FALL PLOWING, FEWER CATS AND MORE BIRDS 
EDITH M. PATCH 
Entomologist Maine Agricultural Experiment Station 
To Avoid Entertaining in the Garden Such an Unwelcome Guest as This Requires Strategic Attack Rather 
than Direct Action, for Once Established in Residence on His Favorite Plant the Mischief is Done 
S GREAT deal of the cam- 
paign against injurious in- 
sects has to be conducted 
along the lines long advo- 
cated by the anti-suffragist — that is 
bv “indirect influence.” But the 
average gardener prefers straight- 
forward methods. He takes certain 
grim satisfaction in spattering his 
Potato vines with arsenicals, for in- 
stance, and in seeing the enemy 
hump up and drop. And when he 
meets a more insidious foe — like the 
Corn-ear Worm for example — and 
you suggest such preventive means 
as clean culture and the protection 
of birds as economic factors, he is 
likely to look baffled. 
Yet, after all, clean culture and 
birds are two fundamental elements 
upon which sound vegetables de- 
pend. The consequences of both 
are so great that not one squad but 
innumerable armies give way as a 
result of them. So whether we toil 
with an eye to the market prices or 
simply in hope of sufficient and 
attractive food for our own table, 
we cannot afford to neglect the 
business of proper and timely tillage 
of the ground; and the fullest en- 
couragement of our natural allies, 
the birds. 
“Proper tillage” from the ento- 
mological standpoint always in- 
cludes late fall plowing, for the 
reason that many insects over winter 
as pupae, buried in the ground. 
These pupae are the brown objects 
frequently spaded up in the garden 
— innocent looking enough, being 
legless and headless cases to all 
appearances, though alive, as is 
evinced by a wiggling motion at the 
pointed end, when touched. But 
though innocent indeed, for the 
moment, this is the transition stage 
of some destructive moth — the 
period of metamorphosis which lies 
between the caterpillar or feeding stage, and the adult egg-laying 
insect with wings. To break these pupal cells late in the fall, dis- 
turbing the pupae by exposing them to birds or other predaceous 
creatures or to the elements, is obviously to attack the enemy at 
a weak place in its life cycle. Hence fall plowing, which does 
just this, is one of the most effective measures possible. 
Among the numerous moths which sleep as pupae in our gar- 
den o’ winters is the Corn-ear Worm — a cosmopolitan insect 
which may be found in almost any part of the world. In the 
South it is known as the Cotton boll-worm on account of its 
injuries to that crop. And besides Corn and Cotton, it feeds 
greedily upon Tomatoes, Pumpkins, Tobacco, Beans, Peas, and 
many other kinds of cultivated 
plants, as well as upon various weeds. 
With such a bill-of-fare as this, it 
will readily be seen that the Corn-ear 
Worm is capable of enjoying much 
of the food we intend for our own 
menu; and if our natural allies did 
not help us out, this moth would be 
a much more constant pest than it is. 
For in the North, at least, the Corn- 
ear Worm disappears for long 
periods. The last two serious de- 
predations in Maine, for instance, 
were twenty-three years apart. 
This is not because the insect has 
a long life-cycle, like the seventeen- 
year cicada; but because a host of 
enemies assail its ranks. Birds seek 
it greedily, pleased with the juicy 
morsels we are no less delighted to 
get rid of; and many predaceous and 
parasitic insects swoop down upon 
them and silently work their destined 
extermination. Strangely enough 
too, one of the most effective of the 
enemies of a Corn-ear Worm is a 
second Corn-ear Worm — for these 
caterpillars are frightful cannibals 
as can be ascertained by any one who 
will shut several of them up together. 
This accounts for the fact that two 
caterpillars seldom remain long on 
the same ear of corn. If several 
choose the same ear, there will be in 
a short time but one remaining — 
and that of course the largest, having 
a voracious appetite and a decided 
tendency to vary its vegetarian diet 
when favored by opportunity. 
Thus years may elapse before all 
conditions prove suitable for the 
next invasion of the Corn-ear Worm, 
in any given locality— the time of its 
coming always being a matter of un- 
certain prophecy. But come it does 
from time to time; and when full-fed 
upon the very choicest vegetables of 
our garden, it enters the ground, 
where it passes the pupal stage, to 
emerge in the spring as an adult insect — a moth with wings ex- 
panding about one and three fifths inches. The color of the fore 
wings varies from pale clay to dull yellow or olive green, and the 
hind ones are light with a broad blackish band. That is, it under- 
goes this metamorphosis and acquires wings unless natural 
enemies, among which birds deserve especial honors, overcome 
it; or unless fall plowing is done with particular care. 
There is too, of course, the further argument for fall plowing 
that it seasons the soil — or rather puts it into condition for 
the elements to work upon it and season it, during the winter. 
The best course of all is to plow, and then to dress with manure; 
or better still, seed with Rye, if there is time for this to sprout. 
OUR FEATHERED ALLIES DEVOUR THIS DEVOURER 
Hence to protect and encourage these by warning them of 
the approach of their natural Nemesis through the tinkle 
of a bell hung on her collar, is to protect our own food 
