0
5tzz. h7?rtAT Work
HKN you visit "Washington next
time you may chance to wander
v v
through the shaded, park-like
grounds In which the buildings occupied
by the Department of Agriculture are lo
cated, and you may run across a curious,
cage-like structure, ten or 12 feet square
and eight or nine feet high.
Its frame is made of light wooden stuff
and Us walls of close meshed wire net
ting, through which the rain can beat,
the wind can blow and the sunshine, fall
the same as anywhere else. Inside you
will see divers Jars and flower pots, some
on shelves close to the oltside of the wire
net cage, some sunken In the ground and
some otherwise disposed. In the jars
nd pots you will notice that plants and
euttings of various sorts are growing,
and that on each growing thing there is
some evidence that it is being attacked
by a destructive insect.
If you hunt up some attache of the de
partment and ask a few questions you
will learn that it is the Entomological
Bureau's "breeding cage" for the study
of the Insects which damage and destroy
deciduous fruits of all sorts.
This inexpensive structure, then, which
cannot have cost more, than $50 in the
building and which most visitors proba
bly would pass by unnoticed, plays a
highly Important part In the really great
work of the best organized and most
efficient machine for fighting man's in
ect enemies in the whole world. It is
In charge of A. L. Qualntance, one of the
bureau experts.
Near by you will see a little peak
roofed house with solid wooden walls,
painted white. Through little apertures
in the walls close to the ground 'bees are
entering and departing. Tou may enter
It yourself If you like, and are not afraid
of bees, through an Ordinary door, for
the little white building Is not full of
bees, as' you might imagine. They are
kept In hives built inside the structure
so that the outer wall of it forms one
wall of each hive. The bureau gives
attention to the Insects which help man
kind, as well as to those which damage
crops. Bees, V! course, stand at the
head of beneficial insects; silkworms
come next.
Not far away stands the modest red
brick building which houses the main of
fices of the bureau, In charge of L. O.
Howard, entomologist, with C. L. Mar
latt second In command. Each of these
men does his full share of original In
vestigation in addition to his superviso
ry work. Mr. Howard has given much
'attention to such pests as the brown tall
and gypsy moths for a long time, and
was in Europe looking for ways to kill
them off when the writer called the
other day. Mr. Marlatt has given special
'attention to the insect enemies of wheat
and other grains, which cost the coun
try more than any other group of !n-
1 sects. I speak of them as a. "group"
because they attack similar crops; sci
entifically they belong to many different
groups.
Green Bug's Work Dwarfed.
1 Only those who have looked up the
figures have any notion how expensive
to the Nation the insects of this coun
try are. Mr. Marlatt says that Buch
pests impose a 'heavier tax on the
farmers Of no other country. He
places the average yearly loss at
1795,100,000, an almost unthinkable
sum. Of this loss $420,000,000 falls
upon crops and farm forests, $175,000.
'000 upon animal products, $100,000,000
upon natural forests and forest
products and $100,000,0000 upon prod
ucts In storage.
The Iobs to the cereals, wheat, oats,
barley, rye and other grains. Is about
$200,000,000 annually, year In and year
out. whether there is any special visi
tation like that of the green bug, which
made such a sensation In the South
wast this year or .not. It is estimated
tliat it did about $9,000,000 damage
last Spring. This Is bad enough, but
It ?s a million dollars less than S per
cent of the total average shrinkage of
the grain crops yearly.
The corn rot worm, the boll worm
(or earn worm), the chinch bug and the
Hessian fly average $20,000,000 dam
age each year right along to the corn
crop alone, more than double the dam
age done to the wheat by the green
bug this year. Besides, there are a
lot of minor pests which damage corn
that the public rarely hears of and of
which many farmers are Ignorant, such
as bill bugs, wire worms, cut worms,
army worms, stalk borers, grasshop
pers, corn plant lice 50 important
species all told. Mr. Marlatt says, that
do a total yearly damage of more than
$80,000,000 in all, or nearly nine times
as much as that done this year by the
green bug.
