Wheat Cutters

The army cutworm (Euxoa auxiliaris) is a sluggish, fat, green thing striped with a nauseous yellow. Army cutworms march on wheatfields in squadrons. Each soldier worm chooses his spear of wheat. Carefully he cuts it down, ignores the grain, devours the root, moves on to the next spear. An army of worms cuts a clean swath across any field it enters, then cuts another swath. A listener can hear the concerted champing of their mandibles.

In northwestern Nebraska these worms wheat annually destroy a negligible amount of wheat-- perhaps destroy a 50 acres. But already this year 1,000 acres have been leveled in that area. Therefore last week Nebraska farmers were to be seen at a strange occupation. They were spreading bran mash, poisoned with Paris green or white arsenic, throughout their wheat fields. It is a well-known cutworm remedy.

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