CLOVER CULTURE. 129 



vary much in color, some being- bright orange red, others 

 'white and occasional!}' with a tinge of pink. Some are 

 smaller than others, the greatest variation being in the 

 males. It is these maggots that do the damage, feeding 

 upon the clover seed, while yet in the dough state, and issu- 

 ing, when the}* have completed their growth, in the last part 

 of June, from the head, to undergo their second transforma- 

 tion in the soil. The sight of these larvae or maggots leav- 

 ing the clover is said to be an interesting one. The head, 

 which one moment seems destitute of animal life, becomes 

 the next fairly swarming with the maggots. From nearly 

 -every closed floret one emerges, wriggles violently and works 

 its way out and falls to the ground. 



It should be stated in advance that insects of this kind 

 exist in four stages, the egg, the maggot or larva, the pupa, 

 in which stage the insect passes through its transformation, 

 and to outward appearance to the superficial observer is 

 dead, prior to assuming the fourth stage, that of the perfect 

 fly. It will, therefore, be understood when we speak of 

 larvae that we refer to the maggot stage, and of pupae to the 

 stage in which the insect passes through its final period of 

 transformation. This insect is, in the latitude of central 

 Iowa, two-brooded, while in the more southern latitudes it is 

 supposed to be three. After the insect has taken on its 

 pupal stage, which is said to last about ten days, but no 

 doubt varies, it emerges as a fly, and after mating, is ready 

 to lay a second crop of eggs in the second crop of clover, 

 hence, it will be readily seen how vast are the means of 

 multiplication. 



There are but two methods known of combating the clo- 

 ver-seed midge. The first is that of cutting the first crop, 

 whether in the meadow or in the pastures, before the first crop 

 of the midge leaves the head. To make this method effective, 

 it would have to be done, not merely on one farm, and all 

 parts of it, pastures as well as meadows, but on all the 

 farms of the neighborhood. It is very difficult, if not impos- 

 sible, to induce farmers to co-operate in this way, however 

 much their interests might require it. The second method, 

 which is almost equally as difficult, is to abandon for the time 

 being the use of the common red clover, and sow mammoth in 

 its stead. This variety, as stated in preceding chapters, comes 

 in bloom some two or three weeks later than the common red, 

 and matures its seed crop about the time the second crop of 

 the common red is in bloom. The midge so far has not been 

 able to time its visits so as to make the mammoth the medium 

 for producing the second crop. This method, suggested by 



