18 INJUEIOUS INSECTS OF KANSAS. 



High cultivation is, of course, beneficial in strengthening at- 

 tacked corn, which may be able to send out new roots to replace 

 those destroyed by the insect. In moist, rich ground the corn will 

 probably successfully resist ordinary attacks of the worm. From 

 their subterranean situatiorf, the larvae cannot be got at by birds. 



Kansas Notes. — This corn pest has been known in Kansas for 

 10 years or more. Prof E. A. Popenoe called attention to it in 

 1883 (Third Biennial Report Kansas State Board of Agricul- 

 ture, 1881-82, p. 616), as at work "in the corn lands along the 

 Kaw valley." Professor Snow reported its presence in 1885 (Re- 

 port of Kansas State Board of Agriculture for quarter ending 

 December 31, 1885). A correspondent from Johnson county, 

 quoted by Professor Snow, declares that a 20-acre field of corn 

 will not make 15 bushels per acre because of the ravages of the 

 pest. 



In 1891 several specimens of the insect and reports of its rav- 

 ages were received by this Department. A correspondent in 

 Coffey county wrote: "They have been in our field for several 

 years. . . . This year they have spread so rapidly that it is 

 alarming." 



Mr. S. J. Hunter, a student of this Department, reports the 

 presence of the pest in damaging numbers this year in the vicin- 

 ity of Greeley, Anderson county. One-third of a field of 30 acres 

 is damaged to the extent of one-half the crop. The piece has 

 been in corn for six consecutive years. An adjoining field of 14 

 acres will yield but one-third of a crop because of the ravages of 

 the pest. On Mr. Hunter's own field of 35 acres, fully 5 per 

 cent, of the corn plants are infested. Several other fields in the 

 vicinity have been seriously damaged. The loss in this neigh- 

 borhood, this year, will amount to several hundred dollars. All 

 of the attacked fields have been planted to corn for several con- 

 secutive years. 



