320 
THE CULTIVATOE. 
CUT WORM. 
Errors in natural history may do much harm, and I 
conceive the one I am about to notice, is not an excep¬ 
tion. James Corwin in the Boston Cultivator, noticing 
the remark of Mr. Ruffin, in his recent survey of South 
Carolina, “ that cut worms in corn may be destroyed by 
continued tillage and a naked and open soil,” remarks 
that “ the cut worm would not be found in corn were it 
not planted in sward or sod land; they are the progeny 
of a species of beetle or other insects, w'hich could never 
propagate its kind without the aid of dung, which is 
found in grass fields that have been fed by horses or cat¬ 
tle, and in this they enclose their egg or eggs and sink 
them a given distance below the surface,”&c. &c. Mr. 
Corwin has mistaken the grub of the common beetle for 
that of the cut worm moth. The latter does not lay its 
eggs in dung, but in the ground. The cut worm is the 
caterpillar of a moth belonging to the lepidoptera and ge¬ 
nus Agrotis. There are several species, the larvae of 
which are injurious to various plants, cabbages, corn, 
&c. They confine themselves to no particular vegeta¬ 
ble, but prefer young corn a few inches high. The 
moths fly only at night, lying concealed during the day 
under the bark of trees, in the chinks of fences, &c. The 
only effectual remedy that has yet been discovered, says 
Harris, in his excellent Treatise on insects injurious to 
vegetation, “is to go round the field every morning, 
open the earth at the foot of the plants, and you will not 
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.” 
The reason, probably, why corn on a clover lay is more 
subject to cut worm than in any other preparation, is that 
the clover has been affording the insects excellent food 
and shelter for two years or more, and they have thus 
increased in numbers greatly beyond what they could 
have done in cultivated fields. It is believed that Mr. 
Ruffin is right in his remark, if he includes in his mean¬ 
ing of the words “continued tillage,” the necessity of 
destroying every worm that can be found. But as the 
moth has wings and uses them freely at night, one far¬ 
mer may destroy every cut worm in his land this year, 
and yet have an abundant supply in his fields next year, 
the parents of which have emigrated from his neighbors 
who were not so industrious. If every farmer would, 
however, adopt this means of getting rid of this formida¬ 
ble pest, then Mr. Ruffin's remedy, with the proposed ad¬ 
dition, would certainly be effectual. The truth is, that 
we are all too inattentive to the destruction of insects at 
the commencement of their career. One minute’s work 
in 1840 would have saved a week’s labor of a dozen men 
in 1844. There is nothing easier than to catch and kill 
the first two or three insects that appear in afield or gar¬ 
den; but they are generally unheeded, because “ two or 
three insects can do no harm;” they are permitted to lay 
their eggs. Next year there are several hundred of 
them, and even if one-half of these are caught and killed, 
(which will not often happen,) the other half will lay 
their eggs, and on the third year we shall have 50,000 or 
more, and then there will be work on hand to kill them. 
The depredations of the common caterpillar, for instance, 
can easily and certainly be prevented in this way, as the 
writer of this knows well from his own experience. In 
a garden full of shrubbery, every year this caterpillar 
makes its appearance, as an emigrant from the neighbor¬ 
ing gardens; but it is a rule never to allow the first insect 
to escape. Each and all are destroyed as soon as they 
make their appearance, and consequently there is no 
multiplication of them by the 500 for one. C. 
PRESERVATION OF MANURE. 
