326 
color, striped at both ends, with a reddish head.” It bored into the 
stalk, injuring the fields ‘‘in some degree.”* 
The Boll Worm, Heliothis armigera, seems to have stolenin upon us at 
an early day, in an obscure manner also. In 1820 a correspondent of 
the American Farmer, writing under date of September 20, stated that 
about two weeks previous the pods of his cotton had been attacked by 
a large green worm, from 1 to 14 inches long, which ate its way into 
the pod, and did not leave it until it had completed the destruction. 
Some of the worms were smaller, and some were brown, and some — 
brown and red. The injury seemed to be severe, with a prospect of 
one-fourth of the crop being destroyed.t In 1842 “J. A. P.,” Brinkville, 
Ill, wrote the Cultivator, asking for information in regard to what 
was there known as “the corn worm.” About the time the corn began 
to form on the cob a dark, slate-colored worm, from one-fourth to seven- 
eighths of an inch in length, appeared on the ear, under the husk, 
‘“‘having ground a hole in them to pass through,” and continued to eat 
until frost killed them. Sometimes six or eight worms were found in a 
single ear, late planted corn being most injured. The editors replied 
that they had received similar complaints the previous year from the 
South and West, but could give no further information. 
While theagriculturists of the early part of the present century were 
of necessity, much hampered by a lack of knowledge in regard to these 
pests, and must have been often seriously disappointed in casting about 
for information, yet they do not appear to have ceased to contrive ways 
for destroying them. The trapping and killing of cutworms by pois- 
oned clover or other fresh herbage is now coming quite rapidly into 
use, but, except in the use of poison, does not differ from the method 
advocated in 1838 by ‘a subscriber” in the Cultivator, who saved his 
corn by “placing compact handfuls of elder sprouts, milk-weed, clover, 
mullein, and almost any green vegetable that happened to be at hand, in 
every fifth row and sixth hill, pressing the mass down with the foot.” 
These traps were placed in the field just before the corn came up, and 
examined for the worms which were beneath them, and these were killed 
with a sharp instrument, as many as 200 having been thus destroyed 
under a single handful of herbage, one man being able to collect the 
material and apply it to 5 acres ina day.§ I find this communication 
marked, presumably by Dr. Fitch, as I have his copy of the volume, 
but do not know that he ever further noticed the matter in print. 
*~ Farmers’ Cabinet, Vol. v, p. 68, 1840. 
t American Farmer, Vol. 11, p. 236, 1820. 
t The Cultivator, Vol. 1x, p. 86, 1842. 
§ The Cultivator, Vol. v1, p. 63, 1838. 
