The McArthur enquirer. (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1873-1884, 1873-06-04
MACARTHUR ENQUIRER
Cut Worms and Corn.
Edltors Coumtru GenNeman.

N"'eVfS OoWUtTy U6NCteWuB
The time for complaining will
soon be here, and l want to tel
you now how the cut-worms may be
prevented from doing any damage
The method is cheap, of easy appli.
ation and perfectly sure. If any
body else should write to you in
the same strain of assertion, /
should think he was blowing"
and would give but little heed to
him, but l beg Of your readers to
give this plan a trial in the spring
over parts of their fields, so hat it
may be tested, and then send the
result for publication, My brother,
Chalky Harvey, of Chadd's Ford,
Pa, discovered this method and
has published it year after year
many times. l once asked him if
he had heard of anybody else try
ing it, and he said he had heard of
of a very few, and he believed hat
more had failed with it than sue
ceeded, and that it had killed the
corn oftener than it had repealed
the worms, but that he should con
tinue to keep it before the public
until it's merits were appreciated by
enough farmers to prevent the dis
covery from being lost again. / am
pleased to say that l have, within a
few years past, heard of a good
many who have used it success
fully.
2. The failures are are always the
result of miss management of the
grossest kind, though the whole
thingis just as simple as sweetening
a cup of coffee. Here it is. I'm
mediately after the corn is planted,
sprinkle on the hill, over the covered
grains, about one tablespoonful of
salt to each hill. More will do
harm, but how much more the corn
would bear / do not KIN ow. A ta-
ble-spoonful is enough, and perhaps
less would do. That is all. / have
buried cut-worms in salt and left
them there a long time without do
ing them any apparent harm, an d
they will crawl over salt without
hesitation or any seeming annoy
ance, but they will not eat the corn
plants if there is a little salt in it's
sap. That seems to be the expla-
ton Of its protective influence.
The explanation of the harm
sometimes done by this method is
as follows: The worm begins to cut
the corn, and keeps on cutting it
The farmers have seen my broth
er's article in the county newspa-
per, or in some agricultural publica-
ton, and he gives his corn hills,
and corn, a dose Of salt. The grains
fall down the inside of the tender
corn blades to the center of the
plant and wither it. Allow me to
repeat that the salt should be put
on the corr hills Immediately after
the planting, that it may be dis
solved by the rain, dew or other
moisture in the air, and thus reach
the roots of the plant greatly dilu-
ted by the mixture with the soil,
and therefore safe to the young
anu Jender plant; ana als nat III
may be at the roots where it may
enter the sap of the plant-not at
the leaves, where it can only de-
stroy. | wish that some Of our
cotton growing readers would try it
on cotton plants as a protection
against the worms hat every few
years infict q national calamity by
making so much of the crop a fail
ure. If it should prove as success
full on cotton as on corn, Congress
may recognize the value Of my sug-
gestion by voting me a few sections
of public land, which / will CRATE
fully accept, and establish an ex-
detrimental farm.