1880 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
261 
obviate any trouble from this source. Recognizing 
the fact that, iu their churn as originally construct¬ 
ed, those who tried to do so, could allow a small 
portion of cream to escape churning, they have 
modified it so as to make the interior a complete 
cylinder. The improved Blanchard has a curved 
top instead of a flat one, and now appears as in 
the accompanying engraving. We never had the 
least difficulty iu many years use of the churn in 
its former shape, but as the present form prevents 
all trouble from unchurned portions in the hands 
of any one, the change is an improvement. No al¬ 
teration has been made in the other parts of the 
churn, and it does not appear that any improve¬ 
ment is possible in these, whether we regard their 
effective work, or the ease with which they may be 
taken apart and kept clean, both important features. 
The Army Worm—Its Habits. 
On the first day of June, Mr. J. N. Plumb, who 
has a farm at Islip, Long Island, called to say that 
his grain fields, and those of his neighbors, were 
being devastated by the Army Worm, and wished 
to know something of its history, and what reme¬ 
dies had been found useful elsewhere. Knowing 
that the name was applied to at least three other 
caterpillars, all of different habits, we requested 
specimens in order to be 
sure of the identity of the 
insect in question. The 
prompt arrival of specimens 
of the insect with those of 
the rye upon which it had 
been at work, at once settled 
the fact that the Army Worm 
was upon Loug Island in 
force, and soon after ac¬ 
counts were given in the 
daily papers. A letter from 
Mr. J. M. Budd, dated June 
4th, announced that the 
same insect had appeared in 
force “on the neck lands of 
Kent Co., Del.; ” that some 
wheat crops were diminish¬ 
ed by one half, and asked 
that we give an article for the future guidance 
of the farmers in that locality. 
The earliest recorded appearance of the Army 
Worm in the Eastern States was in 1743. Next, iu 
1770, it was present in great force in New Hamp¬ 
shire, and some other parts of New England. Their 
next serious raid was in 1817, iu Eastern New York 
and Western New England. From that time until 
1861 it was not troublesome; in 1875 it appeared in 
parts of New England and on Long Island, and now, 
after an unusually brief period, it again parades in 
the last named locality. Duringtlie years sincel861 
it has appeared in destructive numbers in several 
of the Western States, notably iu 1861, at which 
time it extended from New England to Kansas— 
and in 1875 it visited a large part of Missouri. 
We can best serve our readers by giving a con¬ 
densed description of the insect 
and its habits. The best history 
is to be found in Riley’s Re¬ 
ports as Entomologist to the Fig. 2. 
State of Missouri : the 2d (1870), chrysat.is. 
the 8th (1876), and the 9th (1877)—that in the 
8th being especially full. We may say, in passing, 
that while the State of Missouri, with a short-sight¬ 
edness utterly at variance with her former intelli¬ 
gent liberality, has abolished the ofllce of State En¬ 
tomologist, the country at large is greatly indebted 
to her for the work already done by Prof. Riley, and 
his nine Reports contain the most useful informa¬ 
tion anywhere to be found upon the insects there 
treated of. The facts and the engravings here given 
are mainly derived from this excellent source. 
The Insect Described. 
The full grown Worm is of the size shown in 
fig. 1, and has a general dingy black color; Riley 
describes its markings thus : “On the back a broad 
dusky stripe ; then a narrow black line ; then a nar¬ 
row white line; then a yellowish stripe ; then a 
narrow sub-obsolete white line; then a dusky stripe; 
then a narrow white line ; then a yellowish stripe ; 
then a sub-obsolete white line; belly, obscure 
green.” The head is pale grayish yellow. When 
Fig. 3.— THE MOTH, NATURAL SIZE. 
full grown they suddenly disappear; they enter the 
earth, form a cavity a few inches below the surface 
and change to the chrysalis (fig. 2), “of a shining 
mahogany brown color, with two stiff converging 
thorns at the extremity, having two fine curled 
hooks at each side of them.” In two or three 
weeks the changes are complete, and the perfect 
insect appears as a moth, given of the natural size 
in fig. 3. The general color of the moth is light- 
reddish brown or fawn color, this is sprinkled with 
minute blackish atoms or spots ; there is a dusky 
line running inwardly from the tips of the front 
wings. Near the center of these wings, towards 
their upper margin, is a white spot, which allows 
the moth to be distinguished from others, and from 
which it derives its specific name, the iusect being 
known to entomologists as Leucania unipuncta. 
How Does it Pass the Winter P 
Many,indeed the majority of moths are short-lived; 
depositing their eggs soon after they issue from the 
chrysalis, their career is completed and they die. 
With the moth of the Army Worm, Prof. Riley 
found the eggs very immature when it was some 
weeks old, and his observations lead to the conclu¬ 
sion that it does not deposit its eggs until the fol¬ 
lowing spring, but in the fall finds some crevice in 
which to hide itself to pass the winter. The same 
naturalist thinks that some of the insects pass the 
winter in the ground in the chrysalis state, especi¬ 
ally in northern localities. The moths, after their 
winter’s rest, appear in the spring soon after veg¬ 
etation starts, and deposit their eggs in April. The 
eggs are opaque, white, spherical, and 2 /ioo inch in 
diameter; these are deposited in clusters of 5 to 20 
upon the stems of grass! or rather along the base 
of the uppermost leaf of the grass stem, and glued 
in place. The eggs hatch in 8 or 10 days, and the 
minute, newly hatched insect is white. The cater¬ 
pillar, during its early life, is greenish and not no¬ 
ticeable ; it is only when it has changed its skin 
several times that it begins to show the character¬ 
istic markings that distinguish the full-grown worm. 
