44 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



l)efore the worm inside had had time to escape, 

 (he forage thus gained would probably pay 

 in good part tlie expenses of the operation ; and 

 by this means the propagation of the 2d and 3d 

 l)roods, which ai-e the ones that do the real 

 damage to the crop by attacking the roasting 

 ears, would be pretty effectually checked, espe- 

 cially if this system were adopted by a whole 

 neighborhood. We do not profess to more than 

 a general knowledge of Botany ; but we strongly 

 incline to believe, that topping a certain per- 

 centage of the corn-plants in a field would not 

 in any wise diminish the product of corn ; inas- 

 much as with all plants, such as hemp, cucum- 

 bers, pumpkins, etc., which bear the male and 

 female reproductive organs in distinct, flowers, 

 a single male flower is sufficient to fertilize a 

 great many females. To northern men, per- 

 haps, topping corn might seem to be very '-slow 

 business ;" but to Southerners, who are in the 

 habit of plucliing off all their corn-blades for 

 fodder every year, it would come quite natni'al. 

 In any event, we throw out the hint for what 

 it is worth. "Try all things, and hold fast to 

 that wliich is good."" 



In 1860 — the year of the great drought in 

 Kansas — the corn crop in that State was almost 

 entirely ruined by the Corn-worm. According 

 to the Prairie Farmer of January 81, 1861, one 

 county there which raised 436,000 bushels of 

 corn in 1859 only produced 5,000 bushels of 

 poor wormy stuff in 18G0; and this, we are told, 

 was a fair sample of most of the counties in 

 Kansas. The damage done was not by any 

 means confined to the grain actually eaten by 

 the worm; but, as we are informed in the same 

 excellent article just now referred to, "the 

 ends of the ears of corn, when partially de- 

 voured and left by this worm, afforded a secure 

 retreat for hundreds of small insects, which, 

 under cover of the husk, finished the work of 

 destruction commenced by the worm eating 

 holes in the grain or loosening them from the 

 cob. A species of greenish-brown mould or 

 fungus grew likewise in such situations, it ap- 

 pearing that the dampness from the exuded sap 

 favored such a growth. Thus decay and des- 

 truction rapidly progressed, hidden by the husk 

 from the eye of the unsuspecting farmer." We 

 reproduce here, by way of representing the op- 

 erations of this insect more vividly to the eye, 

 the graphic though somewhat rough figure 

 which illustrated the above Paper in the col- 

 umns of the Prairie Farmer; and we may add 

 that many horses in Kansas subsequently died 

 from disease, occasioned by having this half- 

 rotten wormv corn fed out to them. Of course 



it will be readily understood, that the insect 

 here figured in its three stages is the same 

 which we ourselves illustrated in the same three 

 stages on page 213 of our first volume, besides 

 giving two sketches of the egg. 



A Long Sleeper.— I had a caterpillar of the 

 Puss Moth brought me by a friend twelve 

 months ago last August : it formed its cocoon a 

 few days after I received it, and has been lying 

 in that state for twenty-one months. This 

 morning the moth made its appearance. — H. 

 Chalwin in Hardwicke's Science Gossip. 



ty Should a number of the Entomologist, 

 through whatever cause, fail to reach any of our 

 subscribers, we will cheerfully send another one 

 upon being informed of the fact. 



