98 
For nine years nothing was heard at the Department about damage 
done by this insect to corn, save that in his report on Insects Injurious to 
Garden Crops in Florida (Bulletin No. 14, Division of Entomology), Mr. 
Ashmead mentioned the fact that this species damages corn near Jack- 
sonville. In 1889 Mr. W. J. Thompson, of Louisiana, wrote concerning 
damage to sorghum, which he had begun to grow upon his large plan- 
tation in St. Marys Parish, and in an article in the Lowisiana Sugar 
Planter, of November 2, 1889 (reprinted in INSECT LIFE, vol. 1, pp. 
389, 390), Mr. Thompson recommended, as the outcome of his particu- 
lar experience, the remedies which I had suggested in 1881, viz, the 
burning of the tops, the avoiding of flat or round mats for seed cane, 
and the planting of canes in the autumn, selecting such as are least 
affected. 
There can be no doubt, however, but that the insect has been gradu- 
ally on the increase in more northern cornfields for a number of years, 
occurring usually in such small numbers as to be unnoticed. The only 
serious outbreaks seem to have been those in Lincoln County, Ga., and 
Abbeville County, 8S. C., in 1881. That the worms may have been quite 
abundant in many fields without being noticed by planters, or at least 
without attracting sufficient attention to cause areport to State or Goy- 
ernment authorities, is shown by my observations near Columbia, just 
mentioned. 
Through favorable seasons and through gradual increase the species 
has now, however, become a somewhat serious pest as far north as 
the Maryland border line. as we have recently ascertained. In July, 
1890, Mr. W. J. Morton, of Fredericksburg, Va., sent in a few speci- 
mens to the Division with the statement that the corn crop was suffer- 
ing severely in his neighborhood (INSECT LIFE, vol. I, p. 64). The 
third week in July, 1891, Mr. Fielding Lewis, an employé of the De- 
partment of Agriculture, brought to the Division from his place in King 
George County, some 40 miles south of Washington, some sections ye 
cornstalk completely riddled by this larva. 
On July 24, Mr. Cordley, of the Division of Entomology, was sent to 
Chatterton Landing, Potomac River, King George County, and he 
brought home considerable material and reported that examination of 
twenty-seven fields showed about 25 per cent of the stalks to be infested. 
Early planted corn was found to be worst infested. Of corn planted dur- 
ing the first and second weeks in April, 25 per cent was affected; of that 
planted in the third and fourth weeks in April, 20 per cent was affected; 
of that planted May 1 to 15, 15 per cent was affected; of that planted 
from the 15th to the 31st of May, 12 per cent wasattacked; while of that 
planted from the Ist to the 15th of June, about 8 per cent was affected. 
Corn planted after the 1st of June was not infested to any extent. The 
average injury to crops planted upon stalk land or land in corn last 
year was 25 per cent, while the average injury to corn planted on sod 
land was 10 per cent. One sod field, with stalk land on three sides, was 
