532 
ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
WIREWORMS. IN CORN, WHEAT, BARLEY, OATS. 
broken up from grass, is the crop which is oftenest destroyed by 
wireworms. And this is a casuality of such frequent occurrence 
and of which our farmers are so fearful, especially if the weather 
after corn-planting is cold, wet and "backward, that it is a common 
practise to occasionally uncover some of. the hills, to ascertain the 
condition of the seed. And when making such examination noth¬ 
ing excites so much apprehension as the discovery of one kernel 
and another in the condition represented in the annexed Fig. 16. 
»-• The wireworm has become quite generally 
known, in this country, more, probably, from 
its being seen thus bored into kernels of newly 
planted corn, than from all the other situa- 
TO . .. , tions in which it occurs. These wireworms 
ing corn. being found more or less numerous in the 
corn-hills furnish a criterion from which a judgment is formed as 
to the destiny of the crop. Thirty-six of these worms are reported 
as having occurred in one hill of corn, in Erie county (Rural New 
Yorker, 1857, p. 246.) An equal or greater number has probably 
been counted in some other instances. In a cornfield badly 
infested with wireworms, I noticed they were of two kinds, some 
having the end of the body as represented Fig. 10, e, others being 
similar to g. 
Wheat is sometimes greatly injured by the attacks of wire- 
worms. Their presence is indicated by the dying of the lower 
leaves, and when the worm has eaten through the root the whole 
plant withers and falls to the ground. Mr. Curtis observes that 
their attacks are said to be continued through the entire winter; 
but this, he thinks, is doubtful; for during severe frosts, they 
descend into the soil, like the larva of the cockchafer, aud of our 
American May-beetle, retiring deeper and deeper as the cold 
increases. Early in the year they make ample amends for their 
fast, if they really do cease feeding during the winter, by the 
vigor with which they then attack the growing grain. 
Barley is frequently greatly injured, particularly when the spring 
months are cold and dry, the young plants changing from a 
healthy green to a sickly yellow where these worms are at work 
upon the roots. 
Oats are generally the crop which in England suffers most 
severely, being there sown upon land newly broken up. The 
danger, it is observed, is greater, the longer the land has pre- 
