162 FARM SPIES 



chrysalids or pupae and left the stalks through the 

 openings they had cut and so carefully plugged 

 when they were caterpillars. 



When the corn was tall enough to tassel and silk > 

 the moths laid eggs on the bottom leaves. The 

 little larvae bored into the stalk, and like their an- 

 cestors, chewed the pith. When the summer winds 

 were blowing Frank noticed that many stalks had 

 been burrowed so that they broke off near the soil. 



"Now I know what windfalls are. I wish every 

 farmer knew what caused them. 7 ' He then went to 

 his father and asked, " Won't the windfalls make 

 corn?" 



"No," his father replied, "the milky corn on the 

 windfalls sours and rots." 



The larvae kept on growing in the fallen stalks 

 or in the stubble, and when winter began, unlike 

 their parents, they bored to the tip of the root and 

 there they stayed during the winter, undisturbed by 

 snow, sleet, or wintry winds. The following spring 

 they changed to pupae, and two weeks later the 

 smoky brown moths appeared to lay their eggs on 

 the new corn-plants. 



Frank said that he counted as many as a dozen 

 larvae in a single stalk of corn. 



"That is nothing," John Drake retorted ; "I have 

 seen as many as fifty holes in a stalk." 



Frank answered, "That is because they some- 



