214 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



had literally destroyed the first and second plantings and were 

 at work upon the third, damaging it severely, although the ground 

 had been replanted before the last planting. Here and there was 

 a young plant just beginning to wilt, and invariably we found the 

 larva at work either in the stalk or at the base of the plant just 

 below the surface of the ground. So far as I could ascertain, the 

 attack is always at the surface or just below. In many instances 

 the Iarva3 had hollowed out the stalks from the base of the roots to 

 the branches of the first leaves. Many plants were gnawed 

 irregularly around the stalk below the surface, and some, in fact, 

 were completely cut off at the surface, the insect always working 

 from below. In the great majority of cases the larvae were found 

 in a small mass of web near the plant, and sometimes within 

 it. In one plant, less than six inches high, we found four 

 larvae within the stalk, but as a rule only a single one was 

 present." 



Professor Johnson concluded "(1) that it is most likely to 

 occur over local areas in tobacco following timothy or grass; 

 (2) that the character of the soil has little or nothing to do with 

 its ravages; (3) that the attack upon corn is also a frequent 

 occurrence in the same section; especially when following grass 

 or timothy." 



Remedies. He recommended "(1) that growers of tobacco 

 avoid planting upon grass or timothy sod; (2) that where grass 

 land is plowed down it would be well to put it in wheat, following 

 with clover, before tobacco. If desirable, corn could follow 

 the grass and the land could be seeded in crimson clover at the 

 last working. This would serve a twofold object by revealing 

 the exact location of larvae in the area under cultivation by their 

 attack upon corn, when they could be destroyed largely by 

 frequent harrowing and rolling, and by affording a most excellent 

 soil crop to turn down the following spring, which would be a 

 decided advantage to the tobacco; that if it is found neces- 

 sary to have tobacco following grass, it should be broken in 

 the spring as early as possible, and frequently rolled and har- 

 rowed, at the same time delaying the setting of the plants as long 

 as possible in order to destroy and starve the larvae within the 

 ground." 