Wheat suffers more from bugs and
worms of various kinds, both actually
and relatively, than any other crop. Corn
Is the biggest crop of the country, its
value slmetimes reaching and even ex
ceeding a billion dollars, with an average
8 per cent Insect loss. The average loss
from insects in wheat Is about SO per
cent. On a crop worth $500,000,000 this
would be $100,000,000, more than 11 times
the damage done this year by the green
bug. The Hessian fly and the chinch
bug are more partial to a wheat than a
corn diet even. Sometimes the Hessian
,fly fairly exterminates a large -part of
the growing wheat. '
Seven years ago It destroyed 40 per cent
of the wheat In Ohio and 60 per cent in
Indiana, the destruction being so com
plete that these percentages of the area
planted to these grains were plowed
under in the two states. Twenty per cent
of the Michigan wheat area was aban
doned also that year, and the decrease In
the wheat crop of the whole country for
1900 from the Hessian fly alone amounted
to not less than a hundred million of dol
lars. It is rare that this fly does any such
great damage, however. It Is a little
thing, although twice as large as the
green bug, being about an eighth of an
.urn
on Corn
inch long. It looks somewhat like an un
dersized mosquito. As its name indicates.
It is of European origin and It landed on
American soil in 1776, coming here In the
straw brought over by the Hessian
troops. It first did serious damage to
American wheat three years later. It has
been on the wing ever since, and it
reached New Zealand in 1S8S. It is at
tacked by several parasites, but about the
only thing to do when the fly once gets
well at w,ork in wheat Is to plow the
crop under. After a bad year burning
the stubble In the Kali Is recommended
In order to destroy the eggs, and so pre
vent the fly from getting a good start
the next year. It Is a good thing also
says Mr. Marlatt, to sow Winter wheat
very late when the season appears to be
favorable to the fly.
Still another and a most' ingenious
scheme is to plant a "decoy" crop of
wheat, early, in a narrow strip. The
flies are attracted to this early wheat
and gather upon Its spires from the
remainder of the field. At the proper
time the strip, young wheat, Hessian
fly and all, is plowed under as deep
as possible, after which the ground is
thoroughly rolled, on the theory that
a compact surface will prevent the ma
turing flies from escaping.
The chinch bug'is a native of this
country; it works on wheat until af
ter that grain is harvested, when it mi
grates to the corn fields, for which rea
son the bureau recommends that the
two yrops should not be planted near
together. In addition to this fly and
this bug. wheat is attacked by midgets,
plant lice, straw worm, joint worms,
bulb worms, army worms and saw
flies. 'The army worm is a native
America, and when It really gets a
start travels In great masses, whence
its name, destroying everything before
It. Like the grasshopper and the po
tato bug, the army worm seems to have
been got under pretty fair control, and
it is years since any of these pests
has done any great damage. .
The Terrible Green Bug.
I asked for some details about the
green bug. Mr. Marlatt reached to the
back of his roll-top desk and brought
forth a pasteboard box, from which he
took a handful of dried wheat spires,
cut when they were green, each of
which bore hundreds of what looked
more like little brown wartlike lumps
at first than anything else. "There are
a few thousands of him, from Kansas,"
said he. "Also a few thousands of the
parasites that kill him," referring to
what seemed like tiny, sootlike dots
on the bottom of the box.
On close examination the little brown'
warts showed their Insect character
clearly. Each was about a sixteenth
of an inch In length, and a small round
hole was found In the back of nearly
every specimen in the collection.
"In every case," said Mr. Marlatt,
"the fiolu means that a parasite -has
laid its egg in the body of the bug
and killed it. That Is what happened
to all but a very small proportion In
deed of the bugs last SprhBg. Not one
in many thousands of them lived long
enough after the parasite got to work
to perpetuate their kind, although long
before that they, had destroyed great
areus of growing wheat.
