has been thus broken up in the 

 autumn is less liable to be injured by these worms than where it has been 

 broken up in the spring. But these worms, in common with all other 

 insects, continue to be active in autumn so long as the weather remains 

 ■warm. It is not till they feel the chili of the autumn frosts that they retire 

 into their winter quarters. Therefore, if the ground be broken up early in 

 autumn, when the weather is .still warm and the worms are in full life and 

 activity, it can be of little, if any avail, for the purpose intended, as they 

 will readily crawl into the ground to the depth which they require for their 



