excreta, and the dead top either becomes detached of itself or is 

 easily broken off if one attempts to pull up the plant. It will be 

 observed at once that until the roots have attained sufficient 

 dimensions it will be impossible for the insect to attack them. Over 

 the territory where red clover is grown in this country the seed 

 is sown either during late winter or spring; and during the first year 

 the roots of the plants have not yet attained sufficient size to 

 accommodate the insects at the time the latter are, with the excep- 

 tion, perhaps, of a few belated individuals, abroad and depositing 

 their eggs; and thus the plants are almost, if not, indeed, entirely, 

 exempt from attack the first year. Hence it is not until the sum- 

 mer of the second year that the plants are destroyed. This has led 

 European entomologists to believe that, like many others of the Scoly- 

 tidte, the insect does not attack the plant imtil the latter has become 

 weakened by age or is diseased. But in this country, at least, this 

 can not be true, for the reasons just given. It is not improbable, 

 however, that, as between two plants with roots of the requisite size, 

 an unhealthy one would be preferred by the beetles rather than one 

 in a thoroughly vigorous condition. But as yet there have been 

 no observations tending to verify this hypothesis. A diseased clover 

 root, or one that has begun to decline from effects of age, is first 

 affected at the heart ; and, as will be observed from figure 4, this is the 

 part first attacked by the root-borer. 



EFFECT UPON THE PLANT. 



While an infested clover plant sooner or later succumbs to an attack 

 by this insect, life may be lengthened or shortened by meteorological 

 conditions. Thus, if the spring or early summer is very dry, the 

 plants begin to die in patches late in June, as soon as the hay crop is 

 removed; but if there is much rain during this period, the weakened 

 plants may continue to live until winter, dying out before spring. In 

 either case the farmer is likely to be misled and to attribute the loss 

 to the weather. The summer of 1905 was not a dry one. Copious 

 rains fell with sufficient frequency to enable all but the most seriously 

 affected plants to survive. A prominent seedsman of Indiana, who 

 was much among clover fields, thus described the situation in October: 



In driving around this year and examining clover field:?, we have found that several 

 fields which apparently should have produced an immense amount of seed, or at least, 

 say, 3 or 4 bushels to the acre, * * * did not shake out anything. "We jmlled up 

 some plants and discovered that the plant broke off at the crown; or if any of the root 

 did come with it, it was small and decayed. On close investigation we discovered a 

 little white worm which seemed to be in abundance and w^orking amongst the roots. 

 We noticed this in a number of fields and have been wondering what it was. We have 

 also had samples of clover plants from other sections of Indiana showing these condi- 

 tions, and almost invariably the yield of such fields was less than a bushel per acre, 

 and in many instances hulling was abandoned and the huller taken out of the field. 

 [Cir. 119] 



