98 



For nine years nothing was heard at the Department about damage 

 done by this insect to corn, save that in his report on Insects Injurious to 

 Garden Crops in Florichi (Bulletin No. 14, Division of Entomology),- Mr. 

 Ashmead mentioned the fact that this species damages corn near Jack- 

 sonville. In 1889 Mr. W. J. Thompson, of Louisiana, wrote concerning 

 damage to sorghum, which he had begun to grow upon his large plan- 

 tation in St. Marys Parish, and in an article in the Louisiana Sugar 

 Planter, of November 2, 1889 (reprinted in Insect Life, vol. ii, pp. 

 389, 390), Mr. Thompson recommended, as the outcome of his particu- 

 lar experience, the remedies which I had suggested in 1881, viz, the 

 burning of the tops, the avoiding of flat or round mats for seed cane, 

 and the planting of canes in the autumn, selecting such as are least 

 a fleeted. 



There can be no doubt, however, but that the insect has been gradu- 

 ally on the increase in more northern cornfields for a number of years, 

 occurring usually in such small numbers as to be unnoticed. The only 

 serious imtbreiiks seem to have been those in Lincoln County, Ga., and 

 Abbeville County, S. C, in 1881. That the worms may have been quite 

 abundant in many fields without being noticed by planters, or at least 

 without attracting sulficieut attention to cause a report to State or Gov- 

 ernment authorities, is shown by my observations near Columbia, just 

 mentioned. 



Through favorable seasons and through gradual increase the species 

 has now, however, become a somewhat serious pest as far north as 

 the Maryland border line, as we have recently ascertained. In July, 

 1890, Mr. W. J. Morton, of Fredericksburg, Ya., sent in a few speci- 

 mens to the Division with the statement that the corn crop was sufler 

 ing severely in his neighborhood (Insect Life, vol. iii, p. 64). The 

 third Aveek in July, 1891, Mr. Fielding Lewis, an employe of the De 

 partment of Agriculture, brought to the Division from his place in King 

 George County, some 40 miles south of Washington, some sections of 

 cornstalk completely riddled by this larva. 



On July 24, Mr. Cordley, of the Division of Entomology, was sent to 

 Chatterton Landing, Potomac River, King George County, and he 

 brought home considerable material and reported that examination of 

 twenty-seven fields showed about 25 per cent of the stalks to be infested. 

 Early jjlanted corn was found to be worst infested. Of corn planted dur- 

 iug the first and second weeks in April, 25 per cent was afl'ected; of that 

 planted in the third and fourth weeks in April, 20 per cent was affected; 

 of that planted May 1 to 15, 15 per cent was affected; of that planted 

 from the 15th to the 31st of May, 12 per cent was attacked ; while of that 

 planted from the 1st to the 15th of June, about 8 xier cent was affected. 

 Corn jjlanted after the 1st of June was not infested to any extent. The 

 average injury to crops jjlanted upon stalk land or land in corn last 

 year was 25 per cent, while the average injury to corn planted on sod 

 land was 10 per cent. One sod field, with stalk land on three sides, was 



