Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 12, March 22, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and FiresideVarious
Science
Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 12, March 22, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside
Various
Agriculture -- United States -- Periodicals; Farm life -- Periodicals; United States -- Rural conditions -- Periodicals
"Now that our year's entomological campaign is completed, a brief review
of some of its most important features and results will doubtless be of
interest. Early attention was given to the insects attacking corn in the
ground, before the sprout has appeared above the surface. A surprising
number were found to infest it at this period, the results of their
injuries being usually attributed by farmers to the weather, defective
seed, etc. Among these the seed corn maggot (Anthomyia zeæ) was frequently
noted, and was received from many parts of the State. A small,
black-headed maggot, the larva of a very abundant, gnat-like fly (Seiara),
was excessively common in ground which had been previously in grass, and
attacked the seed corn if it did not germinate promptly and vigorously,
but apparently did not injure perfectly sound and healthy grains. A minute
yellow ant (Solenopsis fugax) was seen actually gnawing and licking away
the substance of the sound kernels in the ground, both before and after
they had sprouted. The corn plant-louse (Aphis maidis) was an early and
destructive enemy of the crop, often throttling the young shoot before it
had broken ground. It was chiefly confined to fields which had been just
previously in corn or grass.
"The chinch-bug was found in spring depositing the eggs for its first
brood of young about the roots of the corn, a habit not hitherto reported.
"With the increasing attention to the culture of sorghum, its insect
enemies are coming rapidly to the front. Four species of plant-lice, two
of them new, made a vigorous attack upon this crop in the vicinity of
Champaign, and two of them were likewise abundant in broom-corn.
"The corn root-worm (Diabrotica longicornis) was occasionally met with in
sorghum, but does not seem likely to do any great mischief to that plant.
It could not be found in broom-corn. In fields of maize, however, it was
again very destructive, where corn had been raised on the same ground a
year or two before. The Hessian Fly did great damage throughout the winter
wheat region of the State, many fields not being worth harvesting in
consequence of its ravages. Several facts were collected tending to show
that it is three brooded in the southern part of the State. Nearly or
quite all the last brood passed the summer as "flax seeds" in the stubble,
where they might easily have been destroyed by general and concerted
action. Fortunately, the summer weather was unfavorable to their
development; and the drouth conspired with their parasites to greatly
diminish their numbers. In the regions under our observation, not one in a
thousand emerged from the midsummer pupa-cases, and numbers of the larvæ
were found completely dried up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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