324 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



The quickest and best method of ridding a field of smutted corn that we have ever tried, is to 

 pass through it as soon as this disease first makes its appearance, and gather all the parts 

 affected and burn them. By this means, countless millions of spores that would otherwise 

 ripen to spread the disease, are destroyed, and the means of its perpetuation prevented. 



Corn should not be planted upon the same field more than two years in succession, and 

 if a judicious rotation of crops is observed, together with careful cultivation and a fertile soil, 

 a good crop will generally be secured in spite of insects or disease of any kind. It is always 

 best to avoid the spreading of disease as far as possible, and this is one way to accomplish it. 

 If the soil is too wet, producing a surplus of water about the roots, corn will not have a 

 healthy growth; the leaves will turn yellow and have an unthrifty appearance, and the growth 

 will be slow. Such land should be drained, if devoted to corn culture. 



The chinch-bug, wire-worm, cut-worm, corn or ball-worm, and various other insects, are 

 sometimes very troublesome and destructive to the corn crop in certain localities. The wire- 

 worm attacks the corn before it comes up, by eating into the kernel before it has germinated; 

 it also eats the roots and penetrates that portion of the stem of the young plant that is 

 covered by the earth. The failure of seed to come up i& often due to the attacks of this pest. 

 several of them often being found at work upon a single kernel. The cut-worms, called in 

 Europe surface-grubs, attack both roots and stalks, often cutting the stalks entirely off, and 

 are frequently found as high as the ear on the stalk, sometimes continuing their depredations 

 until the corn is nearly ripe. They are generally most troublesome on sod-land. 



There are various means resorted to by farmers for the purpose of getting rid of these 

 pests, such as burning all the stalks and stubble left in the field after harvest, fall plowing, 

 etc. Prof. Cyrus Thomas, State Entomologist of Illinois, in referring to the wire-worms, says: 



&quot; I am decidedly of the opinion that starving them out by refraining from planting for 

 a year, and repeatedly stirring the ground, is the only sure remedy. One great advantage of 

 this plan is that it not only tends to destroy these worms, but also the white-grubs, cut-worms, 

 and numerous other species that reside in the ground in the larva state, and are not easily 

 reached by topical applications or other means. It is not difficult for farmers to test this 

 remedy on a small scale where these insects are troublesome, and it is certainly worthy of a 

 trial. Where they are very numerous, and the nature of the soil will justify it, it would be 

 well to spread unslaked lime over the surface and turn it under as deeply as possible before 

 rain falls upon it. If this could be done consistently with the nature of the crop to be 

 grown, very early in the spring, this would probably be the best time; otherwise it should be 

 done late in the fall. I am not aware that this remedy has been tried lime has again and 

 again been used, and generally without favorable results but the use of unslaked lime in 

 the manner indicated, and in as large quantities as the land will bear, has not, so far as I can 

 learn, been tried. To be of any value it must be applied freely, and well turned under. 



According to Curtis, when the wire-worm reaches its full size it descends a considerable 

 depth in the earth, where it forms an oval cell of the surrounding particles of soil, not lining 

 it with silk; it then casts its skin again and becomes a pupa or chrysalis, generally, in Eng 

 land, at the end of July or beginning of August; the time here is probably a few weeks 

 earlier. The chrysalis is long and narrow, bearing a strong resemblance to the perfect insect, 

 but is of a paler color, usually yellowish or yellowish white. They remain in the pupa state, so 

 far as observed, from two to three weeks, but it is probable some species remain in this state 

 over the following winter. 



The same author, in the summary with which he closes his article on these worms in his 

 Farm Insects, 1 makes the following statements in reference to their habits and the remedies 

 used to counteract them : 



Very hazardous to re-sow where they have destroyed a crop unless the soil be plowed 

 repeatedly. 



