THE BLACK CORN-WEEVIL 57 



Uncle Jerry spoke the truth when he said that the 

 people planted other things than cotton. They 

 always made good corn-crops and were proud of it. 

 They always made as good corn-crops as were made 

 anywhere, but they could not keep the corn because 

 an army of black weevils had come into their corn- 

 fields from somewhere and caused much loss to the 

 golden ears. The habits of these little pests were so 

 different from any they had ever found it necessary 

 to fight, that the farmers did 

 not know what to do. In 

 the fields, as well as in the 

 cribs, these little rogues 

 would stay in hiding under 



the Shucks like SO many (After Cmtenden, Bur. En t.,U.S. 



bandits in ambush. Un- FIG. 3i. "Soldier of this 



black weevil army." 



seen, every soldier of this 



black weevil army was busily eating into the kernels 

 of the corn, and the farmers felt very bad about it. 

 Every day you would hear some one say, "If some- 

 body does not find some way of stopping these little 

 black thieves, then all our corn will be eaten in the 

 crib." 



"In the crib!" exclaimed John Matthews, who 

 was one of the best farmers of Flanders; "it is not 

 in the crib alone that they do so much damage, 

 but I know when I gathered my corn in my river 

 bottoms last month they had eaten into some of 



