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There is scarcely any land free from them or any crop that is not subject to their 

 voracity. They occur wherever grass will grow, being particularly harboured among clover 

 roots, and are always prevalent in meadow and pasture-lands, seeming to thrive best in 

 the vicinity of swamps and woods. When lands are broken up the first crops sown are 

 often almost totally destroyed by the larvae which infest it and remain in it for some 

 years afterwards. 



Young oats, wheat, rye, barley, etc., suffer much from being partially or entirely cut 

 off below the surface ; the wireworms destroying manifold the amount actually devoured. 

 Wood says that while only eating one-tenth as much as a similar sized caterpillar, each 

 wireworm destroys ten times as many plants. Hops, cabbages and many root-crops are 

 also injured ; turnips, perhaps, more than any, as they are cut off when young, and have 

 the roots badly eaten into when larger, as many as twenty or more grubs having been 

 found at one turnip. 



Conflicting opinions are held as regards the liability of potatoes to be attacked 

 Some even propose the use of slices of these tubers, among other substances, as traps to 

 entice the wireworms to in gardens. On the other hand evidence has been often adduced 

 to prove that land sown with potatoes was in a great degree cleared of infesting larvre, 

 which it was asserted do not touch the potatoes and are consequently starved out. 



In gardens, the wireworms destroy salads, etc., and the gardener has also often to lament 

 the loss of his beautiful flowers, such as carnations and lobelias. The list of cultivated 

 plants attacked by them could be greatly lengthened, and it is fortunate for Canadian 

 farmers and gardeners that as yet they are not so abundant and destructive here. Never- 

 theless considerable damage is done to many crops on this continent, and the late esteemed 

 Dr. Asa B. Fitch (one of the greatest of American Entomologists) has treated of wire- 

 worms — see his 11th Report — almost as exhaustively as Mr. Curtis. It appears that 

 Indian corn, one of the largest and most important crops grown in North America, is the 

 greatest sufferer, especially when (as is usually the case), it is the first crop planted in new 

 land, or when the season is cold, wet and late. The seed corn is attacked by the wireworm, 

 which bores its way into the kernel and is often found half buried therein when the hills 

 are examined. Upwards of thirty or forty have been found in a single hill, and nearly 

 the whole of the seed planted is sometimes destroyed. The still more valued cereal, wheat, 

 does not escape serious attacks, and, as in England, all crops are more or less liable to be 

 damaged. An exception may be made in favour of buckwheat, which has been strongly 

 asserted to rid the land of them, but there are doubts as to its efficacy in so doing, 

 as well as many objections to it as an uncertain and inferior crop. All kinds of 

 grasses, from the choicest timothy to the coarsest swamp sedges seem to be the chief 

 and favourite diet of wireworms ; so that grass and meadow lands are badly infested 

 for a year or two after being broken up. 



Dr. Fitch was of opinion that the wireworms of this country do not live more 

 than two years (instead of five), as it is only for that length of time that new fields 

 are so much infested with them. 



As the country becomes more densely settled, and, through the breaking up of the 

 waste lands, they are gradually deprived of their natural , food-plants, they may come to 

 be equally abundant and voracious amongst us as in England, so that it may be well 

 briefly to mention the measures adopted to destroy them there. 



Foi gardens or small lots hand picking is most strongly recommended as the surest 

 way of ridding them of these vermin ; but where labour is so scarce and dear as in this 

 country, such a measure is hardly feasible. By this method 18,000 wireworms were ga- 

 thered from a field of one and a half acres, and in another instance over 60,000 from an 

 area of three acres. Women or boys were employed to traverse the rows of plants, loosen 

 the soil around the roots, put all the wireworms into jars, or other suitable vessels, and 

 press down the soil around the roots. 



One of the most successful remedies on a large scale is a mixture consisting of two 

 parts of quicklime, three parts of soot, and one part of coarse or refuse salt. This is used 

 as a top-dressing, being applied immediately after compounding, and should be well rolled 

 in. It has the advantage of being perfectly harmless to the crops. Indeed it is a most 

 excellent and powerful fertilizer, as well as a destroyer of all kinds of insects and many 



