Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-06-23
THE ARMY WORM.

A correspondent of the New York
Sun, describing the worm which has
visited New Jersey, Long Island and
other parts of the North, says: "The
army worm that has appeared this
year is about an inch long, and of a
slate color, and looks like dark grub
or caterpillar species. Its back is COW
cred with a rough fur or coating of
bristly hair, which protects it to a
great extent from the wild birds,
though the harder-throated hens eat it
up with relish. Its eyes are plainly
visible, and from its head projects feel
ers. The fore part of the body is fur
nished with unnumbered legs, while
the hind part lies fat on the ground.
It's motion is something between a
walk and crawl, and it gets over the
ground at On astonishing rate"
The worm in Frederick county has
none of this rough fur or bristly hair !;
its back is perfectly smooth. 1t has six
legs from the fore part of the body,
eight from the hinder part, and two at
the tail end. It's motion is undulating,
something like that of the inch or
measure worm, but without so much
elevation to its back. 1t has raven
GUS appetite, and evidently possesses
strong organs of digestion, as it is con-
tinually passing . black, dry excre-
ment. In a bottle containing half q
dozen of these worms, kept over night
in my room, the bulk of excrement in
the morning fully equalled that Of the
worms themselves.
A representative of the american
called on Prof. P. r Uhler, of the
Peabody Institute, showed him num-
ber of the army worms from Freder-
ick county. The Professor said they
were known to entomologists as the
Leucania unipuncto, or Northern army
worms. They are in the butterfly or
moth state everywhere in the South
during the winter. They have four
wings of drab color, with white disk,
relieved by dark shade on the front
wings. They remain under bark here
in the North, or in sheltered places
during the winter, and lay their eggs
in May, which are hatched out when
warm weather sets in. They will now
feed up for month or less and go into
the chrysalis state, whence they will
emerge as moths in the fall or spring.
For unknown reasons, the insects be-
comes extinct in certain localities for
years, but appears annually in greater
or less quantities in various sections of
the country. Paris green, lime, salt
and strong alkalies were formerly used
against them with success, but latterly
they appear to become impervious to
poisons. The best means of fighting
them is to build trenches, with the in
ner side next the crops slanting in
ward, as they cannot resist the laws Of
gravitation. They change their skins
five times while in the caterpillar
state, and employ from three weeks to
month in becoming a chrysalis. Just
before this time occurs they burrow in
crevices in the earth and remain there
until spring, or possibly come out as
moth in the fall. In Missouri and
Maryland they appear as caterpilars,
and do much damage to the crops in
June. In ATTITUDES further north they
appear later all the way to September,
when they are seen in Maine. There
are six distinct kinds of caterpillars
known as "army worms" Four are
covered whith hair and two are not.
The former are incorrectly named.
Those found in Frederick county are
the genuine army worm.-BaltamOre
american.
There is genuine economy in plant
ing the rows across garden so that
all vines which make their widespread
growth in the heat of advanced sum-
mer shall be between rows of plants
which come off early. so as to give the
vines room. In applying this sensible
system, rows at some distance from
each other are marked for tomatoes,
squashes, melons, cucumbers and cele-
ry, and retained until the time to plant
these crops. The next adjoining rows
are set with the early removable on
ions, peas, early potatoes, radishes and
lettuce, and between these are grown
cabbages, beets, late potatoes. carrots,
parsnips, corn and beans. In the next
year it is easy to change the place of
every item grown while adhering to
the main features of the arrangement.
A boy can imagine almost anything.
He can lug an old shotgun about all
day without firing at living thing,
and be under the Impression that he is
having bowling good time; but all
attempts to induce boy to imagine
hot ha iu killinn Indiana mhon ho in