80 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
influenza. Mr. Vinal was altogether an exceptional man and his 
death is a great loss to applied entomology. His statement made at 
the board hearing of August 27, 1918, in answer to a question as to 
the damage actually caused by this insect to field corn and sweet corn, 
is as follows: 
Field corn is not grown very extensively around that area. We have been trying 
to find field corn but it is pretty hard to find it. The only way we can get it is to 
plant it ourselves. From a farm of five acres of very early sweet corn that I have 
been working, when that corn was picked and shipped to the market I should say 
there must have been 10 to 20 per cent of it containing larvae or pupae, either in the 
corn or in the butt. But as far as the injury to that farmer is concerned, he did not 
lose a cent because the consumer lost it. His corn went to the market and sold as 
early corn at the same price as other sound corn. Of course the consumer was the 
loser. 
That was at the end of August, 1918. From 10 to 20 per cent of 
the ears or of the butts or stems of the ears was infested. The damage 
to an ear of corn infested by this insect rarely exceeds the damage 
occasioned by the ordinary corn earworm. The exhaustive studies of 
the latter insect by Dr. Quaintance indicated a loss of 7 per cent to 
the infested ear in actual grain. Seven per cent of 20 per cent gives 
you 1.4 per cent actual loss in grain, and that is taking the highest 
estimate given by Mr. Vinal and making no deduction for the worm 
in the butts! The possibility of even such loss to corn makes the 
insect important, but it does not indicate doom to the corn crop of 
America! I think I can say fairly that I have seen certain fields, two 
or three, in Massachusetts in 1919, which have shown damage equal 
to that mentioned by Mr. Vinal, if not exceeding it. Here again we 
want to get all the information possible and to give such information 
proper weight. 
The factor of number of broods or number of generations which this 
insect may have annually is, therefore, of great importance. Wherever 
the insect is double-brooded the damage will undoubtedly be greater. 
In coastal New England the double-broodedness is apparently due to 
the influence of the Gulf Stream. The New York climate, however, 
in both the eastern and western areas invaded, carries over a good deal 
of the important northern half of the corn belt and single-broodedness 
can be reasonably anticipated over most of that area. 
The second hopeful feature is the substantial immunity of field corn 
indicated by the experience of 1919. In his reference to this factor, 
Dr. Felt failed to note that the corn crop of the large area in western 
New York is practically all the common coarse field corn. In this 
area the insect has been confined to the stalk and is so rare that our 
records indicate about one fifteenth of a worm to the square mile! 
That is not eating up tbe corn crop, is it? The corn borer has un- 
