REMEDIAL AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES. 141 
Crop rotation could scarcely fail of giving beneficial results. The 
destruction of all volunteer grain springing up in fields from which 
grain has been removed at thrashing gives promise of the greatest 
relief . Indeed, if careful attention were given to all fields in autumn, 
and all of this volunteer growth were destroyed before any grain 
whatever was sown, it is doubtful if such serious ravages as have 
occurred in the past could be repeated. This can all be accomplished 
by close pasturing and careful late plowing, followed as soon as 
possible by seeding. 
At Hooker, Okla., the junior author found affected spots both on 
land that had been devoted to oats the previous year and on land that 
had previously grown cowpeas. This, as well as some other observa- 
tions made by other parties, indicates that some of the grasses will 
have the same effect in inviting attack as volunteer grain growing 
up in the fields in the fall. 
It is therefore most urgently recommended, and especially for the 
South, that all of this volunteer growth of whatever nature be com- 
pletely lulled out in the fields before seeding the following crop. Not 
only will this mode of procedure benefit especially the southern 
grain grower, but in the light of our present knowledge of the pest, 
it will serve as a protection to the spring oats crop over a large area of 
country where it is doubtful if serious ravages would occur at all 
were there not myriads of the pest continually developing to the 
South and drifting northward in spring with the advance of the season. 
Following along the same line, attention should be directed to the 
probability that late seeding may prove a preventive of attack, for 
the reason that the pest will obviously gain less of a foothold in a 
late-sown field than it will where there has been an early growth of 
young grain plants. In other words, there is a likelihood that the 
pest may break out in spots, as has been several times previously 
noted, and to this extent late seeding is an advantage. However, 
this would be a serious disadvantage if the fields should afterward be 
overrun by hordes of migratory winged viviparous females in spring, 
y f or in this case the earlier sown and therefore the older and less succu- 
lent growth would suffer least from their attack. This is shown by 
the fact that late-sown and winter-pastured fields in Oklahoma 
suffered most in 1907. It must also be noted that at Winston-Salem, 
N. C, in April 1, 1907, wheat that had been sown about or a little 
prior to November 15, on ground free from young growth of volunteer 
grain, or the grasses, was practically uninfested even though located 
in the immediate vicinity of other badly infested fields sown earlier 
on ground more or less foul with young growth. AH of this indicates 
pretty clearly that if all volunteer growth were eliminated in the fall, 
and the grain sown late, the pest would not become destructive. Of 
course the amount of benefit secured will depend upon the uniformity 
with which this method is carried into effect in any locality. 
