540 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
WIRE-WORMS. REMEDIES. DRAINING. RAPE-CAKE. 
states in the Cultivator, 1861, p. 284, that fall plowing has fro- 
quently failed. “ One instance of this was a ten acre lot adjoining 
my land, that was plowed very late, and if I am not mistaken” 
finished in December, and freezing up very soon after. The next 
spiing it was planted to corn, and the whole destroyed, except 
about one acre in one corner that run up on a sandy and gravelly 
l idge. This lot had lain in grass six years. The cultivated grasses 
to which it had been seeded having run out and been followed by 
June and wire grass, it was undoubtedly in a very favorable con¬ 
dition for the wireworm. It was also the kind of land, a rich, loose, 
dark colored soil, containing considerable vegetable matter, which is 
most liable to be infested with them.” And Silas Brown, of North 
Wilmington, Mass., in the Boston Cultivator, July 27, 1861, says: 
“ 1 made a S reat mistake in plowing my land the last fall, as I not 
only lost the labor of the fall plowing, but brought a greedy set of 
worms to the surface to devour the seed put in by the spring plow¬ 
ing. Land designed for corn, and that is subject to wireworms, 
ought never to bo plowed in the fall previous to planting, as theso 
insects natuially incline to the surface, where they make an attack 
upon the seed as soon as planted. After many trials of fall plow¬ 
ing, on different kinds of soil, I am wholly in favor of spring 
plowing tor coin. The planting ought to be done as soon as pos¬ 
sible after the ground is plowed, before the worms have time to 
shilt their places from the roots of the grass to the planted seed.” 
Diaining, by changing a moist, cold soil into one that is more 
di y> and genial to the crops we cultivate, cannot but have 
a most beneficial effect in breaking up favorite haunts of the wire- 
worms and diminishing their numbers. Instances, however, have 
been reported, both at home and abroad, in which the worms were 
increased by this measure. This, we think, could only have been 
from some accidental cause and of but temporary duration. It is 
so universally remarked that these worms are the most numerous 
and destructive in cold, damp soils, the benefits which will result 
from draining cannot be doubted. 
Compacting the ground, after sowing, by heavily rolling it, or 
driving sheep over it, is a regular practice with some farmers in 
England and Germany, to preserve the crop from wire-worms. 
Lord Albemarle recommends that rape-cake should be used as 
a manure, powdered and sown over the field. He says, if it docs 
not destroy the insects it at least saves the crop from their attacks. 
