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Show Wttfsh&fft feOTM toil l: Wwtu Sffiiri nfi.fi xzz&ieAz jfSTsrj iTtsinr- 7 By R03ERT H. MOULTON. -2 X DiSCOVKIilNG Afiiorica, T"T 7 CoUuuhus not only opened ii)) a vast new home for , ffi. s3 man but for insect pests ' :vf of cultivated crops and do- -3 ?tii niestic animals as well. Ful-J Ful-J !.V one hundrod of tli'e.se foieiL!nei-s lt:!-i tiiihIp fhpir overspread the United States. It attacks at-tacks not only practically all fruits but also many garden vegetables and corn. Since its first appearance in the United States this beetle has multiplied mul-tiplied and spread at an astounding rate. In the middle of August. 1916, when it was discovered, only about a dozen beetles could be collected, even though the search was made in the locality lo-cality 'which is in the center of the infestation, while at the present time 1-ts'OOO to 20,000 beetles can be collected col-lected by hand by one person in a single sin-gle day. Attempts to check the spread of this pest are being made by means of federal and local quarantines. Under Un-der this quarantine the government maintains a supervision over the move- i ment of articles likely to carry the pest from infested areas to other ;sec-tions ;sec-tions of the country. But (be greatest drawback lies in the ease with which it may be carried hy inflivldunls on 'clothing, and in vehicles. Numerous instances have been uoted where beetles have thus been accidentally carried out of infested areas. Another foreign pest in comparatively comparative-ly recent years -which has made its ! appearance in this country "is the European Eu-ropean com horer. Infestations have been discovered in several Eastern states, and recently ttieavy Infestations have been discovered in 'Canada, pre- senting a more immediate menace to ' our corn helt. As its 'name implies, . this insect bores into the corn plant and kills It, thus effectually prevent-' ing the maturing of ears on the plant. : The chinch -bug, an ally of the corn borer, does greatest damage to corn. It is the usual habit '6f' the chinch bug first to attack fields of wheat, rye, or barley; and ite iresoirce often, is unnoticed un-noticed because the injuries inflicted upon these crops are 'Obscure or of no apparent importance. About harvest time the bugs leave the small grain and crawl over tlie surface of the ground to the nearest fields of corn, where they begin at once to wreak severe se-vere injury. Cornfields m-ay be protected and the migrating 'bugs trapped about the time of wheat 'harvest by plowing a deep furrow around the edges of the field. The bugs will fall into the ditch and . can be easily tilled by crushing them with 'a log dragged "back and forth through the ditch. Another method is to dig Shallow post holes in the bottom of the ditch, at Intervals of about twenty twen-ty feet into -which the bugs, crawling along the ditch bottoms, will fall. They can then be destroyed tiy kerosene. Another notorious insect whose function func-tion it is, in the order of nature, to take bread out of our mouths, Is the Hes-sifin Hes-sifin fly, so called because the Hessian soldiers were believed to have brought it over from Europe during the Revolution. Revo-lution. This pest gives Its attention almost wholly to wheat, upon which it levies nn average annual tax of approximately ap-proximately 10 per cent. In certain years when It was most active It destroyed as much as 100.000,000 bushels bush-els of wheat. After the Hessian fly has once thoroughly infested the crops of wheat there is no known means of saving it, and the only known means of preventing damage from llu ilies is to keep them out of the wheat. way to American shores, ?md incidentally inciden-tally to American gardens and fields, ' up to the present. They 1 ave multiplied multi-plied so that today their destruction of orchards, gardens and crops is esti- ; mated at approximately $500,000,000 a year. Their havoc would he much ' more than this were it mot for the ' quarantines and control work conducted con-ducted by the federal government -and activities of the states. The group of federal horticultural 'experts pictured herewith has just been discussing in Washington an effective ef-fective method of fighting the pink bollwonn which now threatens .the cotton cot-ton of the United States, It came here from Mexico in 1917 and approximately approxi-mately $2,000,000 has been spent to stamp it out. It is estimated that failure fail-ure to control this Insect .menace will mean the annual loss of 20 to 40 per cent of ile cotton crop which means 'a loss of hundreds of millions. These specialists are (left, to right) Dr. IC. F, KeMernian, plant physiologist, physiolo-gist, federal hortwultural board; Ooi-ge B. Sudworth idendrologist, for-,'st for-,'st service; C. L. Marlatt, . entomologist, entomolo-gist, bureau of entomology ; W. D. Hunter, Hun-ter, enSomologist, federal1 horticultural ' board, in charge of .field work against .the pink boil wee-vll. These imported ,pests keep on com-;ing. com-;ing. The latest arrival lias just been, detected at .Mama, :Fla. It is not un1 ; ecimnon iu the tropics but according to GL F, Aloznatte, entomologist in j .charge of ,the federal . experiment station sta-tion at Alianii, oae merer before was , seen in the United .States. It is the xylostodoris luteolus and the visitor Jias journeyed from Cuba to sample the quality of the tender- shoots of the roy-& roy-& paJI.ms here. Because it is a -"-sucking" insect and ifeeds upon the leaflets of the trees, ; Mr. Moznette considers the bug an '.imdesii'.able -citizen .and war already lias been declared. The defenders are attempting to .repe'l ,tlie invader with a spray composed .oftone part of uico-.thae uico-.thae sulphate and 1,200, parts of water. The insect is .yellow and.an adult specimen speci-men is .about one4ialf..inch in length. "This is the first record . of a xylos-,todsris xylos-,todsris luteolus in this (Country," said Mr. Moznette. "The insect was recently re-cently .described In ;Cuba by .Barber, with the hast plant jjiven as oreodoxa. Its identity sv.as determined by.Huhert Osborne of the Ohio State university." Of ail the insect .pests and diseases that attack eultiated crops and cut into tlie profits of the Anierleun farmers farm-ers severely there ace relatively few of li'O more important ones that Ere native to the United State. :Llke many other baneful things, insect, pests and diseases have followed the .course of -Jvilb.aU.on. They :axe carried in many ways from one country to another, an-other, and it is the work f the Iepart-nient Iepart-nient of Agriculture to guard the .United .Uni-ted Stales against their entry. and -.to prevent their spread. While many of the pests have coue from European countries, Asia has 'contributed 'con-tributed Its share of them. Prominent among these for its destructive activities activi-ties Is Hit San Jose scale, which made Its first appearance in the United States forty or fifty years ago, having made Its way here from China. It became wide-spread throughout the United States in the early and ' at the present time there is practically practi-cally not a commercial deciduous orchard or-chard iu this country that 'dues net have to be sprayed .oa-ce a j-ear. Some idea of the biK'den winch this insect puts upon the oj-chardtSts of the United States csxn be had wnen it is realized that sflie -expenditure for ap-. paratus and -spraying amounts tci - approximately ap-proximately $K),000)O0 annually, In addition to tliis :ane the losses that the insect caxrses its spite of tlifs control con-trol treatment., and ithey aire very . large, especially to .small orchat-fls andi household house-hold pJaut'ings whore spraying is hot commonly practiced. Ttois Insect alone undoubtedly lias cost this 'country during dur-ing its presence .here upward of $100,-000,0001. $100,-000,0001. Tlie San .Jose 'or (Chinese -cale infects in-fects practically all -.portions of its host plants 'thiit are above aground the trunk, linsbs, and branches and when abundant .may occur on the leaves and fruits. Injury results from the extraction, by the ecnle insects, of tiie juices ol the plant. .At first this merely checks tihe gnowth, but as the insects increase in vsmber .the speedy killing of the taandbes and ;twigs follows, fol-lows, resulting finally in the death of the plants. This insect :is . about the size of a pinliead, tiie iusect proper being beaeatfa the so-called scale, which is merely a -waxy covering secreted by the soft, helpless insect for its own protection. St , Is distributed distrib-uted from one region .to another principally prin-cipally on nursery to!k, scions, or budding and raftin.g material, but once established" in a .locality it1 spreads by various Agencies such as birds, grasshoppers, beetles and ants,1 or by the young being blown by strong winds from tree to tree. Among undesirables from .Japan .have been two or three peach destroyers. Europe has contributed a conn borer, and from Mexico has conae the notorious noto-rious boll weeviL The oriental peach moth, which gained entry a few years ago with imported oriental cherry trees from Japan, has just begun its spread and depredation. It affects practically all deciduous fruits, aud bids fair to be as destructive us the well-known coddling moth, the -eau.se of wormy apples. This insect Injures both the twigs and fruit of traex, instances in-stances heing known where It ha injured in-jured 90 per cent of the twigs. The Jupanese beetle, brought in about the same time as the peach moth, him already gained such a foothold foot-hold that in view of its habits and prolonged pro-longed flight It is probably impossible of extermination and may ultimately |