ENEMIES OF MAIZE 251 



The larva is three-fourths inch long, white and marked with dark brown spots. If 

 bores the stalks of young maize, seriously injuring it, and latei bores into oldar 

 stems, working down into the tap root, and passes the' winter in the pupal stage in 

 a channel about the surface of the ground or a little below. The moth issues in thi 

 spring, soon to lay eggs near the base of the leaves. It also attacks sugar can? 

 and sorghum, as well as gama or sesame grass ( Tripsacwn daciyloides), and conse- 

 quently is more likely to be a dangerous pest near swampy lands, where this grass 

 grows. Clean culture and systematic rotation of crops is a fairly effective remedy. 



OTHER ENEMIES. 



■^-p' The Crow. — In many sections, especially where maize is planted near 

 clumps of timber, the American crow (Comis A 7nericanus And.) pulls up and eats 

 the young plant, often causing considerable damage. Most of the preventive 

 measures recommended have for their basis methods of frightening the crows away 

 until the plants are large enough to resist their attacks. Among these measures 

 are the simple scarecrow, trapping the birds alive and keeping them tied in the 

 field, and poisoning a few with maize grain soaked in strychnine as a warning. 

 Coating the seed slightly with coal tar is sometimes quite effective. This may be 

 done by dipping a wooden paddle into the hot liquid and then stirring it rapidly 

 among the maize grains. There is some danger of decreasing the germination. It 

 is generally conceded that except for this annual depredation the crow is useful to 

 agriculture as a destroyer of insect pests. 



338. The American Bl.a.ckbird {Agelaius phcem'ceus Linn.) occasionally does 

 somewhat serious damage by feeding upon grain while it is still soft. 



339. The Striped Prairie Squirrel {SpermopMltis is-UneaUis)^ especially 

 in sections from Illinois westward, frequently makes replanting necessary by digging 

 up and consuming the sprouting grain. Gillette has shown that injurious insects 

 constitute a large proportion of its food. It is believed that these squirrels are not 

 only beneficial to meadows and pastures, but to subsequent maize crops, because oi 

 their destruction of cutworms, wireworms, web-worms and similar insects. 



