OP THE FARM AND GAEDEN. 69 



to be SO destructiYe as in Southern Illinois. Here, as in 

 our own State, there are two broods of the worms during 

 the year, and very early and very late corn fare the worst; 

 moderately late and moderately early varieties usually es- 

 caping. I was formerly of the opinion that this worm 

 could not live on hard corn, and it certainly does disap- 

 pear before the corn fully ripens, but last fall Mr. James 

 Harkness, of St. Louis, brought me, as late as the latter 

 part of October, from a corn field on the Illinois bottom, 

 a number of large and well ripened ears, each containing 

 from one to five worms of different sizes, subsisting and 

 flourishing on the hard kernels. This is, however, an. 

 exceptional occurrence, brought about, no doubt, by the 

 long protracted warm weather which we had, and the 

 worms were in all probability a third brood. 



This glutton is not even satisfied with ravaging these 

 two great staples of the country — cotton and corn — but, 

 as I discovered, in 1867, it attacks the tomato in South- 

 ern Illinois, eabing into the green fruit, and thereby 

 causing such fruit to rot. (See Tomato, p. 66). Mr. 

 Glover also found it feeding in a young pumpkin, and it 

 has been ascertained by Mrs. Mary Treat, of Vineland, 

 New Jersey, not only to feed upon the undeveloped tas- 

 sels of corn and upon green peas, but to bore into the 

 stems of the garden flower known as Gladiolus, and in 

 confinement to eat ripe tomatoes, last summer it was also 

 found by Miss M. E. Murtfeldt on common string beans, 

 around Kirkwood. 



But for the present we will consider this insect only in 

 the role of Corn-worm, because as such it interests the 

 practical man most deeply. 



This insect is very variable ii. the larva state, the 

 young worms varying in coloi- from pale-green to dark- 

 brown. When full grown there is more uniformity in 

 this respect, though the difference is often sufficiently 

 great to cause them to look like distinct insects. Yet the 



