100 
miles from Colonial Beach, considerable damage had been done tc young 
corn planted about the Ist of May in a very large field which was grown 
to corn the previous year. The damage was first noticed by Mr. New- 
ton about July 1. although the worms had undoubtedly been at work 
for several weeks at that time. Atthe time of my visit (August 9, 1891) 
at least 98 per cent of the worms had transformed to pup and the moths 
hadissued. Ifound some pupe, however, and afew larve which had not 
yet changed. This corn by July 1, when the damage was first noticed, 
had reached a height of from a foot to 18 inches, and every infested stalk 
on August 9 remained at this height, stunted and deformed, the only 
visible sections of the stalk averaging not more than 14 inches in length. 
The larval burrow was invariably in the first section and usually ex- 
tended down into the tap root, and in no case were more than two bur- 
rows found in the same stalk. 
From these observations we may conclude that the insect is normally 
two-brooded in Virginia, the moths laying the eggs for the first brood 
during May, the larve arriving at maturity from the middle of July 
on, transforming to pup and issuing as moths in from ten days to two 
weeks later. The eggs for the second brood must be laid soon after- 
wards on the well-grown stalks and the larve must be full-grown by 
harvest time. Judging from our experience with the specimens from 
South Carolina in 1881 and with the individuals in sugar-cane in the 
spring of the same year the insect will hibernate in the larval state in 
the stalk and in this fact we have our simple means of cure. 
With the more careful and thorough methods of cultivation in the 
North this insect will have no chance for its life. It will reach its maxi- 
mum in localities like parts of South Carolina where corn is simply 
stripped for fodder in early August and the bare stalk with the ear 
attached stands until after the cotton is picked, ginned, and shipped. and 
where even after the ears are harvested the stalks are seldom burned. 
In Virginia, however, the conditions are nearly as favorable for the con- 
tinuous development of the insect. Where it is not intended to follow 
corn with winter grain the corn is cut in October and the butts stand in 
the ground until the following spring, affording the larve safe places of 
hibernation. Even in plowing for another crop of corn in the spring 
many of the old stalks are not destroyed but still remain standing 
through winter. Under these conditions there is no check whatsoever 
to the increase of the pest. Where winter grain follows corn the stalks 
are not thoroughly dragged off (they seem never to be systematically - 
pulled as in some parts of Maryland and other localities) and even 
when dragged off and collected they are not burned. 
Where, however, the old stalks are systematically removed from the 
field and burned after harvest or during winter, or where a constant 
rotation of crops is practiced, the corn stalk-borer will never become a 
serious pest, and the Virginia and South Carolina farmers have it in 
their hands to check it at any time by pursuing these methods. 
