Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1920-01-16
European Com Borer Will
Not Be National Menace

area in western New York. deter
mined this fall to he infested and
where it is believed the infest&tioM
is of ten years standing, large
stall1ed corn is commonly grown. it
vas so scantily infested that dis
covery of the insect in most fields
was possible only by the most in
tcnsive search.
AS a single-brooded insect, the corn
borer is a negligible factor, even in
the production of sweet corn and the
dwarf varieties. Ii is a single
brooded insect in New York, and,
by fair inference, will be single
brooded throughout the northern por-
tons of the corn belt. In New
York, where the insect has pre-
sumably been present Tor nine or ten
years. a great deal both of sweet corn
and flint corn are grown, and no APP
preciable injury was s:sffe-Gd.
Possibility of Cultural Control.
There is, apparently, Il possibility
of cultural control. The only place
where appreciate injury has result
ed from the com borer is the truck
ing and small garden district i'm
mediately around Boston, where the
truckers have universally complain
ed of a shortage of labor. There
has been very general neglect of
weed growth along roadways, on
waste land and even in home and
truck gardens. The insect-knoWn
to have more than 100 food plants
bred in such grass and weeds. The
corn grown throughout this area is
in patches of from a fraction of an
acre to a few acres and evidently
sects from tn surrounding weeds.
The worst infested fields were usual
ly either poorly titled and weedy
or, surrounded by neglected, weedy
areas. There were notable examples
in the center of this district of we'll
titled fields of sweet corn with clean
surroundings in which injury was
negligible.
The menace to the corn crop of the
country, then, is minimized by the
slight susceptibility of common corn
TO borer attack; by the practical Ger
tainty that the insect will be single
brooded over the main corn-growing
areas and that where single brood
ed it inf1icts no injury even on small
types of corn; and that good culture
in clean surroundings appears to be
a control measure.
Where Borer is Known to Occur.
The European corn borer is now
known to occur over the entire coast
al region of Massachusetts, includ-
ing Cape Cod and adjacent islands,
and over several towns in southern
New Hampshire, approximately 1900
square miles: in New York, in the
Mohawk Valley between Amsterdam
and Albany, about 800 square miles;
in western New York, over an area
of at least SOC square miles, and
the area of known infestati ton is con-
stantly expanding as the survey pro-
ceeds; and over a limited area in
Erie County, Pennsylvania.
In view of this known wide dis
tribution and the possibility that it
may exist in numerous other local
tiles, and in view also of the large
number of plants on which it feeds,
the Department of Agriculture real
ICES that determination of the corn
borer is out of the question except
perhaps in limited areas of intensive
production, and that the problem now.
is to determine the areas infested,
the economic Importance Of the in
sect il different regions, and the pos
sibilities of practical control or ex-
termination within small areas. For
these purposes, Congress has been
asked to make an appropriation of
$500, 600.