One Bug

When one Fred Love found a single organism, an inch long, with a saw tooth, on his farm in Kankakee County, Ill., the price of July corn on the Chicago Board of Trade jumped a cent a bushel last week. The hand of Farmer Love quivered as he wrapped the specimen, despatched it to the Department of Agriculture in Washington. In that tiny package was a noxious pest, the European corn borer.

Six years ago, its forefathers appeared on the American continent, probably arriving in a shipment of broomcorn from southeastern Europe to a Canadian broom factory. After a few years of glutting themselves, they practically wiped out Canada's corn crop. Then a hearty band of pilgrims was tossed about, until they set foot in the U. S. Instinctively, they moved westward toward the promised land. The moth flies at the rate of 150 miles a season; the worm nibbles the corn, does the damage. During the last two years, they have been reported in Indiana and many another state but not until last week did they officially cross the border into Illinois. They whetted their man- dibles at the thought of big meals ahead in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska.

Inspectors rushed to Kankakee County to search for the devastating bug; the corn borer committee of the Illinois Agriculture Association called a meeting to plan precautionary measures; the U. S. House of Representatives prepared to act on the Purnell corn borer eradication bill, asking for an appropiation of $10,000,000.