FIELD CHOPS. 43 



aocees, and, with a good cover, com will keep in it as well as in those more 

 expensive. 



Fig. 3 gives a side view of a crib constructed of poles or logs, showing the 

 manner of sphcing at A, A, the logs midway between the supports. Pin or 

 nail the logs at the point of joining. In this way log cribs several hundred 

 feet in length are often constructed. 



The Enemies of Com. — Its enemies in the field, the bin, and the mill 

 are numerous. Among its bird foes the crow is most dreaded by the 

 farmer. He is a bold, saucy fellow, well endowed with bird sense, and soon 

 sees a scare-crow is a humbug. The common devices used for this purpose 

 — an open newspaper, bright tin, a clapping wind-mill, an effigy, etc., are 

 effective only for a short time, when something new must be found. A prac- 

 tical farmer suggests that early planting will circumvent him, since he is not 

 particularly an early bird. Another claims that the use of a planter which 

 covers the seed and presses down the earth upon it has been a perfect de- 

 fense for him. He has seen twenty crows pulling away after the com had 

 got above the ground, and found they had nipped the tops off, yet could not 

 get the kernel up. 



Great damage is often done to the com crop by a corn-worm (Heliothua 

 Armiga), identical with the boll- worm, so injurious to the cotton crop. The 

 parent of the worm is a moth of brownish-yellow color, witk dark brown or 

 black markings. The caterpillar is green with black stripes and dark spots, 

 and is covered with hairs. When full grown it measures about one and one- 

 half inches. It is extremely voracious, though not particularly dainty, since 

 it eats whatever comes in its way. Peas, stringed beans, tomatoes, pump- 

 kins, cotton or com are all one to his greedy appetite. The moth deposits its 

 eggs upon the com silk, and the young caterpillars soon work their way 

 down to the tender kernel. AiVhen the caterpillar attains its full size it 

 descends into the soil a few inches and there weaves its cocoon. Two or 

 more broods are produced each year. Birds and parasites destroy this 

 insect both as worm and moth. Men destroy it by means of torches, lamps 

 and lanterns, sometimes arranged over dishes of oil or water, into which it 

 falls and drowns. Plates of vinegar and molasses put among the com will 

 entrap many of them. 



Apfiis Ma id is, a Utile plant louse, infests com and lives upon its juices. 

 The eggs, which are laid in the ground, hatch in May, when the Uce gather 

 upon the roots, and here remain until the roots harden so that they are 

 driven to the stem and tassels, where they are fotmd in great numbers about 

 July. Their presence can be easily detected by an army of red ants dancing 

 attendance upon them, since they wear two black honey-tubes standing up 

 like horns on the upper and hinder part of the abdomen, which secrete a 

 saccharine fluid, of which the ants are very fond. They have a curious 

 history of reproduction. The female deposits her eggs in the ground and 

 dies. The brood are wingless females, and without the intervention of the 

 male bring forth alive another female brood. 



These do likewise, and so continue for five or sir or more generations. 

 The last brood are both males and females. These pair again, and deposit 

 their eggs, which remain over winter in the ground, and the next spring 

 begin the same round over again. It is claimed that nothing but cropping 

 against them is of any avail. 



The corn-stalk borer is a comparatively new enemy, or, at any rat€, has 

 been only lately described. The moth is of an ashy-gray color, and probablo 



