From Farm Spies, How the Boys Investigated Field Crop Insects by A. F. Conradi, and W. A. Thomas; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916; pp. 43-55.
WHEN CORN IS FOX-EARED
DID you ever see fox-eared corn? If not, then you must go to the cornfield in April when the plants are still small and you will surely see it. You may not see any on uplands, but if you will go to a creek-bottom, or some other low place, you will have no trouble finding them. You may not call such plants fox-eared, but John Grimes and many other good farmers do.
John Grimes lives on his farm in the northern part of South Carolina. He is a very tall man with square shoulders and he has the longest beard that we have ever seen. Should any of you ever pass him on the street we are sure that you would stop for a second look, for such men are not often seen. He has three boys, Fred, Harry, and Joe; and when any one who knows their father meets them, he knows immediately that they are John Grimes’s boys because they look so much like their father. All the neighbors say that Mr. Grimes is a good farmer and one of the best neighbors any one could have. He would go out of his way day or night to do you a favor, and his boys are just like him. 44 They love the farm and are a great help to their father. Hardly a day passes, when they are out in the field, that he does not tell the boys something new about plant-growth, birds, or insects.
One night in April there was a nice warm rain and Mr. Grimes was pleased. “This will make the corn grow, boys,” he said the next morning when he came to breakfast. It being too wet to work in the field he walked over the farm, but when he returned he looked as if something had gone wrong. “A lot of our corn is fox-eared,” he said to the boys in the yard. “As soon as the ground dries off we must take the planters and replant all the fox-eared stalks.”
The boys looked at him for some time as if to ask, “What is fox-eared corn?” At last Freddie said, “We don’t know what you mean.”
“If you will come with me, I will show you,” the father replied. Soon they were on their way, and when they reached the cornfield they saw the rows of young corn and they thought it a pretty sight. “;They are cute little plants,” Harry exclaimed. “Look at their leaves; they remind me of the big feathers in our white rooster’s tail. Don’t they you?”
Fig. 23. — “They remind me of the big feathers in our white rooster’s tail.”
Fred and Joe agreed, with a laugh.
“That is right,” said the father,” and those are healthy plants, that will grow, but there are many that do not carry their leaves that way.”
45“Here is one, is it not?” said Joe. “Look at it; the leaves are standing up almost straight. What is the matter with it?”
Their father asked them to walk over the field with him to find out whether there were many plants like it. As they were walking over the hill, they saw very few, but when they arrived in the bottoms they saw many with straight leaves.
“Now,” said the father, “all the plants that you see with the leaves standing up and not dropping like the big tail feathers of our white rooster, I call fox-eared, and they will never produce corn; we might as well replant them now.”
“They surely have their leaves standing up like the ears of a fox,” Freddie remarked. “What makes them fox-eared?” he asked.
Fig. 24. — “What makes them fox-eared?”
“Worms down in the bottom of the stalk,” their father replied.
“If we replant them now, won’t the worms get into the young plants that come from the replanted seed?” the boys asked.
46“I never knew it,” their father answered, almost as if angry.
The boys thought it very strange that these worms would not attack the young corn coming from the replanted seed.
“Why don’t you find the worms in all the plants?” Joe asked.
“I guess it is because there are not quite enough worms,” Mr. Grimes replied with a sickly smile.
So the boys returned from the field where they had seen fox-eared corn, caused by worms down in 47 the bottoms of the little stalks. They talked about it all that day, and that evening they told Mr. Smith, the demonstration agent, when he visited at their home. Mr. Smith smiled, because he had never heard such corn called fox-eared, but said, “That is a very good name for it.” Boylike they told Mr. Smith all they knew about it, and when he saw that their father looked so grave about it he was ready to believe that the worms were doing very serious damage.
The next morning before taking time to find out how much damage the worms were doing, he saddled his horse and rode over to Mr. Watson’s farm, where an entomologist was studying another pest. Mr. Smith explained to him what he had been told about the worms in Mr. Grimes’s field. “It has spoiled his stand of corn and much of it has to be replanted,” he said.
