Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-07-02
Weekly Bureau of In
, formation for All Who
Till the Soil or Are In
teyested in Making Homes
AS TO CUTWORM REMEDIES

/ Ssss. Tomatoes. cahhaEes, sweet potatoes.
lettuce and other truck plants. es-
lecially those which started un-
80 der class and iransplantcd, arc sub
~ poet to serious injury by cu;wormS.
rrThese pests appear somtimes in great
numbers in the spring and early sum
mer and frequently do severe injury
before their raVaEeS are noticed Their
method of attack is TO cut off the young
plants at about the surface OF the
IA. ground. and as these Caterpillars are
OF large size and voracicus feeders.
=" they are capable Of destroying many
zS,plants in single nieht-frcGuently
more than they can dcvour. Every
year these insects working generally
~ throughout the United States have de
,rycStroyed hundreds Of thousands of dol
lars worth OF crops. by the timely
application of remedies. however. they
..sreaoily can he controlled, even over
= considerable areas. The usual method
of control is by the use OF poisoned
bats.
=, Take hushel OF dry bran add one
pound of white arsenic or Paris green.
and mix IL thoroughly into mash with
~ eight gallons Of water. in which has
been stirred half a gallon of sorghum
or other cheap molssses. (Arscuic and
g Paris green are deadly poison Han
= die them with great carcD This
a. amount will be suitic:en, for the treat
ment OF about four or five acres of
- cultivated crops. After the mesh has
r STOOD for several hours. scatter il; in
Jumps aoou, the size OF a marble over
:. the fields where the INJURY is begin
ninE to appear and about the bases OF
!. the plants set out. Apply late in the
- DAY, so as to place the poison about the
= plants before night. which is the time
when eutworms are active. Apply
fiSn~ second time. if necessary Keen
- children. live stock and chickens away
& from this bait
When cutworms occur in unusual
abundance which happens locally and
sometimes generally. they exhaust
their food supply and migrate to other
assuming what is called the army
worm habit. AT such times it is neces-
=. sary to treat them the same as army
worms. While the methods which have
oeen advised are valuable in such
cases, they may be too slow to destroy
all the cutworms. and other methods
must be employed. These include
trenching. ditchng, the blowing OF
deep burrows in advance Of the travel
- ing cutworms to trap them and the
Dragging of logs or brush through the
burrows. If the trenches can be filled
with water. the addition OF n small
ttnn scum on the surface. will prove
1atal TO the cutworms. In extreme
cases. barriers Of fence boards are
---srected and the tops smearcd with tar
r. OF. other sticky substances to stop the
:. over.
-. In extremely sever attacks by cut
>, worms on choice plants there is some
times no opportunity to prepare the
poisoned bait. In such cases an ar
-&ssenate Of lead spray will answer quite
as well. In one instance parsley field
-".was sprayed with four pounds OF ar
e senate OF lead to fifty gallons Of water:
!, this killed all the cutworms, whereas
IL they had been left alone for a day
or two longer the field probably would
have been destroyed. The result was