REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



299 



this constitutes, so far as we are aware, the only objection to the use of 

 this preventive. 



One -of tbe very oldest of the cut-worm remedies consists in trapping 

 the worms in deep holes near the base of the plants. For this purpose 

 a long, smooth, sharpened stake, an inch or two in diameter, is used, 

 and almost as fast as a person can walk through the field it Can bo 

 thrust once or twice dee]) into the ground near each plant, leaving a 

 smooth, round hole out of which the cut-worms, having once fallen in, 

 cannot crawl, and the chances are that in their nocturnal prowling* 

 they are pretty sure to drop into these wells. In connection with this 

 remedy it has always been advised to go through the field in the morn- 

 ing and crush the worms by again thrusting the stake into each hole; 

 but where the soil is a stiff clay this is unnecessary labor, as, if the hole 

 left by the dibble be smooth and firm, the worms do no farther barm, as 

 they cannot escape and will in the majority of cases perish without 

 transforming. This remedy was advocated in the newspapers as long 

 ago as 1817, and we have frequently employed it to advantage. 



Dr. Fitch was of the opinion that vegetable gardens and corn-fields 

 were in a measure, if not chiefly, supplied with the worms from neigh- 

 boring pastures and grass lots. He, therefore, advised the plowing of 

 a single deep furrow around the field to be protected, experiments hav- 

 ing shown him the extreme difficulty with which the worms climb a 

 nearly perpendicular bank of earth. Fall plowing has also been recom- 

 mended, but is chiefly useful in clearing the ground of weeds upon 

 which the young worms are nourished, and the more thoroughly a piece 

 of land intended for cabbage is kept clean, from September till plant- 

 ing time the ensuing spring, the more free it will be from cut-worms. 



We have now to record what we have proved by experience to be a 

 more effectual method of ridding land of cut-worms than any of those 

 hitherto proposed. It is, in brief, the use of poisoned balls of any suc- 

 culent plant, a method which we successfully used in Missouri in 1875. 

 One of our most valued correspondents, Dr. A. Oemler, of Wilmington 

 Island, near Savannah, Ga., has long fought cut-worms by trapping 

 them under leaves and grass. To make use of his own words: 



"My method of dealing with cut-worms of late years has been to 

 remove them from the field before the crop to be jeopardized is up or 

 the plants are put out. By placing cabbage leaves and bundles of 

 grass along the rows of watermelon-hills four years ago, I caught, by 

 hunting them daily, 1,538 worms on about one-fourth of an acre, before 

 the seed came up, and lost but a single melon plant. On one occasion 

 I captured, one morning, fifry-eight of all sizes under a single turnip 

 leaf, and my son found fifteen at the root of a single small cabbage 

 plant." 



A year or so ago we wrote Dr. Oemler that his remedy would be 

 much improved in point of economy of labor, if he poisoned his traps 

 before setting them, or, in other words, if he sprinkled his cabbage 

 leaves or grass, or other forage used for this purpose, with a solution of 

 Paris green or London purple, in order to save himself the trouble of 

 hunting for the worms in the morning. 



We again quote from Dr. Oemler concerning the practical working of 

 this plan: 



"After the land is prepared for cabbages or any other crop needing 

 protection, I place cabbage or turnip leaves in rows 15 or 20 feet 

 apart all over the field, and about the same distance apart in the 

 rows. The leaves are first dipped in a well-stirred mixture of a table- 

 spoonful of Paris green to the bucket of water j or they may be first 



