CORN CULTURE 9 



reduced per acre, supposing the field as it now stands will 

 yield forty bushels ? 



3. What percentage of the stalks bears suckers? How 

 many of the suckers had ears? 



4. What do you judge was the cause of the barren 

 stalks? Of the suckers? 



4. Corn Enemies 



Plants, like animals, are subject to certain diseases. 

 Corn is usually a healthy plant, and not affected by as 

 many diseases as some of the other crops. The most seri- 

 ous enemies of corn are various insects, such as the corn- 

 root worm, the corn-root aphis or louse, the cutworm, the 

 ear worm ; and such animals as gophers, squirrels and birds. 



The corn-root worm. This pest is responsible, over 

 a large area of the country, for greater loss to the corn crop 

 than any other cause except poor seed, and often probably 

 inflicts more damage than all other insects put together. 

 It has been estimated that its damage in the corn belt alone 

 exceeds 200,000,000 bushels annually. Because the root 

 worm is very small and does its work under ground, it is 

 seldom seen, and probably could not be identified by many 

 farmers to whom it has caused thousands of dollars of 

 loss. It is present in some degree in almost every corn- 

 field. 



At full size the root worm is about one-third inch in 

 length, and as large around as a pin. It is whitish in color, 

 with its head and the first segment of its body brown. The 

 root worm hatches in June or early July, and reaches its 

 full growth by the first of August. Soon after this it goes 

 into the pupa state, and in a few days comes out a small 

 green beetle. This beetle lays the eggs, which remain in 

 the ground over winter and hatch the next generation of 

 root worms the following spring. 



As soon as the young worms are hatched out they enter 



