Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-02-02
The Plague of Cut-Worms.

thousands of farmers and gardeners,
every spring are troubled and vexed
over the ravages of that ancient enemy of
mankind, the cutwOrm, and many and
deep are the imprecations which result
therefrom. 1t must be confessed that it
requires very strong development of
all the virtues to enable one to contem-
plate with equanimity of spirit the de-
struction of hill after hill and row after
row of corn, or the disappearance of
plant after plant in the flower or vege-
table garden. Upon such occasions
ones feelings seek utterance in rather
forcible language. 1t is generally just
after breakfast. You have eaten to sat
isfaction, you feel at peace with the
world; you talk to your wife about the
hopes you have in that field of sprouting
corn, or you call up visions of great SOL
id heads of tender cabbage fit for king
or bank cashier to eat, you dwell upon
the promise of an abundance of smooth
red potatoes which your last nights
paintings warrant you in making, to
your wife, and then you walk out and
take look at things. The tomato bed
doesn't look as it did last evening; there
are fewer plants to be seen, and of those
remaining most have a discouraged
iOOh- IOtT spirits uIOp d SOOu IuduS
degrees, and with forebodings you go
over your cabbage patch, only to have
them drop still lower. The grateful Wis
ion of kraut and catsup is rapidly fading.
In your despair and anger you inaugur-
ate a war of determination, and you
savagely unearth big, fat, shiny cut
worm and grind him to death under
your indignant heel. You search for
another and immediate him. Thus you
continue for a while and the slaughter
is great, but when you rise to
rest your back and think, the
feeling comes to you that all this
slaughter will not restore your
ruined crops. The mischief is done.
Maybe you dig and kill until you think
you have left not single cut-worm in
the whole garden; you then proceed to
set out new crop. Foolish man!
Don't you know that all the '' uncles,
cousins and aunts'-yes, and the broth
ers and sisters, the second cousins, and
the neighbors, friends and acquaint-
ances-of the dead cut-worm will rally
around the new crop and dispose of it
just as easily as if you had not done any
killing. Cut-worms are like office-seek-
ers; decapitate all of them to-day and
tomorrow the swarm will be large as
ever.
Whoever carefully studies the cut
worm will learn to respect his sagacity
and admire the cunning of his villainy.
He manages to hatch out from an egg
along in the latter part of summer or in
early autumn, when vegetation is album
dant and his food consequently easily
Obtainable. His board does not cost
him much for few weeks, for he is
very small, and does not eat much, and
then at this time of the year august,
September and October) the gardener is
not so particular about few mouthfuls
of tomato or cabbage, which the worm
may now take with impunity. These
are the halcyon days of the cut-worm.
He has but few enemies. He is in his
boyhood. He doubtless has a good
time, and "cuts up'' as only boys and
cut-worms can. But an evil day is COM
ing. There gradually creeps into the
soil chill which takes the freshness out
of him and makes him look soberly into
the future. Winter is upon him, and
he must seek protection. This he finds
under friendly sod or heap of rub
bish thoughtlessly left by his now care
less enemy, the gardener; or, maybe,
he buries himself deeply in the ground
and makes snug little bed in which to
pass the winter. He undergoes a fast for
the next six months which throws that
of Tanner and Griscom into the shade,
and in early spring he is ready to fall to
work again. His spring appetite is most
ravenous and it tells quickly upon the
young plants in the garden and field,
and makes the owner wish for a curse
wherewith to curse all cut-worms to
their death.
Curses in these later days are. how
ever. of no avail. An communicated
cut-worm can do just as much damage
as one not mathematical. The only
way to bring q cut-wOrm to terms is to
make use of the argumentum I'D YER
mem, as the lawyers would say. More
over, you must begin early. You must
not wait until he has taken a nip out of
your cabbage after that long fast of his.
You know low hard it is to control a
half-famished man after he has seen and
tasted food. 1t is just so with the cut
worm. Then, too, the cut-worm is old
and tough in the spring. Experience
has given him wisdom. The time to
deal with him is in the fall of the year,
or in the early part of winter. He is
Young then, and easily circumvented.
Begin early, and by cleaning up the
ground as soon as possible after the
crops are removed deprive the young
cut-worm of his usual autumnal food
That done. see to it that all rubbish
which might supply shelter to him is
carried off to the compost heap. Lastly,
destroy his winter quarters by blowing
or spading the ground just as late ia the
season as possible. Should we have
mild enough weather during December
to permit it, a spading up of the garden
or flower-bed would be a most excellent
thing in the way of working injury
to our ancient enemy.-C0r. Ckicago
Herald.
SaItpeter for Meat.