The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-11-14
FALL FLOWING OF
GRASS LANDS
As a Preventive of Damage
From Two Insect Pests.
BULLETIN is ISSUED
BY the ohio Experiment station Dealing
with the Prevention of the Ravages
of the white Grub and the
Wire Worm.

with the Prevention of the Ravages
of the white Grub and the
Wire Worm.
woostei, Nov. 13.-The Ohio Experi-
ment Station has issued the following
bulletin on fall plowing to prevent the
ravages Of white grub and wire worms
What is commonly known as the
white grub, or grub worm, is the young
of the brown May beetle, or June bug,
which occur in such abundance mate
May and June, and is not as often sug-
gested, the young of the common tum-
BILE bug. These May beetles deposit
their eggs in June, usually about the
roots of grass. These eggs hatch in
about a month, and the young grubs,
| though very small, even Immediately
after Matching appear to be larger than
the egg. They feed upon the roots of
grass and by the first of November are
| about half an inch in length, having all
the appearance of the full grown grub
excepting in the matter of size. With
the coming of cold weather or perhaps
more properly speaking, in late autumn,
| they go deeper into the ground, some
times a foot or even more, and make
for themselves small earthen cells by
packing the earth more densely about
their bodies, and in these cells pass the
winter, coming upward in the spring,
feeding upon the grass roots throughout
the entire summer, and at the end Of
the second autumn they have reached
about two thirds of their ultimate di-
mensions. They now burrow into the
ground, and again pass the winter in
an earthen cell, coming to the surface
again in the spring and feeding until
the latter part of May, in this latitude
when they abandon the grass roots,
burrow down into the ground, and again
make an earthen cell within which they
transform to the adult beetle.
1t is possible that an occasional in
dlvidual may appear above ground in
the fall, but the mass of them pass the
winter in this condition and come to the
surface as adults the follow
ing May. Thus it will be seen that they
have fed during a portion of three years.
The young of the insect is, by nature, a
grass feeder, and, therefore, they are al
ways more abundant in fields that have
remained in grass for a long series Of
years. The major portion of their in
jury in cultivated fields occurs the first
summer Immediately following series
of grass crops.
From what has been stated of the
liza history of these pests the reason for
this will be readily understood. Now,
the insect cannot be kept off grass
lands, nor is there any practical way
of reaching these grubs under ground,
and as they never get to the surface,
their control by topical applications is
not only difficult but practically i'm
possible. AS yet, we have found but
one practical way of dealing with these
pests, and, while that is not infallible,
it seems to prove effective in the ma
jority of cases. This consists in
THE FALL FLOWING
of grass lands as a preparation for the
grain crop the following year. While
early fall blowing is known to be often
effective, it is quite probable that late
fall or winter plowing is much more de-
pendable. The reason for this is that
after the grubs have constructed their
winter quarters they are probably too
stupid to construct others. If then the
ground is broken, the grub within their
winter quarters are either thrown up
to the action of continued freezing and
thawing, or, if not thrown up, are ex-
posed to the more direct effects of rain
and frost, and thus killed by the winter
weather. That this method is effective
in the majority of cases there can be
harly doubt. During the present year
the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Sta
tion has been in receipt of a number of
letters stating that where portion of a
field which, for some years, had been
devoted to meadow or pasture, was
plowed in the fall, and the remainder
in the spring, the fall plowed portion
escaped injury during the past summer,
while the spring plowed portion suffer-
ed very severely.
A concensus of all the evidence OBJ
tanned up to date, indicates that fall
plowing is the most reliable and profit
able method, known at present, for pre-
venting the ravages of the white grub.
ABOUT THE WIRE WORM.
The parent Of the wire worm is an
entirely different insect from that of
the white grub. In this case, the fully
developed insect being the slender,
brownish beetles, knowing as swapping
beetles on account of their habit. when
placed upon their backs, Of throwing
themselves into the air with a slight
snap and turning over and alighting
upon their feet. Their life history is
very much the same as that Of the white
grub. These are also grass feeding in
sects, but while the white grub is more
| ,,n,,nI LIZ fn,,nd on hinha,. lnnds uuIinL