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CDT-wonus. TOEin habit of gEVEniNQ yodno plants, 

 protection. In order that this fall plowing should be efficacioua, it is 

 obvious it should be deferred until near the close of the season, when the 

 worms have withdrawn themselves downwards and are lyinft- torpid and 

 inactive in their winter retreat. If the turf under which they are reposing 

 be then turned up to the snrface, they will be incapable of crawling away 

 into any new quarters, and the sudden freezings by night and thawings by 

 day to which they will be alternately exposed, we arc confident must destroy 

 a large portion of them. 



When the spring has returned and wo are engaged in making our gar- 

 dens, a Cut-worm is occasionally turned up to our view in digging and 

 working in the earth there; and if grass has been permitted to grow and 

 form a turf around the roots of currant bushes or elsewhere, upon digging 

 up and rooting out this grass, we are quite sure of finding a number of 

 these worms nestled among it, indicating to us that grass more than any- 

 thing else furnishes them with the covert and food which they desire. 



Although we thus find these Cut-worms lying in the soil of the garden 

 early in May, it is not until the close of that month and the beginning of 

 June that they begin to attract our notice by the injury they do in our 

 gardens and cornfields. It is when they arc grown to about two-thirds of 

 their full size that they commence the work which renders them so perni- 

 cious to us,— that of severing the young, tender plants. Previous to this, 

 dnring all the first period of their lives, as has already been stated, they lie 

 concealed under the ground during the day time, feeding there upon the 

 roots of plants, and only venture out by night to feed upon the green vege- 

 tation above ground. Although in England they are called surface grubs, 

 I discover they arc not restrained to the surface of the ground, but mount 

 up the stems of yoimg cabbages and beans and eat portions of their leaves. 

 But, about the commencement of June, the nights have become so short and 

 the days so long, and the worms are now grown to such a size and their 

 appetites have become so ravenous, that they are forced to a most singular 

 change of their habits. The insipid roots of plants fail to yield them the 

 amount of nourishment they require during the eighteen hours of daylight. 

 They must either stay out to feed upon green herbage during the daytime, 

 or they must, so to speak, set their wits to work to devise some way by 

 which they can get this herbage down under the ground so that they can 

 there feed upon it. We accordingly see them adopting the curious expedi- 

 ent of cutting off tender young plants in order to draw them into the 

 ground, whereby they may feed upon them during the long hours of the 

 day. Is it not wonderful, that such sluggish, stupid looking creatures as 

 these worms arc, should have the intelligence to perform such a feat as 

 this— cutting off the plant, to enable them to get the end of it down into 

 the ground, so that they may cosily lie there and feed upon it in safety — 

 gradually drawing it in, more and more, until by the close of the day the 

 whole of the plant and its leaves are consumed; a feat strikingly analogous 

 to that for which the beaver is so renowned, cutting down small trees and 

 drawing and swimming them away to build a dam with them. Surely we 

 should admire this loathsome-looking worm for such a skillful performance, 



