120 Effective Farming 



Corn for silage is harvested when it is somewhat immature. 

 The grains should have passed the milk stage and glazed to 

 some extent. The stalks will still be partly green. In case 

 the corn cannot be cut until a little past this stage, the silage 

 should be wet down in the silo. A corn-binder is very useful 

 for cutting corn for silage, as the bundles can be hauled to the 

 silo as soon as they have been harvested. They are prepared 

 by means of a silage-cutter, a machine that cuts the stalks into 

 small pieces and elevates them to the top of the silo. They 

 fall to the bottom and, as the silo fills, the mass of material is 

 kept level by men with rakes or forks stationed for that pur- 

 pose in the silo. Figure 43 shows a typical silo-filling scene. 

 Notice the bundles of corn, the silage-cutter, the pipe for 

 elevating the cut corn, and the tractor that furnishes the 

 power. 



58. Pests of corn. Several insect and a few fungous pests 

 by their ravages reduce considerably the yield of corn in the 

 United States. Among these pests are corn root-worms, 

 corn root-louse, wire-worms, cutworms, white-grubs, corn ear- 

 worms, grain- weevils, chinch-bugs, army- worms, corn-smut, 

 and ear-rot. 



Corn root-worms. Among the most troublesome of the 

 insect pests of corn are the root-worms, two species of which 

 are known, the Northern, or Western, and the Southern. 

 The eggs of both species are laid in the ground in the fall. They 

 hatch about the last of June or the first of July and soon enter 

 the tip of the corn root and burrow back and forth lengthwise. 

 Often five or six worms are found in a root and Holden reports 

 465 from a hill. The roots injured by the worms die and the 

 plants become so weakened that they blow over easily. The 

 worms when full-grown are about one-third of an inch in length, 

 about as large around as a pin, and are practically colorless. 

 They go into the pupa stage in late summer and soon emerge 

 as beetles about an inch in length. The beetles of the Northern 

 worm are grass-green in color; those of the Southern species 



