REMEDIES AGAINST CUT-WORMS. 449 
The only effectual remedy at present known has been 
humorously described by Mr. Asahel Foote in the “ Albany 
Cultivator,” and reprinted in the seventeenth volume of the 
“ New England Farmer.” After having lost more than 
a tenth part of the corn in his field, he “ ordered his men 
to prepare for war, to sharpen their finger-ends, and set at 
once about exhuming the marauders. For several days it 
seemed as if a whole procession came to each one’s funeral, 
but at length victory wreathed the brow of perseverance ; 
and, the precaution having been taken to replace each foe 
dislodged with a suitable quantity of good seed-corn, he soon 
had the pleasure to see his field restored, in a good measure, 
to its original order and beauty, there being seldom a va- 
cancy in a piece of four acres.” Mr. Foote’s statement, 
founded on an estimate of the time employed in digging 
up and killing the cut-worms, and the increased produce 
of the field, is conclusive in favor of this mode of checkin''- 
O 
the ravages of these insects. 
Mr. Deane states that he “ once prevented the depreda- 
tions of cut-worms in his garden by- manuring the soil with 
sea-mud. The plants generally escaped, though every one 
was cut off in a spot of ground contiguous.” He acknowl- 
edges, however, that “the most effectual, and not a labo- 
rious remedy, even in field-culture, is to go round every 
morning, and open the earth at the foot of the plant, and 
you will never fail to find the worm at the root, within 
four inches. Kill him, and you will save not only the 
other plants of your field, but, probably, many thousands 
in future years.” Mr. Preston, of Stockport, Pennsylvania, 
protected his cabbage-plants from cut-worms by wrapping 
a walnut or hickory leaf around the stem, between the 
roots and leaves, before planting it in the ground. The 
late Honorable Oliver Fiske, of Worcester, Massachusetts, 
says, that “ to search out the spoiler, and kill him, is the 
very best course ; but, as his existence is not known except 
by his ravages, I make a fortress for my cabbage-plants with 
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