ON FARM GARDENING. 55 
is often planted before the ground is sufficiently warm, and 
there is a consequent weakness of growth. Indian corn, at 
Philadelphia, should not be planted before May ioth, and 
yet it is not uncommon to see gardeners planting sweet corn 
two weeks earlier. They say they are "going to risk it." 
The result may be a good crop of corn, or it may be a crop 
of worms and fungus. Of course, the high price of the first 
corn in market is the excuse for the unseasonable date of 
planting. But it is not quite fair to blame the seed or the 
variety of corn for what is partly the result of the gardener's 
impatience. All traces of smut on corn stalks should be 
burned, and not allowed to be fed to cattle. 
The Corn Worm — Far more destructive and disastrous 
than smut is the corn worm (Heliothis armiger). This is 
the cotton worm of the South, there called boll worm. It is 
also sometimes called the tomato worm. It is the larva of a 
day-flying moth. 
The difficulty in dealing with it is that when in the corn 
ear it is out of the reach of poisonous applications of any 
kind. Its depredations are extensive, especially in early corn. 
It prefers corn to all other foods, and cotton planters protect 
their crops by planting early corn in the cotton fields and 
then destroying the corn and the worms within the ears. 
The best remedy at the North is to feed all wormy ears 
to pigs; and to plow the corn land in autumn, when the in- 
sects are in the pupa or chrysalis state. If turned up by the 
plow, it is believed that they mostly perish. The worms are 
said to be cannibals, eating each other to a great extent. 
This worm is, perhaps, the greatest enemy with which the 
grower of sweet corn has to contend. The plan of feeding 
wormy ears to pigs offers the double advantage of destroying 
the enclosed pests, while at the same time fattening the pigs. 
Successional Planting — The skillful farmer will arrange 
successional plantings of corn, beginning (at Philadelphia) 
