ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
808 
CUT-WORMS. YOURO WORMS IR AUTUMN. FALL PLOWIRO TO DRSTROT THEM. 
The eggs are dropped at the surface of the ground, around the roots of 
grass and other iierbage. The worms hatch and feed during the autumn, 
coming abroad by night and eating the most tender vegetation which they 
are able to find, and during the daytime withdrawing themselves under 
the ground to hide from birds and other enemies, and feeding upon the 
roots of the vegetation which they there meet with. Grass appears to be 
their favorite food, and its young, tender blades and rootlets furnish most 
of these worms their subsistence through the first stages of their lives. 
During the autumn the earth is so profusely covered with vegetation and 
these worms are so small that no notice is taken of them or the trifling 
amount of herbage which they then consume. They become about half 
grown when the cold and frosty nights of autumn arrive, whereby they 
are no longer able to come out to feed. They then sink themselves deeper 
than usual into the ground, going down to a depth of three or four inches; 
and there, each worm, by turning around and around in the same spot, 
forms for itself a little cavity in which to lie during the winter; and it 
then goes to sleep, and lies torpid and motionless as though it were dead. 
The soil at the depth where these worms are lying, very slowly and gradu¬ 
ally becomes colder and colder as the winter comes on, and at length freez¬ 
ing, these worms reposing in it are also frozen. And when the warmth of 
spring returns, the ground thawing and becoming warm in the same 
gradual manner, these worms slowly thaw and awake from their long sleep 
and return again to life. The case is analogous to what occurs with our¬ 
selves when we have a finger or a foot frozen. On coming into a warm 
room, if we keep the frost-bitten part covered with snow or immersed in 
ice-cold water, whereby it very slowly thaws and the circulation gently 
and gradually returns to it, the part readily recovers; whereas, if instead 
of this, we hold it to the fire and thaw it suddenly and abruptly, high in¬ 
flammation and gangrene follows, and we lose the limb. And so, if these 
cut-worms lying in the ground should be suddenly frozen or thawed, it 
would be fatal to them. 
This brings to our view an important measure which is much practised 
for the purpose of destroying these worms and securing the corn crop from 
their depredations. Our farmers quite generally endeavor to break up 
their planting ground in the autumn, rather than in the spring, under the 
idea that they hereby disturb these worms in their winter quarters, and 
expose them to the cold and frost, whereby a considerable portion of them 
are destroyed. And I believe it is the general experience of our farmers 
that corn planted upon ground which has been thus broken up in the 
autumn is less liable to bo injured by these worms, than where it has been 
broken up in the spring. But these worms, in common with all other 
insects, continue to be active in autumn so long as the weather remains 
warm. It is not till they feel the chill of the autumn frosts that they retire 
into their winter quarters. Therefore, if the ground be broken up early m 
autumn, when the weather is still warm and the worms are in full life and 
activity, it can be of little, if any avail, for the purpose intended, as they 
will readily crawl into the ground to the depth which they require for their 
