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THE RURAL, NEW-VORKER 
ladder adds to its cost. Also, one needs only to ask 
the man who has worked on the 10 to 12-foot ladders 
in the low-headed trees and on the 20 to 30-foot lad¬ 
ders in the high-headed trees to get an emphatic en¬ 
dorsement of the short ladder and the low head, both 
as to convenience and security while at work, and as 
to ease of moving from one position to another. 
Lastly, it is known that wind velocities are lessened 
near the ground by the irregularities of the surface, 
by vegetation, etc. Of course, apple trees themselves 
tend to break the force of the wind for each other, 
but the tree with a low head is not exposed to so 
great wind power or velocities as the tree with a top 
high in the air. One season with another this may 
make very little difference, but in storms and high 
winds just before harvest the low-headed tree will 
have less wind-falls and less bruised fruit than the 
tree with the high head whose branches are whipped 
around by the stronger force of the wind. So the 
low-headed tree is generally a money saver both in 
requiring less expense in spraying and picking equip¬ 
ment and in preventing a direct loss through poor 
fruit either from poor spraying or direct windfalls. 
East and West these advantages have equal value. 
W. G. BRIERLEY. 
TWENTY-FIVE DEGREES BELOW ZERO. 
The interest in open-front poultry houses seems to 
be on the increase, so here is a story concerning them 
which came under the writer’s notice the past Winter. 
The owner, Mr. E. H. Castle, lives in Middlesex Co., 
Mass., on a large farm sloping to the east. Within 
two years all his poultry houses have been erected. 
These consist of four large houses 24x28, a large 
brooder house and dozens of colony types. The incu¬ 
bators are housed and run in a concrete cellar all 
below the ground but the roof. This building is 
homemade, and is an ideal place for hatching. The 
colony houses are all on runners, so they can be 
hauled easily to the extensive orchards during the. 
hot weather. Mr. Castle breeds White Rocks and 
White Leghorns, and no one ever saw a more healthy 
lot. The method of feeding is similar to thousands 
of others and needs no mention in this article. The 
“open fronts” are 28 feet wide and 24 deep, face the 
south and are on a side hill with southeastern ex¬ 
posure. The front opening is covered with three- 
quarter inch wire and nothing else. No sign of a 
curtain has been used even once the past Winter. 
Some combs have been frozen, but not all, and the 
birds looked well all Winter. The front opening is 
A]/ 2 feet high and 28 feet long; the building is six 
feet high in the back and the ridge is eight feet from 
the rear wall and is 9 T / 2 feet high. On the west side 
are three half sash of glass, wire under. The roof 
is covered with roofing. Sides and back are made of 
matched spruce oiled when built. See Figs. 230-231. 
On the east side is a large door and one on the 
west for use in hot weather. Four sets of roosts run 
the length of the house with dropping boards and 
nests underneath. The foundation walls are of con¬ 
crete eight inches thick. The floor was first filled in 
with loose stones and then concreted. The litter is 
oat and wheat straw (12 inches deep), raised on the 
place. Four chestnut posts hold the roof, the ridge 
board is made of 2x6 inch plank. Another 2x6 is 
placed half way down the long slope of the roof, the 
four posts making the roof safe when loaded with 
snow. This building cost about $100 above the foun¬ 
dations, and is occupied by 240 White Leghorns. The 
egg yield has been very satisfactory to the owner and 
was good during November and December when the 
price was high. If all poultrymen were as thorough 
in their work and attention to detail as Mr. Castle 
they would get along better. c. W. prescott. 
Massachusetts. 
LIFE HISTORY OF THE CUTWORM. 
I wonder if your chief entomologist, or “bug sharp,” 
could find time to give The R. N.-Y. readers the life his¬ 
tory of the cutworm. We do not care to hear anything 
about his methods of conducting business, as that knowl¬ 
edge is already well established. Wbat we want particu¬ 
larly to know is: What is he? Whence came he? Whither 
goest? In other words, we would like a sort of “cradle- 
to-the-grave” history of the insect, in all the cycles of its 
checkered career. This information might suggest some 
effective method of curtailing his activities. V. H. M. 