An English paper recommends the application of a so¬ 
lution of common salt, (one pound to the gallon of wa¬ 
ter,) by means of a watering pot, to the floors of horse 
stables, before clearing the dung out, for the purpose of 
fixing the ammonia that is evolved from it. By this 
means, he says all the ammonia evolved will be convert¬ 
ed into muriate of ammonia, and a portion of carbonate 
of soda formed, all which will be a valuable addition to 
the manure. A much easier, and as cheap a plan, is to 
spread ground plaster of Paris over the manure. Indeed 
this should always be done; all stable manure should be 
well mixed with plaster, that none of its valuable pro¬ 
perties be allowed to evaporate. There is no one thing 
with which farmers generally are so careless as they are 
with manure. How common it is to see piles of horse 
dung under the stable windows outside, exposed to the 
washing of rain and bleaching of the sun for months to¬ 
gether. If farmers will not or cannot keep their manures 
under cover, let them apply plaster of Paris as above, and 
at least prevent its valuable properties taking wing and 
flying away. Even then, however, the rain will dis¬ 
solve much of the salts, and wash them away into the 
adjacent grounds. Why not take care of manure as well 
as any thing else ? Index. 
WHEAT-GROWING IN THE SOUTH. 
Among the many intelligent southern planters whom 
it has been my lot to meet during their northern tour of 
summer recreation, was William Terrill, Esq. of 
Hancock Co. Georgia. I mention him particularly, from 
the satisfaction derived from his remarks on the wheat 
culture at the south, especially in the region where he 
resides. Conversing about the grain crops of this State, 
which he had carefully examined with the eye of an in¬ 
telligent farmer, and after noticing particularly the lau¬ 
dable endeavors of General Harmon of Wheatland, (Vice 
President of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society,) in 
testing the qualities of various kinds of wheat for the pur¬ 
pose of designating the best qualities of seed wheat, lV(r. 
Terrill remarked substantially that his own experiments 
in Georgia satisfied him (hat the wheat crop in that and 
other southern States may be made far more extensive 
and profitable than has generally been supposed. Mr. T. 
raised last year fifteen acres of a kind known in that re¬ 
gion as “ Moore wheat”—the variety being appropriately 
named after a worthy post-master in his neighborhood, 
who had taken the trouble a few years before to obtain 
specimens of such articles enclosed in letters from friends 
in other States, with a view of promoting agricultural 
improvement. The specimen from which this and oth¬ 
er crops in his neighborhood were raised, was origi¬ 
nally contained in a letter from Norfolk, Virginia, five 
or six years ago. The land was a reddish clay, manured 
with about twenty-five bushels of cotton seed, worth 
about six pence a bushel at the gin-house. The crop 
was sown on the 5th and 6th of October, and harvested 
on the 10th of May. The yield on a patch of about an 
acre, was at the rate of twenty-five bushels; and the av¬ 
erage of the whole fifteen acres, was eighteen bushels 
per acre. The grain was plump, and measured in stan¬ 
dard measure. The berry is yellowish, making a cream- 
colored flour that is much approved. 
Mr. Terrill remarked, farther, that with his improved 
mode of cultivation, he has realized more wheat from 
these fifteen acres than he ever before raised from dou¬ 
ble that quantity of land—indeed, he has had smaller 
crops from more than twice the quantity of land. 
These simple facts may induce others to “go and do 
likewise.” What can be done by one intelligent plan¬ 
ter or farmer, may be done by others. 
Let us hear of many such experiments in all quarters 
of the south. Let the intelligent and reflecting planters, 
whose minds are well stored with facts bearing on the 
improvement of agriculture, apply those facts thorough¬ 
ly in the management of their estates; and our word for 
it, they will find rich and pleasant harvests for their 
pockets and their minds, whatever may be the “pros¬ 
pects of cotton” or the “fate of the tariff’.” 
N. B. We must not forget to state that an Agricultural 
Society was formed two or three years ago in Hancock 
county, which Society offers liberal premiums for the 
best crops of wheat, corn, and other kinds of grain, and 
from the labors of which much good may reasonably be 
anticipated. The example is worthy of imitation in ev¬ 
ery county, not of Georgia alone, but throughout the 
whole south. Nothing rejoices us more than to hear of 
such enterprising movements among our agricultural 
brethren in that “sunny clime.” Rho. 
