75 



If the soil is rich and the plants are attacked before they have til- 

 lered, these last will be thrown out from the roots which are not 

 injured. These, if the fall be very favorable, and the winter does not 

 commence too early, will often winter through and produce stem-bear- 

 ing heads the following harvest. On the other hand, if the autumn be 

 dry, or the ground be frozen early in the season, the crop will probably 

 prove a failure. This is the reason why some fields will present a much 

 better appearance the following June, and give a much better yield 

 than could have been anticipated from appearances during the fall. The 

 practical value of knowing how to detect the infested plants readily 

 is in that the destruction may be observed and the damage estimated 

 long before the foliage turns brown or yellow, and the fields be plowed 

 up and resown or allowed to remain, as the owner judges best. If re- 

 sown, it would seem best to replow also. Mr. W. A. Oliphant, of Pike 

 County, southern Indiana, writing me in the fall of 1884, in reply to 

 circular No. 1, stated that of 300 acres he had resown 200 acres after re- 

 plowing, and 100 acres without plowing. The first yielded him 27 J and 

 the last 11 bushels per acre. 



The popular notion in regard to the effect of larvae on the straw is, 

 so far as I know, usually correct. This year, however, has been an ex- 

 ception, at least so far as southern and central Indiana is concerned. 

 As far north at least as La Fayette the larvae of the spring brood were 

 located just above the roots, and the straw did not break at the lower 

 joints, as is usually the case, but either fell or was blown over from the 

 roots, the culm usually being uninjured elsewhere. I observed this to 

 a very limited extent at Oxford, Indiana, in 1881. In fields about La 

 Porte, in the northern part of the State, none of this lower attack of 

 the plant was noticed, the larvae and later the puparia being invariably 

 found just above some of the lower joints. Mr. James Fletcher, Do- 

 minion entomologist of Canada, reported at the meeting of the En- 

 tomological Club of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science at Indianapolis that the wheat about Ottawa, Canada, had 

 this year suffered from the attacks of larvae of the spring brood in pre- 

 cisely the same manner as I had observed at La Fayette and south- 

 ward. Quite a percentage of the pupae in the fields about La Porte 

 were located so high up the stem as to render it probable that they 

 would be carried away with the straw. As yet I have not found a good 

 reason for this difference, but have a vague idea that the killing down 

 of the plants during the preceding March might have had something 

 to do with it, as this was less severe in the northern part of the State. 



THE EFEECT OP THE WEATHER ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FALL BROOD. 



It is quite probable that some autumns are more favorable for the development of 

 the insect than others, but just what the favorable influences are is not well under- 

 stood. Mr. Ratliff, at Richmond, saw an adult emerge from the pupa on October 16 ; 

 the wheat which it infested appeared above ground on September 4. Between these 



