Norwich bulletin., 1914-07-24

st unessviiIs but Net Yet in Nsr-
 ~ioh.
 Millions Of army worms which threatened the destruction of 70 acres Of corn. valued at sie,eeo. on the dpre Morton F. Plant, at Eastern Point. have been virtually exterminated by a force of 50 iabprers. automobiles and auto trucks, under the direction of Prof. e. H. I.amson of Connecticut Aerieultural college. The invasion of the pests was noted late Tuesday and Professor Lamson was notified. He arrived at the farms Wednesday morn ing and at once fnaugurated a war of annihilation on the worms which at the time covered the ground in in numerable swaEms.
 Double ditches were dug. complete ly surrounding the great corn area. Tn the worst places poisonous mash consisting of bran, paris green and molagses was strewn. The worms tackled it with avidtty. and in almost less time than is required to write 1t. millions Of the creatures had ended their destructive careers. They laid so thickly in the ditches that they could be shoveled out like ashes from furnace. In other sections where they were not so thick they were krl- ed as they fell into the trenches.
 So quickly was the invasion of the pests taken in hand by the farm management that little damage was done to the valuable corn crop. which when harvested Is likely to be in the vicinity of 2.0oo tons. The worms made their first appearance in sec ton of millet. where they made slight headway before being discovered. The laborers and equipment. utilized in controlling the ravages of the worms were all from the Plant estate, work l1xsr fAsr afI from other departments to combat the plague.
 While the worms are not entirely eliminated from the estate 1t is be- lieyed that they are thoroughly under control. Numbers of them are seer On the golf course, where they car do little harm. Commodore Plant wis ited the farms Thursday morning and expressed himself as highly pleased with the successful campaign which had been waged.
 &J. eB. Brigham of the Whitehall farm at Great Neck. Waterford, sait ! Thursday that his crops had alread. suffered an estimated damage of s60' from the scourge of the worms. Thel arrived Sunday and had been extreme ] ly busy since. Walls surrounding thu l property are black with them. Th'
 worms have practically destroyed Il acre field of oats and yesterday wer'
 
 Wednesday he devoted the day t' cutting as much of the oats as possible Ito prevent the worms from ruininj ! it. He also dug deep furrow aroun' | the corn field to head off the pest I from that portion of the farm. Som l of them had already gotten there am Mir Brigham found some of the larya i slowed away in the ears of corn Tn worms stormed the ditches and wer l soon at work destroying the corn As the farm has 90 head of cattle t 1 feed the loss of the crop is yer, 1 serious disaster
 | Numerous visitations of the worm ] have been reported in New Londol ' and they covered the state road Jus ! above UncasviIle Wednesday after
 noon to such an extent that automo I piles were in danger of skidding owe l the slippery, slimy mass which the presented to the tires of the cars.
 Tree Warden Henry E. Davis sai l Thursday night that Norwich was wis ited by the pests To or IS years az but that no indication of their pres
 ence here this year has yet appeared