10 



STIRRINc; THE SOIL AFTER rLOWINCi AND BEFORE CULTIVATING THE CROP. 



The action of the ants in colonizing the young root-aphides on the 

 roots of .young grass and weeds that spring up in the fields almost 

 immediatel}^ after plowing in spring has already been explained. 

 Indeed, this is the only pasturage for young root-aphides that is avail- 

 able at that particular period, and if this can be destroyed the pest 

 can not survive until corn roots are available. If, then, the ground is 

 frequently stirred from the time it is plowed until the first cultivation 

 takes place, not only will this pasturage for the pest be destroyed, but 

 the homes of the ants will be continually broken up and a greater or 

 less number of their own young, as well as the young root-aphides, 

 will be killed, while many unhatched eggs of the pest will be destroyed 

 or lost to the ants. This measure involves additional labor, it is true, 

 but in the writer's experience it has proved effective, and, besides, 

 every up-to-date farmer knows that the more the soil is stirred, pul- 

 verized, and compacted prior to the first cultivation, the more thriftily 

 will his crop grow when it is fairly started and the more grain will it 

 produce. So, then, the extra labor involved in this practice is not with- 

 out ample return, aside from the fact that it demoralizes the ants and 

 destroys the root-aphis. The only sections of the countrj^ wdiere this 

 is not strictly true are some portions of the South, w^iere the planter 

 must endeavor to curtail the growth of stalk in order to secure larger 

 and more perfect ears. But here, again, corn is not the major crop, 

 it is not grown for several consecutive years on the same ground, and 

 the root-aphis is not so excessively abundant. 



LATE FALL OR WINTER PLOWING. 



It is in the southern section of the country that the second prevent- 

 ive measure, i. e., late fall or winter plowing, can be best applied. 

 In the corn belt of the more northern section of the jSIiddle West, not 

 only is winter plowing, as a rule, utterly impracticable on account of 

 the more severe weather, but the fodder, instead of being secured as 

 in the East and South, is pastured off after the corn has been husked. 

 To practice late fall plowing, or indeed to fall-plow at all, would mean, 

 therefore, in this northern section, the sacrifice of this important item 

 in farm economy. As far north at least as the latitude of Washing- 

 ton, however, winter plowing is frequentl}' entirely practicable, and 

 there is little doubt that it will prove entirely effective against the 

 root-aphis. 



During the winter of 1906 Mr. John Bowie, of Annapolis Junction, 

 Md., winter-plowed the major portion of a 60-acre field in preparation 

 for corn the following season. The plowed portions occupied each of 

 two sides of the field and a narrow headland at one end ; thus the un- 

 plowed area was left in the middle of the field and this was plow ed in 



[Cir.8(i] 



