v.\ 



other gcMionil measures characteristic of intelligent and careful a<;;ri- 

 cullure. 



Orllioptcra: (intsslioppcrs. Locusts, ami Ciickcts. — About (wenty-five 

 species of Orthophro have been nolicinl as common in corn fields, the 

 lar«;er number anil the only destructive s})ecies belouf^ing to the so-called 

 short-horned f;rassho|)i)ers (Acrididiv). Like very many other insect 

 visitants to the coi-n field, these Acrididoe are normal grass insects, and 

 go into the corn in numbers sufTicient to attract attention only when 

 their usnal food threatens to fail, and their injuries are consequently 

 conlined at lirst^ to tiu> edg(>s of lields atljoining pastures and meadows. 

 The great migrating grasslu)pper of the Western Plains is, of course, an 

 exception to this statement, and an occasional migrant swarm of (nn-tain 

 Illinois species imitates with some success the practices of this western 

 insect, settling upon a lield like a flock of birds, and doing a general 

 injury. 



The ordinary grasshopper attack on corn is rarely made by the young, 

 and is conseipiently posttx)ned, as a rule, mitil late summer or early fall, 

 when the corn is practically full grown and the insects are able to fly. 

 Where the injury is severe the leaves are eaten away to the tough midrib, 

 the husks are gnawed from the car, and the latter, if still ytnmg, is itself 

 devoured, little but bare stalks remaining about the edges of the fields. 

 I'ourteen species of short-horned grasshoppers are on our list of those 

 injuring corn in this way. 



'['he long-horned grasshoppers {Locuslidd), including the meadow 

 grass hoppere, climbing crickets, and the like, are not unconunon in corn 

 fields, but they are oidy slightly injurious to that plant. One of them, 

 Orchdimwn vulgarc, has occasionally been seen to eat the leaves, silk, 

 husks, and grain, and many other species sometimes gnaw away a few 

 kernels from the tip of the ear. Several kinds of these insects fre(iuently 

 lay their eggs in the slender part of the corn-stalk, in or below the tassel 

 of the ripened plant, but their food consists maiidy of pollen, fungi, [)lant- 

 lice, etc., and indicates no injury to corn. 



Two of the connnon crickets (Gryllus 'pennsylvanicus and Ncmobius 

 fasciatus) sometimes injure the ripened ear, especially where there are 

 many fallen stalks in the lield, by crce})ing in beneath the husks and 

 gnawing off the surfaces of the kernels. 



The only possible protection to corn against grasshoppers is the 

 destruction of these insects before they leave the grass-lands adjoining, 

 or when they first enter the corn field. Once generally ilistributed in the 

 fields, practically nothing can be done to arrest the injury. For their 

 destruction in pastures and meatlows, some one of the methoils nmstbe 

 chosen which has been found effective against these insects in the West. 

 These are, generally speaking, the plowing in fall of groimd heavily 

 stocked with grasshoppers' eggs, or plowing, even in sunnner, for the 



