Evening star., 1933-09-12
Pennsylvania Farmer
Tells of Army Worm
TO the Editor Of The Star:

was very much interested and sur
prised 1t the article appearing In your
Sunday Star magazine Of September 3,
1898, relative to the army worm, and
the statement that they are easily con-
trolled by plowing a furrow around
the field. The person who wrote the
article was not very much Of q farmer,
perhaps only an agriculturalist. You
know an agTiculturalist makes his
money in the city and spends 1t ON the
farm, while farmer earns his money
on the farm and spends it In the city.
In the year 1896 I was on q farm
located along the banks Of the Sus-
quehanna River. It was a very fer
tile farm and we frequently raised
more than go bushels of oats to the
acre. That year we set aside q 10
acre neld to experiment in raising
time TOR cutting, we saw by telegraphic
notices In the daily papers that the
army worm was making its appearance
IN Berks County, around about Read
ing. Pa, which was IS miles away
from our place. My wife asked me II
I had looked at our field to see II
they were there. I replied, how could
they get across the river, and passed
It along. Shortly afterward the father
m-law OF the man we had hired on
the farm made visit. and the two
walked down to look at our oat field.
The father-in-law said, Oscar, how
many bushels Of oats do you expect
from that fleld?" Oscar replied, I'VE
think we will get 80 bushels to the
acre" You will do better than that"
said the other, Il believe you will get
1000 bushels from the 10 acres" Two
days later, In company with my son,
We went down to look at the oats.
Passing another field sown a little
earlier. We noticed a peculiar look
about it, the heads Of the oats seemed
to be missing. AS we came in the
vicinity of the 10-acre field we saw
myriads Of army worms on the ground.
l rushed into town to see q gentleman
who was q member Of the board at
pennsylvania Agricultural College I
asked him If the department knew OF
any way to exterminate them. He re-
piled he had just received a bulletin
and had given it to the daily paper
for publication. I obtained a COPY
OF the bulletin, which directed you to
plow furrow around the field. We
Immediately plowed the furrow A few
hours later heavy storm came and
l was impatient to get down to see
the result, as I expected to see the
furrow filled with army worms, but it
was not. It looked as If every stalk
in the field had an army worm on it,
while the furrow did not have a single
worm. Like all such destructive
worms. they do their work only when
the sun is hidden
The army worm is formed with a
set OF stout prongs at the rear, which
answer as clippers. They climb up
the stalk and when they reach the
head. reverse themselves clip of the
head and turn about and consume the
sap escaping where the cut was made
The talk still standing, you 60 not
realize how much grain Is destroyed.
1t was the first and only time the
army worm appeared in the State Of
Pennsylvania, and was the result Of
an extraordinarily early Spring The
army worm seems to be the product
of the white butterfly. This butterfly
appeared in immense swarms that year,
sufficiently early to deposit their eggs
and develop the army worm in time
for the oats harvest
II the army worm can successfully
climb an oats stalk to a height Of
nearly 3 feet, you can see how easily
1t could ascend a straight furrow,
height Of about 10 inches.
j. K. BITTENBENDER.