STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
543 
partook of the nature of a stiff clay, a number of cut-worms 
were found, when there were scarcely any in the surrounding 
gravelly soil; but it was probably the more juicy, tender growth 
of the corn in this damp hollow, which caused the worms to 
rather there, rather than the nature of the soil. 
I do not think the fertility of the soil, or the kind of manure 
which is applied to it, has any influence upon these worms, ex¬ 
cept in making the plants grow more succulent, for it is vegeta¬ 
tion of this character which appears to be their favorite food. 
We all know these worms are common in our highly manured 
gardens. And I have never found them more plenty than on 
one occasion among beans planted upon a hill-side, so barren that 
it was thought nothing else could be raised there. 
The biography of these worms is briefly as follows: The parent 
insect drops her eggs upon the ground, the latter part of summer. 
These soon hatch, and the young worms which come from them 
crawl into the ground and feed upon the roots and tender shoots 
of herbaceous plants. When cold weather arrives they descend 
a few inches below the surface and there lie torpid during the 
winter, and renew their activity when spring returns. It is not 
until they have nearly completed their growth, in the month of 
June, that they show that habit which renders them so injurious, 
and has acquired for them their name, “ cut-worm.” They then 
crawl from the earth, by night, and with their sharp teeth cut 
off the young succulent plants of maize, cabbage, beans, &c., 
almost as smoothly as though it were done with a knife. When 
daylight approaches, each worm crawls into the ground again, 
entering it within a few inches of the plant it has severed—the 
newly disturbed and rough appearance of the dirt showing the 
exact spot where it has gone into the ground, and rendering it 
easy to uncover and destroy the worm. Having got its growth 
it forms a little oval cavity in the ground, within which it lies 
and changes to a pupa or chrysalis. In this state it has some 
resemblance to a long slim egg of a chestnut brown color, having 
several impressed rings or joints towards its pointed or tail end. 
From this pupa, in three or four weeks, hatches the perfect in¬ 
sect, which is a dark colored miller or moth. 