The insect man, whose name was Henry Colby, went with him, and together they looked at the corn. Mr. Colby pulled up some of the plants with great care, examined the roots and also that part of the plant which had been underground; then he looked at the rest of the plant. With his pocket knife he split the stem, and with a smile he laid the plant in Mr. Smith’s hand. “Just what I thought,” he said,
“A worm,” Mr. Smith said, surprised. “Mr. 48 Grimes was right, then; he said it was a worm, and so did the boys. What is it?”
“It is the bud-worm of corn,” Mr. Colby replied.
( After Chittenden, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr. )
Fig. 25. — “It is the bud-worm of corn.”
The boys and their father, having seen Mr. Colby and the demonstrator enter the field, had come and joined them because they were anxious to learn something about the worms.
“Why do you call it the bud-worm?” they asked Mr. Colby.
“They do not seem to be in the bud, but in the plant below the ground,” Mr. Smith remarked at the same time when the others asked their question.
Mr. Colby then told them that the injury to the bud was not from the outside like a worm eating the leaves, but from the inside where one cannot see it without cutting the plant. “These little worms,” he continued, “known as larvæ, because they are the young of insects, and are not really worms, bore into the tender stalk of the young corn plant, usually at the base where the roots come out. There they feed, cutting off all of the inside of the stalk except one or two of the outer layers, and this causes the bud to die, leaving one or two green leaves at the bottom of the stalk standing up like the ears of the fox. After killing the bud, the larvæ feed 49 upwards or they may feed downwards into the root. No matter in what direction they feed, the small bud dies and the growth of the plant is stopped, and this is the reason why we call them bud-worms.”
( After Chittenden, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr. )
Fig. 26. — “Usually at the base where the roots come out.”
“Oh, we see now,” said the boys; “when we gathered our corn last fall we saw holes in the grown stalks, and when we cut the stalks open we found worms in them and they must have been bud-worms.”
“No, they were not; they were corn-stalk borers, and were very different from these bud-worms,”
( After Chittenden, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr. )
-->Fig. 27. — “No, they were not: they were corn-stalk borers.”
Mr. Colby explained. “After young corn-plants have grown about twelve inches high and are 50 healthy, these bud-worms can no longer seriously harm them. They merely gnaw the outer skin about the same place as in the young corn, as you see here. In some cases it checks the growth, but it is rare that it kills the plant, and the larvæ never reach the soft inside part or pith of the stalk.”
You speak of it as the larva of an insect, Mr. Colby; what insect is it that makes the larva?” Mr. Smith asked.
Mr. Colby then told him that the insects making the bud-worms are the common twelve-spotted cucumber-beetles which, no doubt, they all had seen many times in their gardens. “There is one now, sitting under that clod; see it?” Mr. Colby said, pointing to the ground.
Yes, they all saw it, and then they remembered that they had seen thousands of them before.
“We never knew that this beetle injured corn!” they all exclaimed. “Why,” said Joe, “I have seen them everywhere, in our orchard and garden, and last year, I remember I saw a lot of them in Aunt Sallie’s flower garden in the city, but I had no idea at that time that they were such rogues.” At this they all laughed.
“They looked very good, didn’t they, Joe?” Mr. Colby said; “but remember after this when you meet them that they are not as innocent as they appeared to be when you saw them in that flower garden, but they are the cause of much loss 51 to farmers by laying their eggs, which make the little bud-worms in the corn. The eggs are laid by the mother beetle in the soil at the base of the young corn-plants. The eggs hatch into little worms, such as you see here, which bore into the tender stalks and kill the buds as I have told you. When they become full-grown larvæ they leave the stalk and make a small earthen cell in the soil near by. Inside of this cell they change to a resting-stage called pupa.