Lynn, Mass. 
Cutworms, be it understood, are of many k.nds, 
hues, and habits. They are as varied in appearance, 
size, and complexion as the members of the human 
race. Yet they are somewhat like human beings. 
If ’we met a male Hottentot in the wilds of Africa 
we would, at once, recognize him as belonging to the 
genus Homo (man). So with a cutworm, if we meet 
him in our garden, cornfield, wheatfield, or orchard, 
we at once recognize him as belonging to the tribe 
of cutworms. They are all perennially hungry. They 
remain during the day in the ground, work mostly at 
night, and attack the juiciest and biggest plants. There 
is the Greasy cutworm, the Variegated cutworm, the 
Spotted cutworm, the Dingy cutworm, the Clay-backed 
cutworm, the Bronze cutworm, the Bristly cutworm, 
the Yellow-headed cutworm, and many others, all 
members of the same family, and every last one of 
them an unmitigated rascal that ought to be turned 
out. 
In the first place, all cutworms, if they escape the 
sharp eyes of birds, beetles, toads, and the wrath of 
their arch enemy, man, eventually change to rather 
good-sized moths. Many of these moths, attracted 
by the light, find their way in through our windows, 
only to batter themselves to death in an aimless be¬ 
wildered flight about the room. The parent moths of 
cutworms are, for the most part, dull-colored incon¬ 
spicuous insects difficult to classify into their proper 
species. They are called owlet moths because they 
seem to have eyes well adapted for finding their way 
in the dark, and most of them are active only at 
night. Fig. 227 shows the parent moths of the Yel¬ 
low-headed cutworm; one with her wings in natural 
position when at rest and one with the wings out¬ 
spread. These particular moths were fairly abundant 
last year in certain localities, which indicates that 
the Yellow-headed cutworms had been in force some¬ 
where among the grasses and weeds during the Spring 
of 1911. The origin, habits, life, transformations 
and end of the Yellow-headed cutworm may be taken 
as fairly representative of cutworms in general, al¬ 
though there are variations in certain details among 
PARENT MOTHS OP CUTWORM. Fig. 227. 
so many different species. The parent moths of this 
cutworm appear from late June through July and 
August. The females deposit their eggs in July and 
August on the ground among the roots of grasses. Here 
the eggs hatch and the tiny young cutworms go into 
the ground, where they live upon the tender succulent 
roots of the grasses. They become, perhaps, half- 
grown by the time cold weather begins. As the cold 
commences to affect them, they burrow four or five 
inches beneath the surface, and by turning round and 
round they fashion a smooth shallow cell in which 
they curl up ready to sleep the Winter through. As 
Spring returns and the earth slowly thaws, the young 
cutworms also gradually warm up and resume their 
activity. In May and June they do their greatest 
injury, for they are large then, and demand a good 
deal of succulent food to complete their growth, 
which takes place in June and July. When the cut¬ 
worms become fully grown, each one crawls into the 
earth to a depth of three or four inches, and forms 
a large smooth cavity in the soil. In this cell, the 
cutworm sheds its skin and gradually assumes the 
form of a pupa in which the wings, legs, eyes, and 
antennae of the future moth may be distinguished. 
In the course of a few weeks, probably three or four, 
the outer shell-like covering of the pupa breaks open 
and the adult moth crawls out of the earth. The 
moth dries its wings in the sun, soon flies away on 
its wedding journey and then, in a few days, deposits 
its eggs. Thus having provided for the perpetuation 
of its kind and fulfilled its destiny, there is nothing 
more left for the moth but to die. 
