Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-07-17

Reports of the ravages of the army
worm are being received from all over
Massachusetts. On some of the farms at
bingham there are said to be three worms
to every blade of grass. The 100 acre
farm of John S. =. Squire at Revere,
which is nearly all grass, is Overrun with
worms, as is that of Charles X. Morton of
Hatfield. The ravages of the worm at
Agawam and other places has been very
disastrous, and they appeared Saturday on
the large farm of Lowe Brothers in the
nearby town of Greenfield.
1t is stated in a despatch from New
York that the innumerable millions of this
army worm pest are now marching over
New York state, destroying its farms and
pleasure grounds. The worm has appear
ed in multitudes around East Hampton
and Great Neck, L. l., and on the farms
near Newburg. 1t is reported from New
burg to be moving eastward. At Great
Neck, L. l., farmers are running steam
rollers over the worms, and crushing them.
Several devices have been hit upon for eX-
terminating them, the most effective of
which is the use of heavy lawn rollers.
According to those who have made a
scientific study of this pest, its numbers in
any one year depend largely upon climatic
NOAlhlblOllos NhlNli ilolpAiJY arc Abl-
filled. Its normal feeding grounds are in
swamps or low meadows, where il sub
sists upon the various kinds of grasses
and sedges. Here, with habits similar to
those of the common cut-worm, TO which
it is allied, it escapes the common notice.
But when the caterpillars become exceed
ingly numerous and their food supply is
insufficient for their needs, they develop
the trait which has suggested their COM
mon name, that of marching in armies.
Then they appear as if by magic, marching
in straight lines across the neighboring
lands, stripping the fields clean of every
thing agreeable to them, and often doing
immense damage by cutting off plants not
satisfying their ravenous appetites. This
! march they keep up until they have COM
pleted their growth or are checked by out
side agencies. The eggs are glistening
white in color, nearly globular, and are
stuck in rows of from 10 to 20 on blades
of grass, generally being hidden under a
fold of leaf or between the sheath and
the stem. Frequently they are deposited
in stacks of standing straw, hayricks and
the like. The number laid by a single
one varies from 800 to $50.
| The full-grown caterpillar measures
about one and one-half inches in length
and trifle less than one-quarter of an
inch in diameter. The body is dingy
black in color and bears few, short scat
tering hairs. 1t is striped white, black,
rust-colored and dull red, with the under
surface more or less greenish, with ID legs,
each marked by shining black band. AT
ter completing its growth, which requires
about month, the caterpillar burrows an
inch or two into the ground or conceals it.
self in rubbish and soon changes TO a ma
hogany brown pupa. In from two tC
three weeks the moth emerges. 1t is OF
light reddish-brown or dark fawn color
and is of much the same general shape ant
size as most cut-worm moths, measuring
about one and three quarters inches across
when the wings are outspread. One car
quickly recognize it by small white spo
near the centre of each fore wing and by
an oblique dash of black extending from
the outer front border of the wing TOWARD
this white spot
The army worm has large number o