40 
The Colorado Experiment Station. 
MODIFIED HOTBEDS AND COLD FRAMES. 
Hotbeds, instead of being heated by fermenting manure, may 
have smoke flues, steam or hot-water pipes running through them to 
furnish the necessary heat. In such cases the pipes, flues, etc., are 
run beneath the soil in the beds. 
A device which serves the purpose of a miniature cold frame 
is the forcing box which is used in small gardens to place over a 
plant or a hill of plants in order to protect it in the early spring. 
The forcing box is made about to inches wide, 12 inches long, and 
6 inches deep, without top or bottom. Provision is made whereby 
a pane of glass may be slid into the top. The box is so made that 
this pane of glass slopes toward the south when it is placed in the 
field. The boxes are placed over the plants in the early spring and 
protect them durng cool weather, particularly at night. 
Common Insects of the Garden 
2)y C. T>. GILLETTE 
CORN. 
Striped Corn Rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera). 
This insect is becoming very abundant in some of the market 
gardens and home gardens in Eastern Colorado. The female, in the 
adult stage, is a small striped beetle, easily mistaken for the striped 
cucumber beetle. The male beetle is almost wholly black. This is 
a comparatively new pest, having been first recorded as injurious 
to corn by the writer in Journal of Economic Entomology, Vol. 5, 
page 364, 1912. 
The beetles lay their eggs about the roots of the cornstalks dur¬ 
ing late summer and in the fall. The eggs remain over winter and 
hatch the following spring, and if corn is planted upon the same 
ground the following year, it is sure to be attacked. The little grubs, 
upon hatching, burrow into the roots and crowns of the corn, caus¬ 
ing the stalks to become stunted, and they often fall over of their 
own weight, and are specially prone to do so at a time of wind and 
rain. 
Remedy. —There is one very efficient means of preventing the 
injuries of this insect, and that is to avoid planting corn upon the 
same ground several years in succession. 
Corn Ear-worm (Heliothis armigera ). 
Thi« inject is very destructive, especially to sweet corn, in 
Colorado, by eating into the ears and feeding upon the kernels at 
anv time during the summer months. It is known as the cotton 
boll-worm in the Southern States and is a rather general feeder, 
