Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1896 — THE ARMY WORM. [ARTICLE]

THE ARMY WORM.

Some of the Characteristics of This Great Peet of the Farmers. Tlse army worm, which has now made its appearance in many States of the Union, is a species of caterpillar. It hatches from a.n egg dpi>osited by a nightflying moth. Like the moth, the caterpillar prefers tjie night for labor and ordinarily remains quiet during the day. The hot sun is distasteful to. the worms, ‘and they die if exposed to it for a considerable time. The moth that lays the eggs is nearly one inch long and is one and three-quarters inches from tip to tip of wing. 'Rhe eggs are deposited in rows of frhm fifteen to thirty near the roots of grass and grain where they will be protected. More than 700 eggs have been found ip the body of a moth wlien dissected. The worms hatch a week or ten days after the eggs are laid, the time depending somewhat on,the climate. When their lives as caterpillars are ended they burrow into the. ground and remain there until spring, when they emerge as moths lay eggs to produce more worms.

The army worm has appeared almost every year, according to the United States Bureau of Agriculture. Only occasionally. however/.have they been num erbus enough to do' periods damage to crops. In IST<J the entire west was overs run with the numerous were they , that they stopped railroad trains. They crawled on the tracks in such numbers' that the wheels of locomotives were unable to obtain a grip on the rails. They also swarmed over the engines, disarranged the machinery, thronged the cabs and annoyed engineers uml firemen. When they are once started nothing but death can stop them. A writer, in describing the ravages of the worm in the West im 1881, said that the.sight. as a field of wheat was being devoured. was discouraging, and strong ipen turned away, nauseated, after gasiug on the slimy mass of wriggling worms. As they chewed the leaves a slight, crinkling sound could be heard. Within a few hours the grain was destroyed and the army took up its march to other pastures. Gen. Josiah Siegfried died at Pottsonrille, 1a.,-*ged (W. from kidney trouble and nervous prostration. Gen. Siegfried was one of tha prominent military men and philanthropists in the State He was the leading Republican politician o! Schuylkill County.