OF THE FARM AND GAEDEK. 



133 



them, and the grass was sprinkled with a mixture of 

 Paris Green or London Purple in water, the same that is 

 used for the Colorado Potato-beetle. So long as the 

 grass remained fresh, the worms were destroyed by 

 millions. Trenches by themselves were of little use, but 

 if pits are made at every rod or so in the trench, about a 

 foot square, and two feet deep with clean straight sides, 

 the worms, in seeking a place to escape from the trench, 

 will fall into these pits in great numbers. When one 

 pit is nearly full of worms, others may be dug, using 

 the earth to bury those already in the pits. The trenches 

 should be dressed with the spade, after the plow, to 

 make sure of straight smooth sides. 



SUMMARY. 



The following summary of the natural history of the 

 Worm is from the 9th Missouri Keport: 



" The insect is with us every year. In ordinary sea- 

 sons, when it is not excessively numerous, it is seldom 

 noticed. 1st, because the moths are low, swift flyers, and 

 nocturnal in habit; 2nd, because the worms, when young, 

 have protective coloring, and, vfhen mature, hide during 

 the day at the base of grasses. In years of great abun- 

 dance the worms are generally unnoticed during early 

 life, and attract attention only when, from crowding too 

 much on each other, or from having exhausted the food 

 supply in the fields in which they hatched, they are 

 forced from necessity to migrate to fresh pastures in 

 great bodies. The earliest attain full growth and com- 

 mence to travel in armies, to devastate our fields, and 

 to attract attention, about the time that winter wheat is 

 in the milk — this period being two months later in Maine 

 than in Southern Missouri; and they soon afterwards 

 descend into the ground, and thus suddenly disappear, 

 to issue again in two or three weeks as moths. In the 



