N@QwES 
ON INSECTS AFFECTING SORGHUM AND BROOM-CORN. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
Although decidedly among the minor products of the State at 
present, these crops are of sufficient importance to repay well at- 
tention to their insect enemies. From the crop report of the State 
Department of Agriculture for 1583, we learn that the area 
of sorghum in [Illinois for that year was 14,023 acres, and 
that of broom corn 33,922 acres; the value of the former crop being 
estimated at $604,157, and that of the latter at $1,481,717. The cul- 
ture of sorghum has lately acquired an additional importance not 
indicated by these figures, from the fact of the recent discovery of 
methods of manufacture of sugar from the syrup, which are said to 
be economically profitable, if appled on a large scale. 
If the present promise of progress in this direction is made good, 
we shall soon see an enormous expansion of sorghum culture 
throughout the greater part of the State; and as this expansion is 
likely - to result in a very irregular distribution of the area devoted 
to this plant, the regions immediately surrounding the sugar manu- 
factories being largely cropped with it, year after year, the oppor- 
tunity afforded for the development and maultipheation of its insect 
enemies must be very greatly increased. Doubtless, therefore, the 
injuries due to insects thus far apparent, furnish us a mere 
hint of those to be expected in the future, unless the producer of 
sorghum uses greater foresight, watchfulness, and intelligence in this 
respect, than has heretofore been the rule among those interested 
in other farm crops. ‘To the economic entomologist, the unusual 
and interesting opportunity seems likely to be afforded to watch the 
first beginnings of serious mischief to an expanding crop, and to 
give timely warning of the approach of danger. 
In previous reports from this office, the insects injurious to sor- 
ghum and broom-corn have received no attention; the latter plant 
being not even mentioned in any of them. In fact, I do not know 
that any report or paper on the insect enemies of these crops has 
been published in this country; all the literature relating to them 
consisting only of brief and scattered notes. 
In the present article I propose to collate these scattered items, 
and to report the results of my own observations, made in Central 
Illinois, during the past season. 
It is deemed scarcely worth while to treat broom-corn and sorghum 
separately, since, notwithstanding their widely different agricultural 
uses, they are so closely related in the botanical system as to make 
