Staunton Spectator

From the Southern Planter.

The Joint Worm.

It is known to a good many of our readers that a new and most destructive enemy to wheat has appeared under the above name. Many crops in Albemarle are hardly worth cutting in consequence of its attacks, and all that we have seen or heard of except one, are badly hurt by it. In the area it has traversed, and the completeness of its devastation within it, it has no rival amongst insects in this country. The dreaded Hessian fly is nothing to it; and no atmospheric calamity can pretend to a comparison. It sweeps whole districts. Besides Albemarle it exists in Orange, Greene, Madison, parts of Louisa and Fluvanna, and in Augusta, Rockingham and Page counties: and everywhere, we hear, has done great damage, and it is feared will do much more before it is checked, or destroyed.

An intelligent and observing friend has given us the following account of its appearance and habits, as far as he has been able to discover them:

"It commences its work of destruction the first warm spell in the spring, and, unlike the locust or the mosquito hawk of the South, does not make its appearance suddenly, or in a few days, but continues to come from the last of March to the latter part of May. If you will examine the old wheat stubble during this period you will find them in their cells about the joint, some in the form of maggots, and others in the more advanced stage of something like a gnat, with a small, slender, black body, about one-sixth of an inch long, supplied with very delicate, transparent wings, and having towards its hinder end two very frail and slender filaments or hairs, about one-third of an inch in length, and most fancifully turned up when it is in full life and vigor, and 'regularly in for it.' Its lower extremities are armed with a sort of proboscis, or tube, with which it pierces the stalk near a joint where a blade has put out, and through which, after this operation, it ejects its egg. This cannot be seen for some time with the naked eye, being just the color of the plant wherein it is deposited; but after a few weeks it is discernible in the form of a minute worm, about one-sixteenth of an inch long. The wounded plant in attempting to heal itself throws out a lump or knot which forms a snug house for the little devil, and here he remains in a dormant state, growing as the wheat grows, and quietly awaiting another crop and warm spring weather, when he emerges to commence his work of devastation. In these knots there are always several worms, frequently as many as ten or more, each occupying a distinct chamber. I have been unable, after diligent search, to find any trace of this worm except in wheat and rye. I had heard that it would attack cheat, but think it a mistake. This spring the parent insects passed from my last year's stubble field through, or over, a fine lot of cheat without leaving a trace of their transit, and through my rye, (Multicore variety,) touching that very lightly,-I should suppose not more than one stalk in many thousands,-into the wheat, which they have so completely destroyed that it will not be worth cutting. This is all I know about the joint worm, and I have no wish for a more intimate acquaintance. I shall most assuredly cultivate no more wheat for his 'use and benefit.'

"You say, what will I do. I answer, sow more oats and rye: make large crops of tobacco, and wait until the worm is destroyed or expelled."

The symptoms of joint worm are peculiar. Every now and then it is deposited in the joint next below the head, which shortly thereafter bends, at an angle to the balance of the stem, and lies across the general perpendicular. Comparatively few are thus affected, but they are easily descried, and evidence the more serious, though at first less palpable, damage done to the balance of the stalks. These retain their attitude, but become very much "sedged," as we term it, looking much worse than any fly-eaten wheat. The underlying heads never rise, fill imperfectly, always too late for the balance of the crop, and many of them cannot escape from "the boot."

It is thought by some that this insect has existed here for some time, and has become conspicuous of late from accidental causes. A gentleman whose crop was among the first to suffer from it, about three years ago, says that he has known and observed it for ten years. Another has had it on his land for five years. An old man in the county of Louisa recollects to have seen or heard of it in that county many years back; and we have understood that a gentleman on the lower James says that more or less of it exists in wheat every year; that he has often seen it; but never in such force as it appears in Albemarle and other places. It takes about three years from its first general appearance to get into full blast, and its rate of annual progress is estimated at twenty miles, radiating in all directions. It is said to have extended as far down the country already as Beaver Dam creek in the county of Goochland. If it be there now the farmers in that region may calculate with some certainty upon its reappearance and increase.

We do not partake of the belief entertained by our community as to the continuance of this worm, or the damage it is destined to do. The first appearance of the chinch bug excited similar apprehensions; and eminent men indulged in speculations of famine to be produced by it. "But the chinch bug now does but little harm. Independent of attacks from the general enemies of the insect tribe, and of the influence of seasons, in diminishing their numbers every such thing, as far as naturalists have been able to ascertain, has also its specific enemy, or parasite, as in the case of the Hessian fly, for example, which keeps it within bounds."

We confidently trust that this worm in like manner as it becomes diffused will do less harm, and, meeting with such impediments to its increase, will ere long resume its insignificance. Meanwhile no precautions against it should be neglected by those who may be able to take them; and the wheat crop should not be relied upon exclusively in the infected districts. Among such precautions we would advise against sowing wheat next fall alongside of a field that has had joint worm this year. We have suffered most from it in such situations, and it was evidently diminished as it advanced into the field. We would recommend a strip of rye or oats between the two about twenty yards wide. We would also recommend the seeding of early wheat. The portion of our crop that is least injured is "Ruffin's Early Purple Straw," the earliest wheat known hereabouts, and which has measurably escaped on this farm, whilst the Blue Stem or Turkey Wheat on greatly superior land is totally ruined, and in nearly all places very seriously injured. Sow also on the best lands. Generally they are least infested possibly from the earlier maturity of wheat on them; though some of the richest spots, as in our own fields, have fared as badly as any. In some instances it would seem that guano has saved the crop, and in others not. We have seen cases of this kind so opposite in all their features that it would be unsafe to draw or state any inference from them.