CL VER — CORN 315 



Wire-worms {Elateridoe) . — YLd^vd, yellowish, or reddish, cylin- 

 drical larvae feeding on the roots. 



Preventives. — Crop rotation ; let clover intervene between sod 

 and corn, planting the corn late the second or third year. Early 

 fall plowing. 



Cut-worms {Agrotis, Hadena, etc.). — Soft-bodied caterpillars eat- 

 ing and cutting off the young plants. See p. 302. 



Preventives. — Early fail plowing of grass lands intended for 

 corn ; pasturing by pigs of grass or clover land intended for corn ; 

 distributing a line of poisoned bran by means of a seed-drill. To 

 prevent the caterpillars entering from a neighboring grass field, 

 destroy them with a line of poisoned vegetable bait. 



Sod Web-worms (Crambus spp.). — Gray or brownish caterpillars 

 about one-half inch long, living in a silk-lined burrow in the soil at 

 base of the plant. They thrive in grass land. 



Preventive. — Early fall plowing of grass land intended for 

 corn, or else plow as late as possible the next spring. 



Army- WORM. (Leucania unipuncta). — A cut- worm-like caterpillar, 

 which normally feed on grass. When this food supply is exhausted, 

 they migrate in numbers to other fields and attack corn, wheat, 

 etc. 



Preventive. — To stop the advance of the " army," plow deep 

 furrows so the dirt is thrown towards the colony ; in the bottom of 

 the furrow dig post holes into which the caterpillars will fall and 

 where they may be killed with kerosene. 



Chinch-bug {Blissus leucopterus) . — A red or white and black suck- 

 ing bug, three-twentieths of an inch long. Attacks wheat and 

 corn in great numbers. 



Preventives. — Clean farming to destroy suitable hibernating 

 shelter. Stop the migration of the bugs from the wheat-fields into 

 corn by maintaining along the field a dust strip ten feet wide in 

 which a furrow and post-hole barrier has been constructed. This 

 may be supplemented by a coal-tar barrier. 



Grasshoppers ( A end icte). — Kill them with poison bran mash fla- 

 vored with lemons or oranges. 



Corn Ear-worm {Heliothis armiger) . — A green or brownish striped 

 caterpillar feeding on the corn beneath the husk. Three to six 

 generations yearly. 



