The news., 1882-06-29

The Army Worm.
In our last issue we stated that the army
worm had made its appearance among the
farmers in the vicinity of Jobstown and
as this insect is a new torment for our
farmers they hardly know how to make
successful fight against its inroads. The
following description of the worm and
how it works will prove interesting read
ing to all:
The worms will begin in body, movsl
ing with the evehness and regularity of
order of a column of soldiers, and pillow
through the ground in given direction,
taking tie roots of the rye stalks as clean
ly as if they had never existed until they
reach certain point, when they will
wheel around with the same military pre-
cision and move directly back in their
destructive raid over an area similar in
size TO that on which they originally start
ed. Meantime another column will be
working crosswise over the same ground,
moving at right angles with the first lot,
so between them it takes but compare
lively short time for them to lay waste an
acre of grain, which is no sooner done than
they go to work on new lot, until half a
large field is sometimes completely de-
stroyed. The appetite of the insect is &C.
centric No farmer can tell when they
will leave his rye and attack his timothy
or corn, or vice versa On the timothy
they are very destructive. They will
climb the stalk and strip every blade
from them as clean as if they had been
cut off with knife Not content with
this they will eat the stalk in two in the
middle, SO that it droops and dies in a few
hours. The same mischievous trait char
acterizes them also in their raids on the
rye. At times they will work on the
roots of the grain alone in the manner
| above described and then leave the field
and so to the corn or timothy, but other
times, not satisfied with their work on the
roots, they will climb the rye stalks, eat
out every grain IN the heads, and then,
descending about half way down, will
maliciously nip out about three-fourths of
the stalk, leaving such slender portion
at the attacked part that the slightest
wind will break them of, giving field
of rye the appearance of having been gone
over by the reaper with his sickel.
In the case of the rye and timothy,
which are almost ready for cutting, the
farmers have hopes that the worms will
not do much harm. As yet they have
not got on to the stalk in quantities suf-
ficient to do much damage, but have con-
fined their work almost entirely to the
roots. The lateness of their appearance,
they think, will alone save these two
crops, Which, if threatened with destruc-
ton during the next few days, may be
cut and harvested without any material
loss. The great fear is for the corn. The
fact that this crop is nearly month be-
hind time arouses the most dismal fore
bodings among the dairy farmers, who
say they do not know what they will do if
the corn is destroyed. Last year corn was
scarce and the cost of feeding stock was
increased in proportion to the advance in
the price of feed Of all kinds. This year
the prospect for the corn, before the ap-
pearance of the army worm, was very en-
couraging. The advent of the insect,
however, has produced a depressing
change. II usually remains in one place
from four TO six weeks, and has been
known 10 stay two months Sometimes
the worms will Turk on the edge Of rye
or timothy or corn field for week, eat
ing up the grass along the fences, and just
about the time the anxious farmer is con-
graduating himself on the prospects of his
crops escaping they will with the precise
and deliberate movement of old soldie RS
begin march all along the line and move
in solid body on the crops. Nothing
that has yet been tried has proved sue
cessful in circumventing them except the
laborious method of digging trenches
about foot deep completely around the
| field. They then fall in and being unable
to crawl up the steep sides die there.
I In place where neither corn, timothy