The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-05-31
The Cut Worm.

III iHdTduuef. lie Is not for
elgner as is the Hessian fly or cab
tage worm. The Indians fought him
and hated him.
There are twelve varieties of cut
worms, all night workers, and from
night moths. They do immense dam
age TO all tender growth. Some climb
trees and destroy fruit buds. In Eng
iand Europe, they often destroy
thlfd OF crop, and some years here
they destroy entire crops of garden
truck, and cut down the stand of
corn so as to necessitate replanting.
They simply cut plants asunder, and
move on to destroy rather than to
iced. They riot in their Wantonness
and are as mean a public enemy as
the Court House burners of Cincin.
natl. They infest our fields, gardens
and orchards every year, and destroy
at least % per cent, of our crops, and
yet we farmers have to fight them
single handed. They are so sneaking
in their methods, work in the dark
and hide under ground, so that few
farmers know their origin and their
ways well enough to fight them sue
cessfully.
The parent moths are all of a SOM
Der hue, gray or brown. Their very
| color does not attract the attention of
birds, and they fly and lay their eggs
at night on plants or substances near
the ground, mostly during the latter
part of summer. The eggs hatch
early in the fall. and the young worms
crawl into the ground and feed on
tender roots. By the time winter
comes they are tWO-thirds grown,
when they 90 into the ground and
stay until spring. They then are
raYenous, and come up and attack
the first green succulent thing which
comes in their way. And now is the
| time the corn crop suffers. When full
grown, they descend again into the
earth and form oval chambers, in
which they go into the pupa or
chrysalis state for two to four weeks,
out of which they come in the form
of moths.
In time, the moths lay eggs, and
the eggs hatch, and the worms riot in
their Wantonness, and go back into
the earth, unless they sometimes are
| overcome with rains and hot suns,
when we farmers sometimes see their
carcasses bleaching on the ground.
But it is safe to say very small per-
centage of them miscarry this way.
Riley says some of the cut-Worms
have two broods year.
Riley and Cook have not found the
salt, SCOT, ashes and the like, recon-
mended by farmers, to he reliable.
The French peasant has the children
to follow the plow, when breaking
the land. The children pick up cut
worms and their pupa, and feed them
to the pigs and chickens. Where
children are abundant this is a profit
able way to employ them.
In some crops we can go over them
in the morning and see plants cut,
which is signal that the destroyer
is hid away just under the ground.
Dig him out and crush him, and stop
his evil career.
Late fall and early spring plowing
exposes them to the birds and pigs.
Every turning of the ground exposes
some to the birds and dininishes the
number. He used to think dislodg.
ing them from their winter quarters
by late fall plowing would destroy
many. Prof. Cook says a cut-worm
will stand 600 below zero and be
ready for business on the approach of
spring.
The gardener can afford to wrap a
smooth piece of paper around the
stalk of cabbage or other plants of
value, as the cut worm cannot cut
the paper or climb it.
Thick planting of corn is another
old remedy. as the rhyme shows:
zone for the blackbird and one for the crow,
Two for the cut-worm and three forto grow"
He thinks this couplet ISLANDERS the
crow and blackbird, since they eat
cut-worms and grubs, and in their
search for the vermin they often pull
out the corn. So these birds are not
a curse only, as is the cut-worm.
DIR. Brewer says he saw robin for
days feed its young with the moth
of the cut-worm, and the number de-
stroyed was immense.
Whippoorwills. night hawks and
night-swallows destroy the moths in
great numbers, as they do the May
beetle or June bug, which flies only
in the night.