SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 583 



The latest enemy to invade the corn field, with a full determination to 

 ■diminish the yield, is the old-fashioned grub worm. This year, for the 

 first time, he appeared in great numbers on my own farm and did ma- 

 terial damage to the corn growing on clover sod — I think fully twenty 

 bushels per acre. Is he here to stay or was this an accidental visit? I 

 don't know, but I have a grave fear we shall meet him again. The corn 

 root aphis or louse is here and in many parts of the state is doing ma- 

 terial damage. The first generation of this insect, which hatches early in 

 April, is absolutely helpless and is c^red for by a medium-sized red ant. 

 It is carried to the roots of the corn, where it feeds to the great injury 

 of the plant. This insect seems to thrive best during a series of dry 

 years. It almost wholly disappears during a wet season. During 1899, 

 1900 and 1901 I think fully 5 per cent of the hills on my farm were 

 affected. But since that time their damage has been very slight. 



The most destructive of all the bugs or insects which infest the corn 

 fields and one which is doing more to lessen the acreage devoted to corn 

 in this state than all the other things is the beetle which produces the 

 corn root worm. This bug may be found by the thousands in any corn 

 field in the state, or in the United States, so far as that is concerned. It 

 makes its appearance about the time the corn comes in silk and may be 

 found about the silks until they are completely dead, or until about the 

 10th of September. This bug lays its egg in the ground, where it remains 

 until late the following June or early July, when the egg is hatched and 

 the larva, or corn rot worm, as we call it, makes its way to the root 

 of the corn plant and 'oegins its work of destruction by eating away the 

 outer layer or that thick, sott covering of the root, which soon decays 

 at that point. Indeed, in perhaps half the instances the root proper 

 Is eaten off. By the ravages of tnis worm the yield is cut in two, some- 

 times in three, and any little gust of wind will put the stalks flat to 

 the ground. I exhibit the bugs, the larva or worm, also a stalk of corn 

 with every root eaten off and a stalk showing the natural root system. 

 These two stalKS say more than 1 eouid write in a wee^^. 



The stalk with the root eaten off was on ground grown to corn con- 

 tinuously for five years. The stalk showing full root system was grown 

 on fall plowing, but on ground that had been in corn for four con- 

 secutive years and was badly infested with worms until it was sown to 

 oats in 1905. This worm lives entirely on the roots of corn, kaffer corn, 

 or sorghum. This is the official life history, but I am going to add from 

 my own observation the roots of cucumber, squash, mellon and pumpkin, 

 as the bug is invariably found on the blossoms of these vines. Be that 

 as it may, certain it is that if the land is seeded to small grain it will 

 completely rid the ground of the worms, until it is again infested. 

 This worm cries in tones both clear and loud, "Rotate, rotate, rotate." 

 If there are those who believe this beetle is only a local trouble and his 

 visit but temporary I ask them to disabuse their minds on that point. 

 On a recent trip to the Pacific coast I saw the bugs among the great corn 

 fields of Nebraska and on the little flint corn along the legendary Platte 

 in Colorado; I saw them among the melon vines at Green River, Utah, 

 and on the little patches of sweet ccrn amid the sage brush of Nevada; 

 I saw them among the squash vines on the islands of the Sacramento 



