 
Borer Resistant Corn
Glen H. Stringfield, of Wooster, in the 1950s developed techniques for
hybridizing corn that doubled the yield, and made corn resistant to the
European corn borer. He did that work at the Ohio Agricultural Research
Station.
In the decade following the introduction of
Stingfield's hybrids (1954), annual corn borer damage in Ohio diminished from $8.5 million
to only $600,000. Stringfield's development of hybrid corn ranks as one of the
most important achievements of the nation's agricultural experiment stations
About the Corn Borer
 The
European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), attacks corn and many other
crops including cotton, sorghum, and several vegetables. It gets its name from
its method of attack - boring a hole through the husk of an ear. Damage is
significant once European corn borers have invaded a field. It first
appeared in U.S. fields in the early 1900s and has spread westward in the U.S. to
the Rocky Mountains and has also invaded Canada. Some believe the first borers
arrived with broom corn that was imported from Hungary and Italy for broom
manufacture.
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