174 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
Cut-worms and how to get rid of Them. 
It is very common for cultivators to speak 
of injury to plants by the cut-worm, as if 
there were but one insect distinguished by 
that name, while in fact there are at least a 
dozen cut-worms. In some localities, the 
white-grub and the vine-worm are called cut¬ 
worms. The true cut-worms are the larvae 
of several night-flying or owlet-moths, which 
are rarely seen in the day time. When these 
enter the house they are annoying, as they 
flicker about the lamps, but they are rarely 
recognized as the parents of the destructive 
cut-worms. The moths usually deposit their 
eggs upon leaves, or some other object near 
the ground, though some place their eggs 
upon the leaves of trees, but the young 
worms, as soon as hatched, descend to the 
ground. The worm being, 
like the moth, nocturnal 
in its habits, is seldom 
seen. While very young, 
it makes a hole in the 
earth in which it hides be¬ 
low the surface during the 
day, but comes out at night in search of food, 
in securing which it causes severe losses to 
the gardener. The worm quits its night-work 
about sunrise, at which time it retires to its 
underground retreat; often dragging a leaf 
partly into its burrow, and thus affords a 
clew to its discovery. The cut-worms, with 
few exceptions, are, when full grown, about 
an inch and a half long, and are generally 
dark colored, being gray, brown, or blackish, 
with lighter or whitish markings, and they 
Fig. 3. —MOTH OF WESTERN STRIPED CUT-WORM. 
all have a greasy look. When they have 
reached their full size from feeding upon the 
results of their night robberies, they go deeper 
into the earth, change to the chrysalis state, 
and in about four weeks come out as moths. 
While the majority feed on the ground and 
cut off young garden and field plants just at 
the surface, some of them climb young trees 
which they greatly injure by destroying their 
buds and young leaves. These also work at 
night, and towards morning drop to the 
ground to hide below its surface. The moths 
belong mostly to the genus Agrotis, and 
a few related genera. They are generally of 
a brownish or a gray color, with different 
markings on their front wings, which, in 
most species, have a spread of about an inch 
and a half. When at rest, the wings are 
folded flat against the body, and completely 
hide the lower wings. Some of the worms j 
pass the winter in the pupa state, but the ! 
late hatched worms are caught by the ap- 1 
proach of winter, when about two-thirds 
grown; these descend further down in the 
soil and become torpid, and pass the winter 
in a dormant state; when awakened by the 
return of spring, they come to the surface 
with a ravenous appetite for tender vegeta¬ 
tion. While cut-worms are destructive to 
thecrop3 of the Northern gardener, they seem 
to be especially injurious in the Southern 
States; this is in part due to the fact that the 
winters there are not cold enough to make 
them completely dormant, but with every 
warm spell they become active and continue 
their depredations periodically throughout 
the winter. In view of their importance, on 
account of the extended injury they inflict 
upon the cultivator in the Southern States, 
Dr. A. Oemler, in his “ Truck Farming at the 
South,” gives special attention to the cut¬ 
worms, and their remedies. The engravings 
will give an idea of the general appearance 
Fig.4. -DARK-SIDED CUT-WORM (MOTH AND LARVA). 
of the worms and their moths. The grower 
of cabbages, tomatoes, etc., on a small scale, 
can readily protect his plants from cut-worms 
by surrounding their stems with paper for 
a short distance below and above the sur¬ 
face, and leaves (usually of the maples), have 
been used for the same purpose. Hills of 
melons, cucumbers, etc., may have the plants 
surrounded by a hoop or other barrier. An¬ 
other method, useful in small gardens, is to 
make holes in the soil 
near the plants, singly 
by means of a small 
stick, or in clusters, 
by means of an imple¬ 
ment which will make 
several holes at one F ‘&'- 5- av-marked 
, . CUT-WORM. 
