1852, 
THE CULTIVATOR 
253 
Wire Worms. 
Eds. Cultivator —If you know of any better way to 
get rid of wire worms, than to wait with patience till they 
have had their day and generation, I would like to have 
you publish it. I will give you a part of my experience 
with them. In the spring of 1848, I came in possession 
of the farm that I now occupy, nearly the whole lying 
upon what would be called a limestone ridge. Adjoin¬ 
ing my barn is a small field of a little over two acres, 
that had lain in pasture two years. I plowed it up in 
the spring, and planted with corn ; the worms cut it some, 
but not very badly. ' We got something over fifty bushels 
per acre that year. 
The spring of 1849, we put about 40 loads of manure 
to the acre, (excepting three-fourths of an acre that 
took the wash from the barn-yard,) thinking to plant 
corn, cut it up in the fall, sow to wheat, and seed to grass. 
We did plant it, but the worms spoiled it entirely. 
Full one half of it they ate in the kernel before it came 
up, while a large proportion of what did come up, they 
soon killed. We then the last of June, plowed the 
ground again, and sowed to buckwheat—got a pretty fair 
crop, 874 bushels. I consider buckwheat a poor substi¬ 
tute however for corn or wheat, on land that is good for 
cither. 
I then thought I would try fall plowing as late in the 
season as I could. Accordingly in December following, 
I set a hand to plow it. He plowed about three-fourths 
of it, when the ground froze so hard we were obliged to 
quit it. We plowed the ground north and south in the 
fall ; and in the spring of 1850, thinking to pursue the 
same course, we had contemplated the season before— 
that is corn, wheat, and then seed down, we plowed the 
whole field through east and west. The part that was 
fall plowed as well as that that was not, we planted again 
to corn. This season I took bones and boiled them in lye, 
until the whole mass became like a paste; one half of 
this I mixed in ashes enough to dry it; for the other 
half I used plaster. At planting we put a gill of this 
mixture in each hill for eight rows, and then missed eight 
through the field; but the worms again spoiled the crop; 
and what was contrary to my expectations, there was 
scarcely a stalk left as far as we fall plowed, while there was 
a few where we did not. We then thought that if the 
creatures required vegetable food, we would try and 
starve them out; so we went over the ground several 
times with a gang plow, and kept it perfectly naked un- 
til harvest; at this time a crowd of work coming on, we 
neglected our special trouble for a time, when going on 
to the field after harvest, judge of my surprise to find 
the ground thickly covered with buckwheat, just coming 
up. I began to think we had two plagues on our hands 
instead of one. 
By the time we could spare a team to go over the ground 
again, the buckwheat was too large for the gang plow, 
so we plowed it under with a common plow; the ninth 
of September sowed it to Soule’s wheat, and plowed in 
with a gang plow. The worms injured about -} of an 
acre considerably—the rest was decidedly the best wheat 
we had; it was thrashed with the rest of our wheat, the 
whole averaging twenty-nine bushels per acre. 
The worms have injured wheat considerably the past 
fall j they are decidedly the greatest pest we have. 
I might perhaps mention that I applied the bone mix¬ 
ture to six rows through a field of eleven acres, but could 
see no perceptible difference in the growth of the skulks 
or the yield of corn. The whole was good, averaging 
sixty four bushels per acre. 
Perhaps upon poorer land, or a soil of a different chemi¬ 
cal composition; the result might have been different. 
John Strickland. Elba. N. F., Jan. 9, 1852. 
History of the Short-horns. 
In the June No. of the Cultivator, there is an article 
headed “ Reviewer Reviewed,” by Sanford Howard, 
in 'which he introduces my name. It occurs in the arti¬ 
cle by him, in reply to “ Platanus,” of the April Ho., 
and the sentence is: 
II Even Ambrose Stevens, to whom the writer, [Pla¬ 
tanus] of the review, [of Mr. Evans’ Dairyman’s Man¬ 
ual,] will not probably object as authority, has said, (a* 
least by implication,) that those stocks. [Sir James Pen- 
nyman’s and Sir Wm. St. Quintin’s,] came from Nor- 
mandy. (See his article on the “ History” of Short, 
horns, in the Trans, of the N. Y. State Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, 1849.”) 
Had my words been quoted, I should have been con¬ 
tent, certain that they would have contradicted the mis¬ 
construction of their meaning. I quote them: 
u The ancient family of the Aislabies, which came into 
England from Normandy, with William the Conqueror, 
established themselves prior to 1800, at Aislabie, on the 
river Tees, in the county of Durham, and the manor, 
their estate, was called after the family. As early as 
1600, the family was known to possess a most extraordi¬ 
nary tribe of cattle.” 
These words occur in an account of a particular tribe 
of Short-horns, first known in their history as being in 
the possession of the family of the Aislabies. I thought- 
proper to say of this family, that they were Norman in 
extraction—had been centuries in England, and that after 
having been 300 years in Durham, they possessed an ex¬ 
traordinary tribe of cattle. 
In noticing this account of mine, in the September No. 
of the Cultivator, 1850, Mr. Howard, then an editor of 
it, says: u the most natural inference from Jie tenor of 
the language would be, that they were Norman Cattle, 
brought into England by the Aislabies.” 
In a personal interview with Mr. Howard, I explained 
to him verbally what I meant, and supposed he would be 
just enough to himself to do me justice. This he never 
saw fit to do. And now, at the end of nearly two years, 
he, as a correspondent of the Cultivator, charges me with 
saying,(“ at least by implication,) that those stocks, [St. 
Quintin’s and Pennyman’s] came from Normandy.” My 
account did not mention St. Quintin or his cattle at all; 
stated that the Pennymans got their cattle of the Aisla¬ 
bies; made the cattle of the Aislabies to be Short-horns, 
and therefore, of necessity, made the cattle of the Pen¬ 
nymans to be Short-horns. 
I do no not intervene in this altercation between Pla¬ 
tanus and Mr. Evans, or as it now stands, Mr. How¬ 
ard added. Who Platanus is, I know not. I read his 
article when it first appeared, and have not re-perused it. 
Whether he would receive me as authority, as Mr. How¬ 
ard alleges, I cannot say. 
