Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-10-10
LATE FALL FLOWING
AND INSECT CONTROL
It Will Kill Thousands
of the WireWorms

Orono, Me, Oct. 9.-The following
was issued today from the office Of
Charles D. Woods, director of the
Maine Agricultural Experiment sta
tion at the University Of Maine:
The Maine Agricultural Expert
ment Station frequently has occasion
to advise cultivators to start the
preparation of their seedbed in the
fall of the year and this would seem
an appropriate time to point out some
Of the advantages Of late fall plow-
ing
Late fall blowing" seems to work
in better on many Maine farms than
early fall or late summer following
and in some respects it is advantage
Gus, especially from the standpoint of
insect control. 1t is a well known
fact that insects become sluggish as
the cold comes on and many of them
crawl into the ground to hibernate.
Others, such as wireworms. white-
grubs, cutworms, and many others
which live in the ground curl up and
pass the winter in a quiescent con-
dition. Now when these are turned
up by the plow and exposed to the
weather they are often too sluggish
to crawl back into the ground and are
easily captured by their natural enc
mics. Where "wireworms" have been
especially numerous late fall plow-
ing" will destroy great numbers by
exposing them to the birds, skunks
and the tiny moles and field shrews.
The mole depends entirely upon in
sects for his food and wireworms
constitute large part of his diet es-
pecially in the meadows and corn
land. Fall blowing always helps our
animal friends by breaking the sod
and making the underground meets
available to them but it also has an
immediate value in destroying the
wireworm adults. When wireworms
Change over" to adults or Click
beetles" they construct a little earth
en- cell in which the process occurs
and then the soft beetle remains over
winter in the cell. If. now, the cell is
broken open by blowing, the beetle
will be killed and will lay no eggs in
the adjacent meadow land. Beside
the many ground inhabiting insects
thus destroyed their eggs are fire.
auently broken and turned up to the
weather and great numbers such as
grasshopper egg packets are entirely
prevented from Matching.
In case the soil is known to be in
tested with wireworms and trouble
was experienced this year in grow
ing corn, for instance. the cultivator
often wonders what crop he may plant
in such land. Oats, barley. rye,
buckwheat, clover and other similar
small grains and field crops seem to
suffer less and are always included in
the same rotation system with corn.
In the same way, when meadow land
is plowed up trouble may be avoided
If wireworms are abundant by plant
ing to one Of the small grains fol-
lowed by clover and corn when less
injury will be observed. Complete
eradication of wire worms is almost
impossible but the numbers are re-
duced to a minimum by crop rota
ton.
Beside the advantages of insect
control, weeds are destroyed and the
furrow slice is given time to settle
down against the subsoil and to es
tablish good capillary connections for
moisture Small grains thrive better
on a fairly compact seed-bed which
fall blowing establishes so well. Fall
blowing also relieves the spring rush
at seeding time and helps solve the
labor shortage problem occurring at
that time. And after all the climate