EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 253 



toes. The only information T have in rehition to it I have 

 obtained from " The New England Homestead," which states 

 that the grub is the hirva of the May beetle or the June 

 bug. I want to say that since I have been here attending 

 this meeting 1 have met a gentleman from the town of Shef- 

 field who tells me that the beetles have done very much 

 damage to his orchard, particularly plums ; that they have 

 stripped the foliage from the trees. There are farmers in 

 this county and the adjoining county who have suffered thou- 

 sands of dollars of damage from these fjrubs. I want to 

 know how we can successfully combat these enemies of our 

 crops. 



Dr. Sturtevant. Did you ever know the grubs to come 

 two years in succession? 



Mr. MiLLiKEN. I have not been aware of their presence 

 on my farm until this season. I have seen their effects, I 

 think, which I attributed to other causes. I supposed that 

 the sudden decrease in the grass crops from our meadows 

 was caused by the drouths. This summer I was satisfied 

 that we should have a short hay crop and I procured the best 

 sweet corn I could and planted a number of acres. I was 

 surprised to see that when it came up it began to wither and 

 showed all the indications of blight. It did not seem to be 

 the effect of drouth. I began pulling up that corn by the 

 roots, and found in almost every hill that I examined from 

 four to a dozen of these grubs. They went through not only 

 my sweet corn, but my field of common corn of about eight 

 acres, and destroyed almost the whole field. I should have 

 got not less than forty bushels of shelled corn to the acre ; I 

 did not sret a hundred bushels of ears. When I cut it in 

 September, most of it was not more than two feet from the 

 ground. 



Dr. Sturtevant. I know of no way as yet of overcom- 

 ing the grub by any remedies ; but there is this to be said, 

 which gives us encouragement. I asked you the question 

 whether you ever knew the grubs to come two years in suc- 

 cession on the same piece of land. 1 have asked the same 

 question of a great many and have never heard it answered 

 in the affirmative. When they come in great abundance, I 

 think we may know they will not come again for six" or seven 



