CORN INSECTS 



CORN LAWH 



487 



three black stripes along the back between the 

 wings, and the abdomen of a green u*h- black, with 

 Mirk cross-bands. C. lineata often does great 



damage to 

 wheat crops. 



Corn Saw-fly : 



m, maggot, natural size; 6, maggot, magni- 

 fied ; e, the maggot in its ear in the stem 



tritici, the 

 \Vheat-midge 

 or Ked Maggot 

 ( Diptera, ( 'eci- 

 domyida>), in 

 the same genus 

 as the Hessian 

 Fly (q.v.), de- 

 posits its eggs 

 in the young 

 wheat ears, and 

 sometimes does 

 much damage. 

 Lasiopteryx ob- 

 fuscata is an- 

 other Wheat- 

 midge of simi- 

 lar appearance 

 and habit. (14) 



of the corn ; d. female insect, magnified ; Aphis cereal'is, 

 e, female insect, natural size. Grain Aphis 



( H e m i p t e r a, 



Aphidae), sucks the sap from wheat and other 

 cereals, and sometimes does much damage (see 

 APHIS). (15) Tkrips cerealium, Corn-thrips (Thy- 

 sanoptera, Thrrpsid.w ), a very minute, hardly dis- 

 tinguishable insect, which SUCKS the sap from wheat 

 ears and causes the seed to shrivel. (16) Tipula 

 olcracea, or Daddy Long-legs (q.v.), or Crane-fly, 

 often does great damage to corn and other crops. 



Oats, like barley, are very often damaged by some 

 of the above, and especially by Chlorops tceniopus 

 and C. frit, Aphis cerealis and A. avente, and 

 Thrips cerealis. Rye is also subject to these and 

 ome other devastating insects. 



Of a somewhat ditterent habit from the above 

 is Tinea (iranella, the Corn-moth ( Lepidoptera, 

 Tineida; ), in the same genus as the Clothes-moths. 

 This form lays its very small eggs among stored 

 grain or on the sheaves. The larvre, or Corn- 

 worms, appear among the grain on the granary 

 floor, and when care is not taken to keep things 

 clean and the grain well shovelled, often does much 

 damage. From its voracity it is known as the 

 wolf. It spins a web round several grains, and 

 gradually devours them. Another of the granary 

 pests is Calandra granaria, the Corn-weevil or 

 brown Corn-worm (Coleoptera, Curculionidje), a 

 small reddish -black insect, not quite two lines 

 long, and without wings. It seems to have come 

 to Europe from the East, but is now common in 

 the southern regions. The female lays an egg in 

 each of a numl>er of grains, the larvue soon develop, 

 and a second brood is produced the same summer. 

 The most successful methcxl of arresting the mis- 

 chief is said to be that of leaving a small heap of 

 corn undisturbed, while the great mass is well 

 shovelled. The weevils shift to the unstirred heap, 

 and may then be destroyed. See WEEVIL. 



For the remedies used. Miss Ormerod's work should be 

 consulted. See also Bulletin* of U.S. fntomeloofoul 

 Commission ; Journal of Royal Agricultural Society; John 

 Curtis, Farm Insects; Kaltenbach, Die Pflanzcnfeinde 

 au* der Clause der Insekten (1874); Taschenberg, Prak- 

 tische Insekten-kunde (1880) ; Schmid-Goebel, Die Scha- 

 dlirhen und niitdichen Intekten in Forst, Feld, und Garten 



Corn Laws* the name popularly given to cer- 

 tain statutory enactments wnich had for their 

 object a restriction of the trade in grain. The 

 English corn laws date as far back as the year 

 1360, in the reign of Edward III. Before this 



period, there seems to have been a general rule 

 carried into effect by tin- crown ;i^.iiu-i the 

 \ l">itation of any grain; and the Act of 1360 

 enactH the prohibition, but at the name time 

 excepts certain placet* which tin; king may appoint 

 by license. An Act of 1436 permitted exportation 

 when the price of wheat did not exceed 6*. Kd. per 

 quarter. Hitherto, there seem to have lieen no 

 prohibitions against inijmrtation ; but in 14453 an 

 act was passed prohibiting it HO long as the price 

 at home was In-low the 6s. 8d. at which there waft 

 free exportation. The next change was in the 

 reign of Henry VIII., when an Act of 1534 prohibited 

 all exportation except by license specially granted 

 under the great seal. This act was not found to 

 work well ; and twenty years later the previous 

 arrangement was adopted of allowing exportation 

 when the price stood below a certain point. In 

 1562 exportation was permitted when the price 

 was under 10s. a quarter. Export duties of 

 varying amounts were imposed from 1570 to 

 1689, when they were altogether abolished. The 

 subsequent legislation for some time merely 

 changed the price at which exportation might 

 begin, generally enlarging it. After the Restora- 

 tion, the policy of increasing the duties on importa- 

 tion, for the protection of agriculture and the landed 

 interest at home, begins to be perceptible. At the 

 same time the effect of that event on the relations 

 of Scotland and England towards each other forms 

 a curious illustration of such fiscal regulations. 

 Under the Protectorate they were one country, 

 with free intercommunion of trading privileges. 

 Scotland was increasing in wealth under this 

 arrangement ; but the countries were separated 

 by the restoration of Charles II., and became the 

 same to each other as foreign nations. The English 

 duties restricted the importation of grain from 

 Scotland ; and in 1663 the Scotch parliament, in 

 retaliation, laid heavy duties on the importation of 

 English and all other foreign grain. Had not the 

 union of 1707 made the two countries one again, 

 England and Scotland would probably have con- 

 tinued a corn-law contest against each other, as 

 was the case with the French provinces under the 

 old regime. 



The agricultural interest continuing powerfully 

 to control this department of legislation, an act 

 was passed in 1670 for virtually prohibiting im- 

 portation into England until the home price had 

 reached 53s. 4d., and laying a heavy duty on 

 it above that point. This law had, however, little 

 effect in favour of the landed interest, from the 

 circumstance that then, and for long afterwards, 

 Britain was an exporting, not an importing country 

 that is to say, it generally produced more corn 

 than its population required. A new device was 

 adopted at the Revolution of 1689, a bounty being 

 awarded on exportation i.e. a sum of 5s. was paiu 

 for every quarter of wheat sent abroad when the 

 price fell below 48s., so that if the price in the 

 foreign market would not induce people to export 

 com, the bounty, in addition to that price, might. 

 For upwards of a century the numerous enactments 

 in this department will be found to be a niere 

 shifting, according to circumstances, of the inci- 

 dence of the bounty on the one hand, and of the 

 import duty on the other. In 1773 a permanent 

 adjustment was supposed to be reached by Burke's 

 act, which provided that the Ixnuity should cease 

 when the price reached 44s., prohibited exportation 

 when the price was above t hat figure, ana allowed 

 importation at a nominal duty <>i 6d. at a price of 

 48s. In 1791, and during the wars of the French 

 Revolution, further alterations in the corn laws 

 favourable to the landed interest were effected. 

 The bounties, however, were abolished in 1814. 

 In 1815, after the conclusion of the wars, a law was 



