4. If the growth of the corn is arrested or retarded in patches 
throughout the field, the leaves turning first yellow and then 
red, it is likely that the roots are infested by the same root 
louse, to be discovered by carefully digging up the hill and 
picking or gently shaking off the earth to expose the roots at 
their origin. If no insect enemy is found, the difficulty is quite 
likely to be due to a lungus attack known as the root blight 
of the corn, a discussion of which does not come within the 
scope of this article. [See page 54, b.] 
5. If single stalks or entire hills are killed or withered when 
a foot high or less, search should be made among the roots 
and on the stalk below the surface for the wirewonns and the 
white grubs. 
6. If the corn falls readily in a windy storm and does not 
afterward rise, and if it may be pulled up easily after the ear 
has begun to form, it is probable that the roots are infested by 
the corn root worms or that they have been eaten by white 
grubs. 
7. If the plant remains green too long, maturing slowly, and 
if the field contains many sterile stalks or soft, imperfect nub¬ 
bins, it is likely that the common corn root worm, in some of 
its stages, will be found in or among the roots if search be 
made before September 1. If large numbers of grass-green beetles 
one fifth of an inch in length (about the size of a common red 
lady bug) are seen on the silks and tassels of the corn, or feed¬ 
ing" upon the fallen pollen collected at the bases of the leaves, 
or upon the blossoms of ragweed or other flowering plants in 
the field, the crop has suffered from an attack of the corn root 
worm , of which these beetles are the adult, and the ground 
should be planted to some other crop the following year. 
8. A deformed and unequal growth of the foliage, especially 
of that unfolding from the roll of leaves at the growing tip of 
the plant, with more or less irregular and ragged injury, when 
the corn is from one to two feet high, is often due to an at¬ 
tack by the first generation of the corn worm, the second gener¬ 
ation of which burrows in the kernels of the ear of corn during 
late summer and early fall. 
9. On the other hand, the presence of elongate holes, placed 
side by side in an orderly manner, in short rows extending 
across the well-opened leaf, is commonly the mark of an injury 
done when the corn was smaller by the corn bill bugs, several 
species of which will be described when injuries to the leaf are 
under discussion. 
10. An irregular eating away of the leaves of young corn, 
and a similarly irregular gnawing of the stalk near the ground 
when the plant is but a foot in height, should lead to an ex¬ 
amination of the earth about the base of the hill. If fine par¬ 
ticles and small lumps of earth are found more or less closely 
webbed together in a mass approximating the size of a hickory 