operation. The worms 
hide in these where they may be killed the 
next morning by the use of the same stick or 
implement. But the fields of the truck-farmer | 
contain so many plants that any remedy, to 
be practicable, must be more general in its 
application. Of fires, to attract the moths, 
Dr. Oemler does not approve, for the reason 
that they may destroy more beneficial than 
injurious insects. He finds it the best plan 
to clear the land of cut-worms before the 
seeds are up, or before the plants are trans¬ 
planted. By placing cabbage-leaves and 
bunches of grass along the rows of hills of 
about a fourth of an acre of watermelons, 
Fig. 6.—SMALL BRISTLY CUT-WORM AND MOTH. 
and, examining them daily, he captured fif¬ 
teen hundred and thirty-eight worms, before 
the seed came up, and lost but a single melon 
plant by the worms. He once captured fifty- 
eight worms under a single turnip leaf. His 
present method is to poison the worms. After 
the land is prepared for cabbages or any other 
J crop liable to be injured by the cut-worms, 
he takes cabbage or turnip leaves and dips 
them in a bucket of water into which a table¬ 
spoonful of Paris green has been well stirred; 
or the leaves are first moistened and then 
dusted with a mixture of one part of Paris 
green to twenty of flour. The leaves thus 
poisoned are laid in rows across the field 15 
or 20 feet apart, and at the same distance in 
Fig. 7.— GLOSSY CUT-WORM. 
the rows, being careful to place the dusted 
surface next to the ground. By repeating 
this at intervals of three or four days, the field 
is cleared at less expense and trouble than by 
any other method. There are several insect 
enemies, parasitic and others, that help keep 
cut-worms in subjection, and the mole prob¬ 
ably destroys many. Birds are useful, and 
domestic poultry may be serviceable in des¬ 
troying them. Like some other observing 
cultivators, Dr. Oemler regards “the much 
slandered crow ” as standing in the front 
rank of the natural enemies of cut-worms, 
and sensibly remarks: “The good the crow 
accomplishes in killing cut-worms, tomato- 
worms and field-mice, far outweighs the value 
of the few grains of corn he may pilfer, and 
he should therefore be protected instead of 
being persecuted.” The crow is gaining 
friends among gardeners and farmers. 
Alfalfa as a Fodder Crop in Colorado. 
BT W. E. PABOR, 
The success of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa), as 
a profitable fodder for all kinds of stock,seems 
to be certain in Colorado, where, as yet, it 
has been used only as feed. Its first intro¬ 
duction into the State was in 1870. Now 
three out of every five farmers have their 
patch, large or small, of Alfalfa. It seems 
to grow on any kind of soil, poor or rich, if 
it can only get a start. As this depends on 
the moisture necessary for germination, and 
as irrigation makes this an easy matter to 
the farmer here, but few fail in getting a 
good stand the first season. Even as late as 
, July the seed can be sown, and two good 
crops taken off the following year. There 
are many large farms where it is made a 
specialty. The Denver market, where it 
competes successfully with the choicest up¬ 
land hay in quality and price, consumes 
thousands of tons. That too much wheat 
can be grown in the State for home con¬ 
sumption is one of the demonstrated facts of 
the last season. This has led the Colorado 
farmer to consider a subject hitherto very 
much neglected, though probably not more 
so here than in other new countries. He has 
been merely a wheat-grower, not a farmer. 
Diversified crops is now the text from which 
sermons are being preached by the Faculty 
of the Agricultural College and by the jour¬ 
nalists of the rural districts. Sheep and 
cattle, as well as a fair rotation of crops, will 
henceforth receive more attention. In Cali¬ 
fornia 3,000 sheep have been profitably kept 
on 200 acres of Alfalfa, netting in wool and 
lambs a profit of $7,500 annually, or $2.50 
per head. In this State twenty sheep have 
been kept to a profit on one acre of Alfalfa. 
For beef cattle one acre of Alfalfa will put 
Fig. 2. —LARVA. 
