25O THE BOOK OF CORN 



When the spring is cool and wet after corn plant- 

 ing, so that the softened seed lies long in the ground 

 without sprouting, it is especially liable to certain 

 kinds of injury, and it is under these conditions that 

 the black-headed maggot seems most likely to affect it. 

 Rotting grain is undoubtedly preferred. It has occa- 

 sionally been seen to infest kernels that had begun to 

 grow. It lives normally in old sod, feeding chiefly on 

 decaying vegetation there, and will be found in notice- 

 able numbers in corn fields only where the field was in 

 grass the preceding year. These maggots penetrate 

 and hollow out the kernel, often leaving nothing more 



Fig 61— Seed Corn Injured by Seed Corn Maggot 



' (After Forbes) 



than an empty hull. Several of them may infest a 

 single grain. They are slender, footless white mag- 

 gots, except that the head is jet black, about one-third 

 of an inch long when full grown and of nearly uni- 

 form diameter throughout. The body is soft and 

 flexible and the movements of the maggot are slug- 

 gish. The species is very common. 



In his observations, Professor F. H. Chittenden 

 of the United States department of agriculture says 

 that one of the best means of deterring the parent flies 

 from depositing their eggs consists in sand soaked in 

 kerosene, one cupful to a bucket of dry sand, placed 

 at the base of the plants, along the rows. This also 

 kills young larvae that might attempt to work through 

 the mixture. Fertilizers, preferably kainit and nitratz 



