Artificial Remedies. 
That it is possible to protect a field from a marching army of 
worms, by ditching, has long been known and practiced. Care 
must be taken that the side of the ditch toward the field to be 
protected is perpendicular, or in firm clay it should slope under 
slightly. Holes a foot or two deep should be dug in the bottom of 
the ditch at intervals of about a rod. The worms attempting to 
ascend the side and failing, wander along it seeking for some point 
where they can scale it, and tumble into these holes. Here they 
may be destroyed by burning straw or leaves upon them, or by 
covering them with earth that is well pressed upon them, by pour¬ 
ing coal oil, hot w r ater, etc., upon them. In some sections the 
farmers, instead of digging holes in the ditch, draw a log through, 
thus crushing the worms, and at the same time keeping the side 
smooth; sometimes fire is kept in the ditch, but if the worms are 
very numerous they soon extinguish it. The best method of killing 
them will depend largely upon the number and the surrounding 
conditions; knowing the fact that a ditch, with the side next the 
field to he protected perpendicular, will keep the worms back, the 
farmer can readily devise plans to kill them in accordance with the 
means at hand. 
It is said that planks placed on edge and fitted end to end, if 
smeared on the upper edge with kerosene or coal-tar, will prove an 
effectual bar to them. The expense of this method is the chief ob¬ 
jection to it, and if the worms are- very numerous they may even 
pile up to the top of the board and thus bridge their way over it. 
On Long Island their march was checked the past year in some 
places by sprinkling the grass in front of them with a solution of 
Paris-green. In other places London-purple was used in the same 
way with success, as we learn. 
If the worms originate in a field, as a meadow, or have obtained 
possession of it and spread themselves over it, there is no practical 
Avay of destroying them and saving the crop. Topical applications 
are utterly useless and a waste of time and money. Running a 
heavy iron roller over the field is one plan recommended; but 
heavy iron rollers are to be found on but comparatively few farms, 
and if they were, a few trials would suffice to convince any one 
that hut a comparatively small portion of the worms would be 
destroyed by this means. 
The most effectual remedy so far suggested is to burn over the 
meadow or field early in the spring, the time depending on the 
latitude. In Southern Illinois this should be done about the middle 
or latter part of March in ordinary seasons; in the central part of 
the State about two weeks later; and about the middle of April in 
the northern section. It is probable that burning in the winter 
will have the same effect, as it will destroy the old grass in which 
the female moth prefers to deposit her eggs, and thus drives them 
off to hunt a more appropriate place. 
