agricultural experiment station. 201 



2nd Letter. 



Lewistox, Me., July 1st, 1891. 

 F. L. Harvey: 



Dear Sir : — I received your letter last evening and thank you 

 very much for it. I went out early this morning and dug into 

 some hills of corn. In the first one found a beetle. Dug into a 

 few more and found none, but found 24 hills of corn that had 

 been dug into during the night. In some of them the roots had 

 been all laid bare, and some only dug into at the side by some 

 animal, I think a skunk. I suppose he was digging for beetles. 



This evening I went out to the corn to look for worms and 

 beetles. I dug into twenty hills ; in nine of them I found the 

 same beetle, in five were worms, in six were nothing found ; in 

 two of the five were worms in the stalk above the ground about 3 

 inches. The smallest one I send to you. 



The large, dark colored one is he that eats off the stalk above 

 ground and eats potato stalks and the beans more than he does 

 the corn. The other two large ones were found where the stalk 

 was eaten an inch below the surface, one in a place. These two 

 are larger than others, and had the same appearance of those I 

 found some days ago. 



The largest black worm is seldom found in my corn ; he is 

 plenty in the potatoes. The two large, light colored ones I have 

 found more plenty in the corn. 



I send you a little box with some specimens. 



Yours truly, 



N. H. Sleeper. 



Lisbon, Me., June Oth, 1892. 

 To F. L. Harvey, Esq. : 



Dear Sir: — I received your letter a short time ago and was 

 immediately called away, hence the delay, and will say that the 

 ground was new land, was in grass for ten years, was never 

 plowed before. 



In the fall of 1890, I took out the stumps and stone — large pine 

 stumps and lots of them. In many places the old forest mould 

 was plenty. I think the beetle was a native of such places. 



The manure was barnyard scrapings with Clark & Williams' 

 superphosphate. I found no corn cut so low down where the cut- 

 worm was. I found some cut-worms but not many; those that 

 were cut (as I think) by the beetle were cut snug to the kernel or 



