INJURIES TO THE CORN PLANT AND ITS PRODUCTS. 
CLASSIFICATION OF INJURIES. 
A. INJURIES TO THE SEED IN THD EARTH. 
3. INJURIES TO THE ROOTS. 
C.° INJURIES TO THE STALK. 
D. INJURIES TO THE LEAVES. 
E. - INJURIES TO THE TASSEL AND THE SILK. 
F. INJURIES TO THE EAR IN THE FIELD. 
+. INJURIES TO DRY FODDER. 
H. InguvRIES TO STORED CORN AND MEAL. 
A. INJURIES TO THE SEED IN THE EARTH.” 
Seed corn in the earth may be destroyed by being devoured at once, 
kernel by kernel; by being bored through from side to side; by being 
penetrated at some point and hollowed out in a way to leave an empty 
shell; or by being eaten away gradually from without. It need hardly 
be said that injuries of the first class are unknown to entomology, birds 
and mammals being the only corn-field pests which are capable of them. 
A kernel which has been smoothly perforated by a cylindrical chan- 
nel has probably been visited by a wireworm—a slender, cylindrical or 
flattish, smooth, brown or brownish white, six-legged larva, likely to be 
found still working on the seed, the roots, or the underground part of 
the stalk. 
One which shows a round or oval hole at the surface, with no exit, 
will probably be found to contain either the seed-corn maggot—a white, 
soft. worm-like larva, without legs or distinct head, blunt at one end 
and pointed at the other—or the black-headed grass maggot—also a 
small footless white worm, but distinguished by its shining black head. 
If the grain has been gnawed away from without, the injury will 
commonly have begun with the germ or the softer part of the kernel 
about it, and the insect responsible will frequently be found more or 
less completely imbedded in the cavity which it has excavated. It may, 
in this case, be either one of the wireworms, as already mentioned; a 
small red or yellowish ant; or one of at least three species of small hard- 
shelled beetles. . 
If the damage has been done by ants, mealy particles are likely 
to be strewn through the dirt, as these insects do not devour the sub- 
stance of the grain, but tear it to pieces merely to liek up the fluids it 
contains; but injuries due to the various heetles referred to do not differ 
in a way to suggest the species responsible. 
* For Injuries to the Roots, see p. 45. 