( After Chittenden, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr. )
Fig. 28. — “They change to a resting stage, called pupa.”
During this resting-stage they are really not resting, just because they are so still, but a great change takes place. You remember the little verse you learned in school? It says,
“ Action is not always gain,
Crystals form when left at rest. ”
“During the pupa stage they change from the simple little larva, such as you see here, to a beautiful twelve-spotted cucumber-beetle having wings, wing covers, feelers, and legs; after a week or ten days this little cell opens, and instead of a little bud-worm wiggling out of it, as you would suppose, there crawls out of it an active beetle!”
( After Chittenden, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr. )
Fig. 29. — “There crawls out of it an active beetle.”
52They had all listened to Mr. Colby with intense interest, and when he finished they stood spellbound. After a few seconds, Mr. Smith broke the silence by asking,
“Where do they stay in winter when no corn is to be had?”
“In this part of the country they do not go into real winter quarters, like so many other kinds of insects, but when cold weather begins they find shelter under the leaves of weeds and other suitable places, and from there they come out and feed during warm weather. They —”
“What can they feed on in winter?” Mr. Smith interrupted.
Mr. Colby explained, “There are several food plants, but there are two kinds of wild weeds known as life everlasting, which are common on the farms of this section throughout the winter; during warm spells these furnish food, and during cold weather their leaves furnish shelter for the insects.”
“Then it looks to me as if there is no way of getting rid of these little pests,” Mr. Smith complained.
“It is not quite so bad as that,” Mr. Colby replied; “it is very important where they give trouble that the corn be planted at the right time to prevent damage.”
“That sounds good enough, Mr. Colby, but how 53 do we know when the right time has arrived?” Mr. Smith asked.
“This must be determined for the different sections of the South,” Mr. Colby told them; “in this section we have studied the life and habits of this insect very carefully and find that the first eggs are laid early in March and hatch during the first week in April. The earthen cells and pupæ have been formed about May 19, and the full-grown beetles come out beginning about May 24. Now, if the weather is such that you can plant in March, the corn has a chance to get a good start before the worms can do severe injury.”
“How about planting in April?” Mr. Grimes asked.
“I have just said that the eggs hatch during the first days of April, and to plant your corn at that time would be like feeding the worms, don’t you see? If you wait until the worms have become full grown or have changed to pupæ, they do not feed, and that is a good time to plant, to give the corn a chance to get a good start. In this section they change to the pupæ, as I have said, on May 19, and for that reason about May 19 would be a safe date to plant to avoid injury.”
“My brother, who lives in the southern part of this state, has this trouble also; would you recommend the same date for him?” Mr. Grimes asked.
Mr. Colby replied, “In the middle portion of our 54 state the pupæ is formed about May 12, and in the southern portion about May 5. We should say then that the dates should be as follows where one cannot plant early:
Upper South Carolina, May 19.
Middle South Carolina, May 12.
Lower South Carolina, May 5.
“Here is a map we have prepared for farmers in this state who lose corn by bud-worms.” Mr. Colby handed Mr. Grimes a map.
Fig. 30. — “Here is a map.”
During the last four years Mr. Grimes has been very careful about the time he plants his corn. Not only has he learned how to escape bud-worm 55 injury, but the knowledge gained that day in the old cornfield has set him to thinking, and you see improvements on his farm and in his farm-practice everywhere. The neighbors have noticed it, and often come to ask him questions or talk over their farm problems with him. Always ready to help his neighbors, always willing to listen to what others say, and always ready for improvements, he has become a great leader in his section. Should you ever meet him, be sure to ask him whether he is losing much corn from bud-worms. The big bearded face will smile all over, and he will answer you, “I am losing very little corn from bud-worms now. They used to do me a great amount of damage, but I learned how to outwit them. Plant early if you can, but if the weather does not let you do that, then plant at the right time.”
Then he thoughtfully strokes his long beard, and turns his face toward the old cornfield where he met Mr. Colby some years ago.