BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE 53 
Connecticut State legislation passed just prior to this fiscal year advanced 
from April 10 to 25 the date for conclusion of compulsory clean-up meas- 
ures requiring the disposal of cornstalks, weeds, or other debris infested or 
likely to be infested with the corn borer. Reports indicate thai the 1985 damage 
to early and late sweet corn in Fairfield and New Haven Comities, Conn., 
exceeded that of the previous year, although the borer population was somewhat 
reduced in the northern Hartford County farming district. 
SCOUTING AND SURVEY ACTIVITIES ON RELIEF FUNDS 
Late in July an allotment of $116,000 was made available by the Works 
Progress Administration for a survey to determine the degree of infestation in 
the area known to lie infested with the European corn borer, and for scouting 
to determine whether the insect had spread to areas not previously known to be 
infested. 
Since the season during which these activities could be performed was rapidly 
nearing a close, the work was organized as quickly as possible, using the perma- 
nent corn borer inspectors as a nucleus for recruiting the relief workers, who 
had to be contacted through the offices of the National Reemployment Service 
in the respective counties where the work was performed. Less than 5 percent 
of the total personnel came under the nonrelief exemption, although a 10-percent 
exemption was allowable. 
Work was started in Massachusetts on August 7, and within a short time 
men were in the field in all of the New England States and in Delaware, Indiana, 
Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wis- 
consin. In Ohio the first crew was started on September 26. Scouting was 
also scheduled in Kentucky and West Virginia, but crews could not be organized 
in these two States until too late in the season for effective scouting, so no 
work was performed there. Generally the scouts and survey workers were 
employed for a period of 50 working days. 
As finally organized, the usual set-up comprised a crew of four men in a 
county, with one of the men designated as foreman ; a supervisor responsible 
for the work of the crews in five or more counties ; and a regular corn borer 
inspector of the Bureau directing the operations of several of these county 
groups in one or more States. Seven appointed men of the Bureau served in 
this supervisory capacity. At the peak of the scouting and survey activities 
432 Works Progress Administration workers were employed. 
Scouting was performed in areas adjacent to or within a reasonable distance 
from areas known to be infested. All insect larvae resembling the European 
corn borer were sent to the field headquarters for determination. The super- 
visors were advised of any positive finds so that the crews might be immediately 
transferred to another township. If results were negative, a crew continued 
its activities in the township until 5 days of actual scouting had been completed. 
As a result of the season's scouting, first-record infestations were found in 
31 towns in Connecticut. 4 townships in Indiana, 21 towns in Maine. 28 town- 
ships in Michigan, 91 in New Jersey. 4 in Pennsylvania. 2 magisterial districts 
in Virginia, and 42 townships in Wisconsin. Scouting by men employed by 
the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture added 14 townships to those in which 
initial infestations were found in that State. Scouts covered sections of Dela- 
ware. Illinois, and Maryland with negative results. Scouting data were pub- 
lished in pamphlet form and distributed to interested State and Federal officials 
throughout the United States. The 1935 scouting was the first large-scale 
activity of this nature sineo corn borer scouting was abandoned after completion 
of summer activities in 1932. 
Surveys to determine the concentration of borers wore conducted in Michigan, 
New Jersey. New York, Ohio. Virginia, and each of the New England sintes. 
The activities extended to 1.124 townships or other political subdivisions in 09 
counties. A total of 5,817 fields containing approximately 32,600 acres of corn 
were examined for corn borers. 
In general, the survey was made in fields selected at random in each township 
of the counties covered. Twenty-five consecutive corn plants in one row near 
the center of each quarter of the hold wore examined for Infestation, a total 
of 100 plants being examined in each field. Ten of the plants showing Infesta- 
tion were dissected to determine the average number of corn borers per Infested 
plant. 