What It Feeds Upon. 
Such, in brief, is the history of the insect from 
the egg around to the egg again. Its natural food 
is the coarse wild grasses ; among cultivated grasses 
they are most fond of timothy and blue-grass; 
clover they do not like ; wheat they are especially 
fond of, more so than of rye, though they will eat 
that, as they will a variety of other plants when 
pushed. The preference of wheat for rye was 
manifested by the worm in Missouri. Since this 
was in type, Mr. Plumb has informed us that the 
preferences of the Long Island insect are exactly 
the reverse, and that it greatly prefers rye to wheat, 
which it will leave if rye is near by. Accounts 
from Delaware state that there wheat is the crop 
most injured. The insect will attack corn, but not 
potatoes or pumpkins. Hogs, chickens, and other 
poultry devour vast numbers of the worms, as do the 
wild birds and otheranimals. Hogs are said to have 
eaten so greedily of them as to die in consequence. 
Like most other insects, these have their insect 
enemies, both cannibals, which destroy the young 
larvae, and those which themselves pass their larval 
state within the bodies of the larger caterpillar or 
Army Worm. Such parasites work unnoticed, save 
by the few naturalists who study their habits, but 
they render important service in keeping these and 
other destructive insects in check. In Army Worm 
years the worms are not noticed during their early 
life; and it is only when, after having destroyed the 
grass on the field where they were bred, they start 
Fig. 1.— THE WORM, 
FULL GROWN. 
out in search of food, that they become formida¬ 
ble. Their course in one direction, taken by all 
through some mysterious common impulse, is held 
with remarkable tenacity. If shallow water is met, 
the advance fall in until their dead bodies form a 
bridge for the living ones to cross. 
Methods of Destroying' the Worm. 
Upon a road or upon a fairly level field large 
numbers of the worms can be killed by the 
use of a roller. Crude petroleum has been sug¬ 
gested, and we have no doubt that vast numbers 
might be killed by watering a strip, especially 
where they would cross a road, with this. The 
worms in crossing a belt of the petroleum would 
probably get sufficient upon their bodies to kill 
them. Another method is to poison a strip of grass 
in their path with London Purple or Paris Green, 
in the same manner as potatoes are dosed for the 
Potato-Bug. To save a field of grain from their at¬ 
tacks the most effective method is to make a treuch 
by plowing, running two or three times in the fur¬ 
row, with the straight side towards the field. When 
a large number of the worms are collected in the 
trench, straw may be strewn along it and set on 
fire ; the heat not only kills the insects, but keeps 
the side of the trench dry and crumbly, and pre¬ 
vent them from climbing it. If a heavy rain should 
wash the side of the trench, it must be mended or 
a new one plowed. It has been suggested to dig 
pits or small wells in the bottom of the trench at 
intervals ; the insects in going along the trench in 
search of a place to ascend the side, will fall into 
the pits and be trapped in large numbers ; when the 
first set of these pits is nearly full, other pits 
are dug, throwing the earth into the first ones 
to kill the worms. It has also been suggested to 
feed the worms in the trench with freshly cut grass 
that has been thoroughly sprinkled with London 
Purple or Paris Green. It may be some satisfaction 
to those who have suffered from the visitation of 
the insect, to know that two successive Army Worm 
years have never been known in any one locality, 
and it is not thought that such can occur. They 
are with us more or less every year, but it is only 
when conditions favor an unusually abundant crop 
of them that they become troublesome. It has 
been observed that the worm usually appears in wet 
springs that have been preceded by one or more 
very dry years. As to the time of their appearing, 
that is, in destructive force, it is found in the dif¬ 
ferent localities to correspond very closely with 
the period at which the wheat is in “the milk.” 
Experience with Barbed Fence. 
C. L. Sanborn, Sup’t. of “Sawyer’s Ranch,” Sil¬ 
ver Lake, Kansas, writes to the American Agricul¬ 
turist: “I have been very much interested in the 
various articles on ‘Fences and Fencing,’and, as 
requested, will give you our experience with wire 
fence. Within the last year we have built eighteen 
miles of wire fence, using both plain and barbed 
wire. We have seven miles built of two-barbed, 
one plain wire, and board at top. This makes a 
very good fence, but we now think the board 
should be between the barbed wires. We have 
three miles of fence composed of four plain wires, 
one foot apart, the two middle ones being barbed 
after putting up. This fence we do not like, as the 
barbs slip on the wire, and stock will slip through. 
Another three miles is built of three-barbed wires, 
16 inches apart. This makes a good fence for large 
stock, but for yearlings and calves the wires should 
be nearer together. The best fence we have is built 
of three steel-barbed wires, bottom one 18 inches 
from the ground, the others a foot apart. For 
posts we use wood—cedar, oak, black walnut and 
elm—which we set in the ground two feet, and 8 to 
20 feet apart. Oak posts are liked best, as they hold 
the staples more firmly. We have used the ‘ Glid- 
den ’ Steel Barbed, the ‘ Steel Barbed Cable ’ Fence, 
the ‘Ohio Steel Barbed,’ and ‘Lyman Manu’fg Co. 
Barbed Fence,’ and now give preference to the last 
named.—We never have had stock of any kind in¬ 
jured from running into the wires. In fact cattle 
will have nothing to do with a good steel barb.— 
Our fence costs from 50 cts. to §1 per rod. Posts 
cost 10 to 14 cts. each.—The fence we have built 
