Daily National Intelligencer

FROM THE AMERICAN D. ADVERTISER.

AGRICULTURAL.

At a stated meeting of the Philadelphia Society for promoting Agriculture, held October 8th, 1816, the following communication was read, and the information therein contained being considered highly important and interesting to farmers, it was ordered that it be published.

S. HAZARD, Assistant Sec'ry.

Corn-Grubs, or Cut-Worms.

BELMONT, AUG. 8, 1816.

Sir—This season has been remarkably unpropitious to our crops of Indian Corn, which, however, are far better than we could have expected, and will, on the whole, be plentiful, (altho' in many parts of our country they have been greatly injured) if we should be favored with a mild autumn. - The ravages of the Grub, or Cutworm, have been uncommonly ruinous. In our Sd vol. 28, 282, I mention, that the Corn Grubs, or Cutworms, are the progeny of the Beetles, (called by Entomologists Scarabaeus Carnifex) which we see rolling balls of cow dung to be deposited in the earth, or the shelter of their offspring, contained in them, and progress to the state in which they are so mischievous to us. The holes in which the balls are lodged are never deeper than should be the furrows of good ploughing- Therefore, the prevention of this scourge, so often deplored; and so seldom guarded against, is always in the power of every provident farmer ; and if he will not prevent it, he ought not to complain of the injuries to which his corn crops are subject. The preventive in fall ploughing, which exposes the progeny of the Grub to destruction, by frosts and other inclemencies of the winter. During a period of more than 50 years, I have been personally engaged, or constantly interested, in practical farming, and I can truly say that I never suffered any material injury from Grubs, when I turned up my fields intended for corn in the fall of the year. I always harrowed the fallow, and previously thereto often rolled down the sod. When I could procure lime at that season, or early in the spring. I was and am still in the habit of spreading it on the corn fallow—and, although this is a sure destroyer of the progeny of the Beetle, yet the effect was manifest without the application of lime. If fall ploughing yielded no other benefits, (and numerous are its advantages) one would imagine that this would be sufficient to recommend it to general adoption. Yet, although the practice has been of late years more commendably attended to than formerly, it is really deplorable that it is not universally followed. Merely ploughing is salutary; but the harrowing, and thereby completely separating the clods, and breaking up the nests or depositories of vermin, is equally essential. Besides, the sod being thus decomposed, and access of air prevented by harrowing, (and if previously rolled, the more so,) the weeds and grass do not vegetate in the spring. If undisturbed, and they may so remain if the seed be shallow planted, those pests become rotted ; and assist, instead of impeding the growth of the crop. I have made extensive inquiries this season; and I have found, universally, that those who fall ploughed judicious, escaped the Grub. In some instances, where the field was only partially ploughed, or the work ill managed, the Grub was more or less injurious ; and I considered these as exceptions to the general fact, without shaking the principles of the practice. In some fields only partially fall ploughed, the superior vigor of the corn is strikingly perceptible. Ploughing or backing up a few furrows in the spring, and leaving balks or the worms to feed on, may have partial advantages ; but this is a miserable substitute for fall ploughing -and is a disgusting proof of negligent and slovenly farming, though it may occasionally succeed.

I am your very obedient servant,

RICHARD PETERS.

Robert Vaux, Esq.

Secretary to the Philadelphia Society for promoting Agriculture.