PRNTALRES OSE Yo EN oe Me PERI URE (ure eiCiE ORT R Mein fen tetg ae d= NES Lee Hee a SERRE pel pe eee en eee Nae a RR rer oe Aen EP an ee ee ae nn re 
7 Ma 2 alpaca Taree ee : r tant Nee hy 4 es ye ra bi We NAS gers wt oid Ris ii M7 
x Y ; ' alte ia 
7 ai hea ¥ ga ie we 
t a3) 
43 
soaked in Fowler’s solution diluted with an equal quantity of water were 
not affected, although a portion of the corn was eaten. ‘Twelve others 
fed on corn soaked in an alcoholic solution of arsenic, were not injured 
by the poison, though feeding freely on the corn. Experiments in June 
and July, when wireworms were fed on corn soaked in a solution of ar- 
senic in boiling water, were less satisfactory because the larvee were so 
near pupation that they ate little or none, pupal cells being formed five 
days after the experiment began. Corn soaked in a solution of strych- 
nine—four grains to a half pint of water—over night, and fed to seven 
wireworms June 8, 1888, had not affected them by July 5, although 
the corn was slightly eaten. Twelve worms supplied with corn soaked 
twenty-four hours in an alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate June 
27, 1888, did not eat the corn. 
A repetition of these experiments in June and July, 1891, by a dif- 
ferent assistant and under somewhat different conditions, gave sub- 
stantially the same results. June 7, 1891, corn was soaked in a saturat- 
ed solution of potassium cyanide and fed to three wireworms. July 3 
one grain of corn was slightly eaten, and July 10 one grain was badly 
eaten and one worm missing—probably eaten by mice that had obtained 
access to the cage. July 20 several grains were badly eaten; July 27 
the remaining two worms were active, but the corn was untouched; and 
the experiment ended without effect. 
In many of the experiments, particularly when alcoholic solutions 
were used, or where the corn was soaked for a considerable length of 
time in arsenical solutions, it failed entirely to germinate; while in 
experiments where the grain was simply wet and rolled in the arsenites, 
or soaked for only a few hours, it grew almost as freely as did untreated 
corn in check lots. 
These experiments with the arsenical poisons and strychnine agree 
substantially with those of Messrs. Comstock and Slingerland, published 
in November, 1891, and show that it is not practicable to protect the 
corn by means of them, even were it possible to use them without re- 
tarding or preventing the germinating of the seed. 
Coating the kernels with tar and soaking them in a solution of salt, 
a solution of copperas, a solution of chloride of lime and copperas, in 
spirits of turpentine, and in kerosene oil, have been tried by Comstock 
and Slingerland without encouraging results. 
Applications of kerosene emulsion and pure kerosene made to the 
worms in the earth were found by me in 1885 practically ineffective, any 
_ strength sufficient to kill the larve killing vegetation also. Similar re- 
sults were obtained by Comstock and Slingerland, who, after using crude 
petroleum, an emulsion of the same, and a common kerosene emulsion, 
concluded that the last is more promising than the others. but that it 
eannot be profitably applied on a large scale. Experiments made by 
them show also that even a clean fallow for an entire season will not 
starve out the worms; that neither buckwheat, mustard, nor rape crops 
—frequently recommended to clear the earth of wireworms—will ac- 
complish the desired result; and that salt applied at the rate of 1,600 
pounds to the acre—a heavy dressing—neither drives the wireworms 
