tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">42; Business Still Running, 42.

The Apiary—The Best Hive, Page 42.

Scientific—Some Gossip About Darwin, Page 43.

Household—"Going up Head" (poetry), Page 44; Too Fat to Marry, 44; Ornaments for Homes, 44.

Young Folks—Chat About a Bear, Page 45; A Fairy Story, by Little Johnnie, 45.

Literature—For Those Who Fail (poetry), Page 46; A Singular Philosopher, 46.

Humorous—The Donkey's Dream, Page 47; Tom Typo 47; Courtship of a Vassar Girl, 47; Items, 47.

News of the Week—Page 48.

Markets—Page 48.

The Corn-Root Worm.

Editor Prairie Farmer—I write you in regard to the corn question. I would like to know if angle-worms damage corn.

Eight years ago I came to the conclusion that I could raise double the number of bushels of corn that I was then raising. I then commenced experimenting on a small scale. I succeeded very well for the first three or four years. I got so that I could raise over ninety bushels per acre. In one year I got a few pounds over 100 bushels per acre. Three years ago my crop began to fail, and has continued to fail up to the present year, with the same treatment. Last year it was so bad that I concluded to examine the roots of the corn plants. I found both angle-worms and grubs in the roots. This year I went into a thorough examination and found nothing there but angle-worms, with a wonderful increase. They were right at the end of the stalk where the roots were thick, but the worms thicker.

The corn at first seems to do very well, but long before the grain gets ripe the leaves begin to get dry and the stalks commence falling. The consequence is that over one-half the corn is loose on the cob and the ears very short. I am entirely headed in the corn line. Is it the angle-worms? If so, what is the remedy? I plant my corn every year on the same ground. I allow no weeds to grow in my cornfield. Farmers can not afford to raise weeds. I remove all weeds and put corn in their places.

I have plowed my land for the next year's crop of corn and put on twenty loads of manure to the acre and plowed it under. I have no faith in planting the ground next year unless I can destroy the worms that I call angle-worms. I have consulted several of my brother farmers, and they say that the angle-worms never destroy a crop of corn.

I thought last year that my seed corn was poor and run out, so I went to Chicago and got Sibley's "Pride of the North," but that was no better.

If you will kindly inform me how to remedy this looseness of the kernel I will agree to show you how 100 bushels of corn can be raised on one acre every good corn year.

Horace Hopkins.
Desplaines, Ill., Jan. 2.

We sent this communication to Professor Forbes, State Entomologist and received the following reply:

Editor Prairie Farmer—There can be hardly a shadow of a doubt that the injury which your correspondent so graphically describes is due to the corn root-worm (Diabrotica longicornis), a full account of which will be found in my report for 1882, published last November.

The clue to his whole difficulty lies in the sentence, "I plant my corn every year on the same ground." As the beetles from which the root-worms descend lay their eggs in corn fields in autumn, and as these eggs do not hatch until after corn planting in the following spring, a simple change of crops for a single year, inevitably starves the entire generation to death in the ground.

I inclose a slip, giving a brief account of this most grievous pest; but the article in my last report already referred to will be found more satisfactory.

S. A. Forbes.
Normal, Ill., January 3.

P.S.—You will probably remember that I published a paper on this insect in The Prairie Farmer for December 30, 1882.

The following is the description referred to:

From the "Crop Report" for 1882.

"The corn-root worm, in the form in which it affects the roots of corn, is a slender white grub, not thicker than a pin, from one fourth to three-eighths of an inch in length, with a small brown head, and six very short legs. It commences its attack in May or June, usually at some distance from the stalk, towards which it eats its way beneath the epidermis, killing the root as fast as it proceeds. Late in July or early in August it transforms in the ground near the base of the hill, changing into a white pupa, about fifteen-hundredths of an inch long and two-thirds that width, looking somewhat like an adult beetle, but with the wings and wing-covers rudimentary, and with the legs closely drawn up against the body. A few days later it emerges as a perfect insect, about one-fifth of an inch in length, varying in color from pale greenish-brown to bright grass-green, and usually without spots or markings of any kind. The beetle climbs up the stalk, living on fallen pollen and upon the silk at the tip of the ear until the latter dies, when a few of the beetles creep down between