The larva is three-fourths inch long, white and marked with dark brown spots. It bores the stalks of young maize, seriously injuring it, and later bores into older stems, working down into the tap root, and passes the winter in the pupal stage in a channel about the surface of the ground or a little below. The moth issues in the spring, soon to lay eggs near the base of the leaves. It also attacks sugar cane and sorghum, as well as gama or sesame grass (Tripsacum dactyloides), and consequently is more likely to be a dangerous pest near swampy lands, where this grass grows. Clean culture and systematic rotation of crops is a fairly effective remedy.

OTHER ENEMIES.

337. THE CROW.-In many sections, especially where maize is planted near clumps of timber, the American crow (Corvus Americanus And.) pulls up and eats the young plant, often causing considerable damage. Most of the preventive measures recommended have for their basis methods of frightening the crows away until the plants are large enough to resist their attacks. Among these measures are the simple scarecrow, trapping the birds alive and keeping them tied in the field, and poisoning a few with maize grain soaked in strychnine as a warning. Coating the seed slightly with coal tar is sometimes quite effective. This may be done by dipping a wooden paddle into the hot liquid and then stirring it rapidly among the maize grains. There is some danger of decreasing the germination. It is generally conceded that except for this annual depredation the crow is useful to agriculture as a destroyer of insect pests.

338. THE AMERICAN BLACKBIRD (Agelaius phoeniceus Linn.) occasionally does somewhat serious damage by feeding upon grain while it is still soft.

339. THE STRIped Prairie SQUIRREL (Spermophilus 13-lineatus), especially in sections from Illinois westward, frequently makes replanting necessary by digging up and consuming the sprouting grain. Gillette has shown that injurious insects constitute a large proportion of its food. It is believed that these squirrels are not only beneficial to meadows and pastures, but to subsequent maize crops, because of their destruction of cutworms, wireworms, web-worms and similar insects.

XVI.

MAIZE.

L HARVESTING AND PRESERVATION.

340. Harvesting.-Although there has been considerable progress in the harvesting of maize, no such profound changes have been made as those noted in the harvesting of the small grains. The larger part of the crop is still husked by hand from the standing plant and cattle allowed to roam over the husked fields to pick up neglected ears and nubbins, and to

Maize harvester and shocker; shock is

built upon the platform by the machine, after which it is raised by the

feed upon the leaves and husks. Attempts to husk the standing maize by machinery have not met with success.

341. Storing.-After being husked, the ears of maize are stored in ventilated (slatted) bins, called cribs, in order that the excess of moisture may evaporate before the grain is shelled. (233) While on the ear, the grain is not readily injured for feeding purposes by exposure to atmospheric conditions, but when shelled is subject to heating and molding, if not thoroughly air-dry. A difference of two per cent in moisture content may materially influence the keeping quality of the shelled grain.

next round.

When maize is stored in the ear, it is particularly subject to attacks from rats and mice because of the facility with which these vermin may pass between the ears. Special precautions

should be taken to reduce their ravages to a minimum by raising the bottom of the crib from the ground, thus reducing their hiding places as well as giving access to cats and dogs.

342. Maize Fodder.-In the North Atlantic and Southern States, and in portions of the North Central States, most of the maize is cut and put into shocks or into the silo. This cutting may be, and for the most part still is, done by means of a corn knife, although the corn cutter and the corn harvester are both largely used, the latter especially where maize is cut for the silo. A machine has recently been invented which cuts and shocks the maize at one operation, but its use has not yet become general.

From 5x7, or thirty-five hills, to 12X12, or 144 hills, are placed in a single shock. The lesser quantity is common in the North Atlantic States, where, according to the Connecticut Station, it is more difficult to preserve flint stover, while ten hills square, or 324 shocks per acre, is the common

Maize harvester. Cuts and binds plants into bun. dles, which may afterwards be put into shocks; also very useful in harvesting maize for silage.

amount in the North Central States. A common method is to tie four hills together without cutting them off and then to shock the rest of the plants around these; while in other cases a wooden When the shock is com

horse is used as a temporary support. pleted, a light rope with a hook on one end is used to draw the top of the shock together, when it is tied with twine or in some

cases with a stalk of maize. After the plant has become cured, which usually takes about a month, the shocks are generally

Maize cutter. Blade on each side severs

stalks while men riding upon the machine gather them together and shock them.

Two rows may be cut at one time, or,

raising one blade, only one row.

husked by hand in the field, the
stover tied into bundles; the
four hills which had been used
for supports are cut off and
bound with the rest of the
stover.
These bundles are

again shocked and the shocks
tied, or the stover is hauled
directly to the barn and stored.

It is necessary to choose suitable weather conditions, since if the plants are too dry, the leaves will fall off and be lost, while extremely wet weather would be equally injurious.

'B

A

Methods of cutting maize by hand. A, wooden horse used to support stalks while shock is being built; B, four hills used as support for shock when wooden horse is not used; C, rope with hook for drawing shock together prior to tying with string shown at Al; D, maize knife used in North Central States; E, maize knife used in North Atlantic States

E

The husker and shredder, which has now come into considerable use, eliminates the labor of husking and puts the stover in a condition to be easily handled. It may be stored in the barn or even put into a stack, but in order to keep, the stover must be thoroughly dry at the time of husking. Itinerant machines go from farm to farm in many localities husking either by the day or at a fixed price per bushel. Threshing machines have sometimes been used for threshing maize fodder. The chief objection to the threshing machine is that it shells the grain, which at that time usually contains too much moisture to be stored in this manner.

Where beef cattle are fattened, the maize fodder, generally called "shocked corn," is fed without being husked, thus supplying concentrated food and roughage at the same time.

343. Topping.-Removing that part of the culm or stalk above the ears instead of cutting and shocking the whole plant has been somewhat widely practiced in both the North and South Atlantic States.

2

The Pennsylvania Station1 found that by topping, 1,050 pounds of stover were obtained at a loss of 540 pounds of ear maize, as compared with allowing the maize to ripen and merely gathering ears. Mississippi Station, as the result of three years' trials, found a net loss in feeding value of more than twenty per cent. Seven other stations show an average loss of thirteen bushels per acre, which was "more than the feeding value of the 'fodder' secured." At the Arkansas Station, neither topping nor pulling reduced the yield of grain so much as cutting and shocking the whole plant when ears were just past the roasting-ear stage, as shown in the following table:

1 Penn. Rpt. 1891, pp. 58-60. 2 Miss. Bul. 33 (1895), p. 63

8 Ark. Bul. 24 (1893), p. 121.