13 
lands would be apt to show its effect more distinctly. There may also 
be some obscure influence peculiar to the natures of the different soils. 
It will be seen, therefore, that the experiments have fallen far short 
of settling the whole problem, yet it seems to me that they have been 
carried as far as profitable, and the matter is now in proper state to be 
taken up by the intelligent farmer, whose experimental plats are his 
fields. And it may be added that this is done with a feeling on my part 
that whatever of truth there may be in the matter will stand as a nu- 
cleus about which others may build, while whatever there may be of 
error will as surely disappear. 
THE EFFECT OF THE LARVZ ON THE PLANTS. 
The effect of the larvae, especially on the young plants, does not ap- 
pear to be generally understood, and I have myself been able to verify 
either the figures or descriptions of Fitch and Packard only in excep- 
tional cases. The swollen bulb just above the roots in Fitch’s figures 
gives but a vague idea of the true appearance, while Packard’s figure 
represents plants which have very evidently sprung from seeds only 
slightly covered by thesoil. Besides, the former figure only represents 
the condition of the plants long after the larvze have done their work, 
and the latter, aside from the shoot being shorter, gives no idea of the 
appearance of an infested stem, as found in nature, growing in the fields. 
The yellow color of the foliage—there is usually more brown than yellow 
about it—appears later, after the larve are full-fed, and then itis largely, 
at least, confined to the younger leaves, the older ones, under whose 
sheaths the larve occur, are killed by the freezing weather of winter. [n 
Circular No. 2 of the Agricultural Experiment Station of Purdue Uni- 
versity I have given a representation of an infested plant fresh from the 
field drawn from nature. The plant had been attacked soon after its ap- 
pearance above ground and had not tillered. The leaves under these 
conditions are broader, darker green, more vertical and bunchy. The 
youngest leaf on a healthy plant as it unfolds and pushes upward is of 
atubular form and spindle-shaped, somewhat as represented in Pack- 
ard’s figure of a healthy plant. In the case of an affected plant, the 
stem having been destroyed below ground, the spindle-shaped central 
leaf is always absent. The difference between a healthy and infested 
plant is shown by a comparison of figures. If a plant has already till- 
ered, each of the identical laterals, as they are attacked, will begin to 
take on the form and color above described. It is, therefore, not only 
possible to detect an infected plant without removing it from the 
ground, but also to determine the individual tiller infested. Now, while 
this feature of infested plants is so very clearly marked, at least after 
the larve are one-third grown, and from an economic standpoint of so 
much importance that it is surprising that it should have been over- 
looked, yet I can not myself lay claim to the fact by right of discovery, 
as it was pointed out to me by a farmer in the autumn of 1884, and was 
