Corn-huskers and shredders are now growing in favor, which strip the husks from the ears and at the same time tear or chop the fodder into very fine particles. In this condition the fodder is fed with less waste. Corn-picking and husking ma chines designed to gather the ears from the stand ing stalks, husk them and deliver them into wagons driven by the side of the machine, are used of corn oil, valued at $1,467,493 ; the next year the exportation amounted to 3,222,875 gallons, valued at $998,613 ; in 1905, 3,108,917 gallons, valued at $S90,973 ; for 1906 the exports of this product reached a value of $1,172,206.
Some of the leading products made from the grain of maize other than those mentioned are glucose, dextrine or American gum, alcohol and whiskey, starches, both edible and laundry, grits, hominies and a great variety of table products.
Enemies.
While this crop is preyed on by numerous ene mies, such as rodents, crows, insects and fungous diseases, there are but few that sometimes destroy the whole crop.
Root-worm.--The corn root-worm is one of the most injurious corn pests. At times its depreda to some extent and will probably be improved so that they will be more generally employed.
Corn products.
To a very slight extent compared with the amount of corn grown, the parts of the corn plant other than the grain are used in making various manufactured products. The silks are used as a filter, husks for the making of mattresses, the pith of the stalk for the packing of coffer-dams of battle ships, the outer part of the stalks for the making of pyroxylin varnish and paper, cobs for the mak ing of corn-cob pipes. The leaves and husks are ground finely and mixed with corn oil-cake to form a feed for chickens and cattle. So varied are the products obtained from different parts of this plant that one factory alone manufactures forty-two distinct products.
Corn oil as extracted from the germs, usually by hydraulic pressure, is one of the most valuable products obtained from corn. It is used for culi nary purposes and is vulcanized as a substitute for India rnbber. About 75 or 80 per cent of the corn oil manufactured in this country is exported. In 1903 the United States exported 3,778,935 gallons tions become very apparent and entire fields are destroyed, but generally its injuries are moderate and widely distributed, so that the corn crop is cut short by millions of bushels and the cause not known or realized. The larva of the corn root-worm
that does injury in the southern states is a slender, thread-like, yellowish white worm with a brownish head. It is about one-half inch long. Plants injured by this root-worm usually show one or more small round worm-holes just below the surface of the soil near the upper whorl of roots. Because it often begins its destruction as soon as the young plants begin their growth, it is commonly called the ''bud worm." The corn root-worm of the leading corn-produc ing states differs slightly from the southern corn root-worm. The larva is smaller, four-tenths of an inch long. The eggs hatch in the soil and the worms mine longitudinally either up or down through the corn roots. The adult does not possess the twelve black spots of the southern root-worm but is of a uniform grass-green color, and feeds mostly on the pollen and silks of the corn While the green beetles do some damage by gnaw ing on the silks, it is in the larval stage that this insect destroys the corn crop to the greatest extent.
Cutworms.—There are many different species of cutworms, and 'the life-history of the different kinds differs considerably. They destroy some young corn plants in almost every corn-field and occasion ally destroy entire crops. Such destruction is most likely to occur when old meadows or pastures are plowed in the spring and planted in corn. Early fall-plowing is very effective in preventing de struction of corn by cutworms. They can be pois oned by scattering about the field bran to which has been added Paris green and molas ses in about the proportions of thirty pounds of bran, one pound of Paris green, two quarts of molasses and enough water to moisten the bran. Succulent clover or alfalfa can be sprayed thoroughly with Paris green, then cut and scattered in small quan tities where the worms are most destructive. Often when the entire field is severely attacked it is best to disk or till the ground, then wait a week or two and plant again. The writer has seen fields treated in this way in which the first planting was entirely destroyed and the second planting uninjured, resulting in a big yield of corn.