St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-07-02
full how they circulate false reports
''for fun Burlington Free Press.
A Pest that Must be Wiped Out.


..Bnl Nye,r the well known Western
newspaper correspondent, tried his
hand at gardening last summer, but
! found his seasons work brought to
nought by one big warty toad. He
/ tells the story with feeling and indig-
nation:
'Weli, began early to spade up my
angle worms aud other pets to see II
/ they had withstOod the severe winter.
! | found they had. They were unusu-
ally bright and cheerful. The potato
bugs were little sluggish ut first, bat
as the spring opened and the ground
warmed up they pitched right in and
did firstrate. Every one of my bugs
III May looked splendidly. was most
worried about my cut-wOrms. Away
long in April had not seen cut
worm, and / began to fear they had
suffered and perhaps persisted in the
extreme cold of the previous winter.
.'One morning late in the month,
however, | saw Il cnt- worm come ont
from behind IA cabbage stump aud take
off his ear-mnff'. He was little stiff
in the joints, but he had not lost hope.
| saw at once now was the time to as
sist him if had IA spark of humanity
left. | searched every work | could
find on agriculture to find ont what il
was farmers fed their blamed cut
worms, but all scientists seemed to be
silent. | read the agricultural reports,
the dictionary and the encyclopaedia,
but they didn't throw any light on the
subject. | got wild. | feared that
had brought but one cut worm through
the winter, and | was liable to lose
him unless | could find out what to
feed him. | asked some of my neigh
bOrs, but they spoke jeeringly and sar-
castically. | know now how. it was.
All their cut-worms had frozen down
last winter, and they couldn't bear to
see me get ahead.
"All at once an idea struck me.
haven't recovered from the conclusion
yet. 1t was this The worm had win
tered under cabbage stalk no doubt
he was fond of the beverage, | acted
upon this thought and brought him
two dozen red cabbage plants at 30
cents dozen. | had hit it the first
pop. He was passionately fond of
these plants and would eat three in
one night. He also had several matt
nees and sanerkraut lawn festivals for
his friends and in Il week | bought
three dozen more cabbage plants. BY
this time ! had collected a large group
of common scrub cnt-wOrins, early
Swedish cut-wOrms, dwarf Hubbard
cut-wOrms and shorthOrn cut worms,
all doing well, but, still, | thought, II
little hidebOund and bilious. They
acted languid and listless. As my
squash bugs, current-worms, potato
bugs, etc, were all doing well without
care, | devoted myself almost eXclu-
sively to my cut-wOrms. They were
all strong and well, but they seemed
melancholy with nothing to eat, day
after day, but cabbages.
81, therefore, bought five dozen to-
matO plants that We're tender and large.
These fed to the cut-wOrms at the
rate of eight or ten in one night. In IL
week the cut-w worms had thrown off
that air of ennui and languOr that |
had noticed, and were gay and light
hearted. ! got them some more tOma-
to plants and then some more cabbage
for change. On the whole, was as
proud us any young farmer who had
made success of anything.
zone morning noticed that cab
bage plant was left unchanged. The
next day it was still there. | was thun-
derstruck. | dug into the ground. My
cutwOrms were gone. | spaded up
the whole patch, but there wasn't one.
just as | had become attached to them,
and they had learned to look forward
each day to my coming, when they
would almost come up and eat a tOma-
to plant out of my hand, some one had
robbed me of them. | was almost wild
with dGSnair and Grief Suddenly some
thing tnmbled over my foot. 1t was
mostly stomach, but it had feet on each
corner. A neighbor said it was ii warty
toad. He had eaten up my summers
work. He had swallowed my cunning
little cut-worms. | tell you, gentle
reader, unless some way is provided
whereby this warty toad scOurge can
be wiped ont, for one shall relinquish
the joys of agricultural pursuits. When
il common toad, with IL sallOw complex
ion and no intellect, can swallow up
my summers work, it is time to pause.