ADVENTURES OF A KERNEL OF CORN 37 



long snout, with which they bite holes in the young 

 stalks to get the plant juice; then when the leaves 

 open up later on they are full of parallel holes and 

 the plant withers and dies. Old Chinch Bug, one 

 of your worst enemies, is a dainty morsel for me. 

 He is quite red and small when young, but as he 

 becomes older, he turns black, and has a white cross 

 on his back. They travel in armies and do a lot of 

 damage. Then you will make the acquaintance of 

 the ant and his cow, the corn root aphis. The ant 

 stores the eggs of the corn root aphis over winter, 

 and when they are hatched in the spring, the ant 

 places the young aphis on the roots of the grasses 

 and corn plants. The aphis sucks the juice of the 

 young plants and a sweetish fluid is excreted upon 

 which the ant feeds. You see it virtually gives milk 

 for the ant, therefore it gets the name of the ant's 

 cow. Then there is the corn-root worm, the army 

 worm, and a lot of others that will ruin you for life 

 if they happen this way, but Prairie Chicken, Cock 

 Robin, Meadow Lark, Blackbird Jim, and some of 

 my other friends and I will try to keep a watch 

 over you, and in a few days I will have a fine little 

 family, and will bring them over for a visit. 



"But I especially want to warn you against old 

 Cut Worm- A brown moth, that I like to kill, lays 



