87 
This is done by late plowing and the cold fall and winter rains. But 
where there is considerable sod that does not break up, many of these 
it is presumed, will not be disturbed by plowing. In this case the 
lack of vegetation on the surface in the spring, as spoken of by the 
first writer, may cause many of them to perish from starvation, if 
the roots of the old sod does not supply them with food. There is 
one exception to this rule. 
Prof. Riley has shown that the eggs from which the spring brood 
of the Variegated Cut-worms are produced, are laid in the spring on 
the twigs of various trees and bushes, upon the leaves of which they 
feed till they undergo the first moult or casting of the skin, after 
which they display the true Cut-worm propensity. This will not 
alter my proposition so far as the application of even that species to 
the cultivation of corn is concerned, for the eggs for this brood are 
generally deposited before corn is planted, and they would not be 
likely to be placed where there was no prospect of food for the young 
when hatched. 
W. Holt, of Ceresco, Wis., gives an incident in the May number, 
1850, of the Prairie Farmer , that may be of interest under the head of 
“Artificial Remedies but let him tell his own story : 
“Last spring I had a piece of stubble ground of about four acres (oat 
stubble) that I planted to corn. Some two weeks before I ploughed 
it, I burned off the stubble from nearly three acres, but did not burn 
off the residue until the day before ploughing it. The entire piece 
was ploughed at an average depth of eight inches, and the whole 
treatment was exactly the same, with the exception of the time of 
burning the stubble off the two parts. The difference in the time of 
planting the two parts was two days; the soil of the two portions is 
alike, being a vegetable loam with a subsoil of clay. Now for the re¬ 
sult. In that part which was burned over about two weeks before 
ploughing, the ravages of the Cut-worn were severe—so much so that 
more than one-half of it had to be replanted, and some parts of it the 
third time ; while on the other part, hardly a single blade of corn was 
molested, or a worm seen. 
“What caused the difference ? If the fire destroyed them on the part 
last burned, why not on the part first burned?—for the first burn was 
more thorough than the second, the stubble being dryer, etc.” 
The above is suggestive of a remedy that may prove beneficial in 
many instances, viz: burning stubble or a mass of weeds that may 
be on the ground before plowing. To be efficacious it should be done 
just before plowing for corn, or after the weather is quite warm, for if 
done too early the fire will fail to reach the worms, as in Mr. Holt’s 
first burning. 
The reason is obvious. The first burning was done before the 
worms were out of the ground, and they were not injured. The sec¬ 
ond took place after they had been warmed into life and commenced 
operations, hiding during the day, as is usual with them, under the 
dead grass and weeds in preference to going into the ground. Cut¬ 
worms and several other kinds of caterpillars may be found any year 
during the month of May and the fore part of June under such rub¬ 
bish in meadow and unplowed stubble lands. If such lands that 
were intended for planting were burned over just before plowing in- 