This life cycle of a cutworm, together with a con¬ 
sideration of its habits, offers food for reflection re¬ 
garding methods of fighting cutworms in general. In 
general, cutworms are found in grass lands, for the 
grasses are their preferred food. As a rule, cutworms 
May 18, 
are only half-grown by Fall and pass the Winter in 
the soil. It follows then, first, that other things being 
equal, corn, oats, wheat, or similar crops put on sod- 
land plowed in the Spring are more liable to be 
injured by cutworms than if grown on land that has 
borne some other crop following the sod. In general, 
a three or four-year rotation is of great aid in con¬ 
trolling cutworms, for this plan does not allow land 
to remain in grass for several years and thus permit 
cutworms to become abundant and thrifty. In the' 
second place, if the young cutworms are disturbed in 
their Winter cells in the soil they will die as a result 
of their exposure to the weather. Therefore, in gen¬ 
eral, late Fall plowing, after the cutworms have re¬ 
sponded to the low temperatures and gone into Winter 
quarters, is considered a good practice in the control 
of these pests. The trouble with Fall plowing is, 
however, that it is not usually done late enough to 
kill the cutworms. If the land is plowed while it is 
yet warm the cutworms will simply crawl back into 
the soil and make their Winter cells over again. On 
the other hand, Summer fallowing of a field when¬ 
ever practicable to destroy grasses and weeds that 
serve as food for cutworms, and clean culture, in gen¬ 
eral, is a good farm practice to aid in controlling 
cutworms. If land to be planted in corn can be plowed 
early in the preceding August, the moths will not be 
attracted to deposit their eggs there, and injury by 
the cutworms will be lessened. It seems that the 
earlier the preceding year, grass-lands to be planted 
to corn are plowed, the less will be the danger from 
injury by cutworms during the subsequent Spring. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
A FEW POTATO POINTERS. 
LATE VARIETIES.—Green Mountain and Car¬ 
man No. 1 are among the varieties of potatoes here¬ 
tofore classified as late varieties, but now there are 
several from 10 days to two weeks later. The ques¬ 
tion with the progressive farmer is “How can I in¬ 
crease the yield without sacrificing quality.” The se¬ 
lection of very late varieties of seed potatoes will help 
solve this problem. As a rule each individual hill of 
the best of these will produce more pounds of pota¬ 
toes than either Carman No. 1 or Green Mountain, and 
since the grower has found that when his potatoes are 
put onto the market he has to accept 10 cents a 
bushel less for his overgrown stock than for the 
medium size market potatoes he has not been slow to 
adopt methods of culture to get the desired results. 
In actual practice I have found that if the rows are 
spaced 34 inches apart and the hills in the row 10 to 
12 inches apart, I get a larger yield per acre of me¬ 
dium-sized market potatoes and no overgrown ones. 
Not only so, but every inch of ground is used to best 
advantage. It takes from 15 to 16 bushels of seed 
per acre, but the yield per acre is several times greater 
than the difference in the quantity of seed required. 
It stands to reason that if the late varieties referred 
to grow from 10 days to two weeks longer than Green 
Mountain, and the foliage is much more heavy, that 
the yield will also be correspondingly greater. In 
Central Maine Green Mountain is gradually being re¬ 
placed by sorts that give more satisfactory results 
financially. 
EARLY VARIETIES are grown either for early 
market, or for the southern seed trade, and not for 
the main crop. If grown for seed purposes they 
should not be planted till late in the season to insure 
a maximum yield. The reason for this is obvious. 
When planted early it usually happens that from the 
blossoming period till the time of maturity it is apt to 
be droughty, and the plants lack the moisture so nec¬ 
essary for the proper development of the tubers, 
whereas, if the same seed is planted as late as the 
middle of June or later, the crisis is past before the 
plants begin to set tubers, a critical time in the growth 
of the vine, and when the early Fall rains come the 
potatoes flourish and yield abundantly. 
METHODS OF PLANTING.—If modern planters 
are used it behooves the grower to look carefully to 
the way in which the seed is planted, and select that 
planter that will do the work in the most approved 
manner. I have seen many cases of failure, due 1 
believe to the seed being delivered into soil so hot 
as to actually destroy the vitality of the seed. This 
was not because there was not moist, cool soil to re¬ 
ceive the seed, but because as the seed was delivered 
it fell into the dust mulch, which so completely sur¬ 
rounded and enveloped the seed as to dry it or weaken 
it so that the plant that came from it was a weakling 
so long that it failed to make good. The best planter 
is the planter that will deliver the seed into the moist 
soil and leave the dust mulch where it ought to be, 
on top, as before the operation of planting. 
Maine. i. l. ware. 
