DISEASES AND PESTS OF THE MAIZE CROP 



435 



Some damage is done at times to maize standing in the chap. 

 field to dry off before harvest, by birds which pick out the X ' 

 grains at the ends of ears (Fig. 164) imperfectly covered by 

 the sheath, and especially of ears standing upright on the stalk. 

 Ears so damaged are more liable to injury from moisture 

 which penetrates the end of the ear where the sheaths have 

 been torn off. One remedy is to breed strains of maize 

 having well-developed sheaths, and ears which hang down on 

 the stem when ripe ; selection of the very longest ears for seed 

 purposes is apt to result in badly covered ears. 



The birds which do most damage in this way are the 

 Spermestinse or bishop-birds, especially the southern pink- 

 billed weaver or quela weaver, Ouelea sanguinirostris lathami 

 (A. Sm.), the red bishop-bird or roocle kaffervink, Pyromelana 

 oryx (L.), and the sakkaboola, long-tailed widowbird or flap, 

 Diatropura procne (Bodd.). 



In many parts of the country the natives erect in the 

 fields wooden platforms thatched with grass, or in the treeless 

 High-veld, mounds of turf sods, from which stones or lumps 

 of earth are thrown with switches ; they also adopt the old 

 European country methods of beating empty tins and shouting 

 to scare away the birds. 



Insect Pests. 



400. Insect Pests of the Maize Crop. — It is often stated 

 that South Africa is peculiarly cursed with plagues, especially 

 insect pests. On the other hand it requires only a glance at 

 American literature on the subject to demonstrate that South 

 Africa is more favoured than this great maize-producing 

 country in its comparative freedom from insect pests. Hunt 

 (1) says that there are 214 species of insects known to be 

 injurious to the maize plant in the United States ; this gives 

 some idea of the difficulties with which other maize-growers 

 have to contend as compared with the few South African 

 pests described below. In addition to the cutworms, 

 ear-worms, and stalk-borers with which we have to contend, 

 the American farmer has to fight wireworms, white grubs, 

 corn-root worms, corn-root web-worms, seed-corn maggots, 

 click-beetles, flea-beetles, army worms, the corn-root louse, 



28 * 



