WHEN CORN IS FOX-EARED 47 



the bottoms of the little stalks. They talked about 

 it all that day, and that evening they told Mr. 

 Smith, the demonstration agent, when he visited 

 at their home. Mr. Smith smiled, because he had 

 never heard such corn called fox-eared, but said, 

 "That is a very good name for it." Boylike they 

 told Mr. Smith all they knew about it, and when he 

 saw that their father looked so grave about it he 

 was ready to believe that the worms were doing 

 very serious damage. 



The next morning before taking time to find out 

 how much damage the worms were doing, he saddled 

 his horse and rode over to Mr. Watson's farm, where 

 an entomologist was studying another pest. Mr. 

 Smith explained to him what he had been told about 

 the worms in Mr. Grimes's field. "It has spoiled 

 his stand of corn and much of it has to be replanted, " 

 he said. 



The insect man, whose name was Henry Colby, 

 went with him, and together they looked at the corn. 

 Mr. Colby pulled up some of the plants with great 

 care, examined the roots and also that part of 

 the plant which had been underground; then he 

 looked at the rest of the plant. With his pocket 

 knife he split the stem, and with a smile he laid the 

 plant in Mr. Smith's hand. "Just what I thought," 

 he said. 



"A worm," Mr. Smith said, surprised. "Mr. 



