THE BOLLWORM OR CORN EAR WORM. 



fig. 2.) A little later this injury often seriously atfects the tassels 

 before they have opened out, and when the silks appear eggs are 

 laid upon them and young corn earworms burrow down through 

 the silks and attack the small kernels, as shown in the illus- 

 tration on the title-page. The tij^s of the ears are injured first; 

 later, especially in tender varieties such as sweet corn, the ear- 

 worms sometimes eat completely to the base of the ear and almost 

 destro}" it. In some regions practically every ear of sweet corn is 

 more or less dam- 

 aged and through- 

 out the entire 

 country from 70 to 

 98 per cent of the 

 ears of field corn 

 are attacked. Fol- 

 lowing this injury 

 molds frequently 

 gain access to the 

 ears and damage 

 them still further. 

 This is especially 

 true during wet 

 seasons. Such 

 conditions are 



often followed by 

 an abnormally 

 large number of 

 cases of death 

 among stock from 

 the so-called corn- 

 stalk disease which 

 seems to be caused 

 by certain molds 

 which develop on 

 corn. 



In the case of 



-Cotton 

 tip. 



boll with full-grown bollworm eating Into 

 Natural size. (Quaintauce.) 



cotton the injury 



is readily distinguished from that caused by the boll weevil, as 

 the squares and more tender bolls are completely eaten out, par- 

 ticularly after the worms have gained considerable size. Occa- 

 sionally full-grown bolls are gnawed into by the large cater- 

 pillars and from one to all of the locks of cotton damaged. (See 

 fig. 3.) Bolls which have become hard are seldom fed upon to 

 any extent. 



Injury to tomatoes consists piincipally of damage to the green 

 or partially ripened fruit, but the young bolhvorms sometimes also 



