The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-05-04

also be taken that the sowing of wheat
In the fall Is delayed until the fy-free
date, information regarding which date
can be obtained by applying to local
county agricultural agents or state ex-
perimental stations. Finally, a good
rotation of crops should be practiced
wherever possible, and the co-opera-
ton of the entire community secured
in following these preventive meas
ures.
Daily Action Is Necessary.
The army worm, known as a pest Of
the farmer from early colonial times,
and the locusts or grasshoppers often
multiply under favorable conditions to
numbers sufficient to devour great
areas Of both grain and forage crops.
Both may be killed easily If attacked
in time by sowing broadcast among
them a poisoned food which they pre-
fer to the grain and grass plants on
which they naturally feed But this
method requires, as a rule, early notice
of the impending calamity, prompt or
%ganization of the communities con-
cerned for self-defense and general ar
rangements for the quick supply Of all
the necessary materials in wholesale
quantities-al measures for which
careful preparation must be made in
advance.
In case the worms are not discover
ed until they have begun to travel in
a mass, usually they can be destroyed
by furrowing or ditching completely
around the infested area. The worms
will fall into the bitches and can be
killed easily by crushing them with a
log-hitched to a horse or mule-drag-
ged back and forth through the ditch
or furrow. Another method is to dig
shallow %postholes in the bottom of the
ditch at intervals of about 20 feet, in
To which the worms, crawling along the
ditch bottoms, will fall. They can then
be destroyed by crushing or other
means.
Fighting the cutworm.
The cutworm injury, which usually
consists in the cutting off the plants
at or a little below the surface of the
ground, almost invariably occurs In the
spring, beginning IS soon as the first
plants sprout and continuing until late
June or early July, by which time the
worms are full grown. The worms
feed at night and rest during the day
beneath debris or in the soil from one
half to one inch below the surface,
and since in most cases they resemble
the soil closely in color the Of
the injury often is not apparent. Pois-
oned bats are effective when cut
worms are found to be abundant on
corn land, but proper rotation of crops
is the best preventive measure. Pas
turing hogs upon land supposed to
harbor cutworms is a beneficial prac-
tice, as these animals root up and de-
vour insects of many kinds, including
cutwOrms, in large numbers. Farm
poultry, allowed to follow the pillow, is
also of great value.
A billion dollars a year or the av-
erage is sacrificed to insects in the
United States, according to careful
computations and estimates made by
the experts of the national department
of agriculture. 1t is a prize worth
fighting for, especially in these times
of threatened scarcity of food. But
individual guerrilla fighting to which
this interest has been left in the past
will no longer suffice-has never suf-
feed, in fact. Carefully planned cam
paigns by organized communities, par
ticipated in by everyone so situated as
to be available, directed by experts
and financed so far as necessary by
the state, are the only means to sue
cess.