"The green bug is supposed not to be
a native American insect. It was first
reported in this country in 1882. It
was found in abundance two years
later in the wheat near Cabin John,
Maryland, and that same year it ap
peared in Indiana, where F. M. Webster,
the bureau's expert in the study of in
sects that destroy cereals and grasses,
was carrying on his Investigations.
The bug did little damage that year,
however, but in 1S9J they destroyed a
large part of the wheat and oats In
Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Il
linois, Kentucky and Tennessee. There
was another visitation in 1900, but it
was confined to Texas mainly.
"The green bug probably is a perma
nency in this country," went on Mr.
Marlatt, "but it has never done seri
ous damage expect when there has been
a warm, wet Winter, followed by a
wet, cold Spring. .Last January W. X.
Hunter, of this bureau, predicted the
outbreak of last Spring, for wheat and
oats were then being destroyed by the
bug in Texas, but, although the insect
has been studied thoroughly, there was
no way to prevent the damage. Noth
ing will kill it but its various 'para
sitic' and "predatory" enemies. There
are several varieties of the parasites,
all of which seem to be native, and
present In sufficient numbers every
year to insure the checking of the bug
L3 X
I T - 'w. - 'vjei
mT re v)
THE SUNDAY
.TfTeaaaafcBMMfcjnajajaaEaaj
1 Sj
Sort ...?.. ...-
m 4t
RE
- v
i '
by the time the warm weather really
sets in, but not early enough to save
the crop after an open Winter and a
late Spring,
"This Is because the bug which the bu
reau knows as the Spring 'grain aphis is
able to work all through an open Winter
while the parasKes are not. Thus when
the weather conditions are favorable the
bug gets a big start on Its enemies; when
the Winter and Spring are normal the
parasites go to work on the bug as early,
practically, as it goes to work on the
crops, and there is no trouble.
"It is lucky that while nature has given
the bug great powers of survival and re
production, she has provided an unusual
number of ways of checking It. By May
and June a certain species of ladybugs
and their larvae begin to devour green
bugs in great numbers. The ladybugs
were not needed in Kansas this year,
however; the parasites did the work ef
fectually before It was time for the lady
bugs to get to work.
"I can't say that I believe the efforts of
the bureau or any one else did much to
check the green bug ravages this year,
much as I should like to, although every
thing was done that could be done. The
bureau sent three men into the infested
district. Finding that tfle parasite was
busy wherever the green bug was found,
these men sent quantities of young wheat
covered with dead green bugs and live
parasites from Texas and Oklahoma to
Kansas In barrels, for the farmers there
to scatter in their Infested fields, where
both bugs and parasites got to work later
than In Texas. S. J. Hunter, of the Kan
sas State University, sent out 'boxes of
parasite Infested wheat also, but our ex
perts are agreed that millions on the back
of millions of green bugs were doing busi
ness in the Kansas wheat fields before It
was possible to set parasites from Texas
at work.
"It Is not likely that the green bug
ever will do great damage in the North
ern wheat regions. Even in the open
Winters there are too cold to allow it to
breed all through the season, as it can
In Texas. Judging from the past, we
shall not have another green bug pest
11 a k- , ' rt -v .'J , V ; s ;
'St. - - , , - t I I i
fVyi & v.. ' : -"w i "'Jy 'I' 111 1 1 ...Mm Z. I I iiiiiiiii i ijinmiim IIWIP ijiniiiiiiViiV-""' :;" .:';: : : . ." : - ..-..J ff
yfc ' ...wnw .m.-,- . mm -i ,,vm ,r..i . , , t,, , " ' IT!!
OREGONIAX, PORTLAND,
Efc$ijflWWiiW -" xii--
V
KNOCK INGTHE PLCrf
fc, i
4"
until there is another open Winter fol
lowed by a backward Spring. The bug
will survive, of course, and will begin
work on the wheat in the Southwest next
year and every normal year, but its ene
mies will be ready to begin on It quite
as promptly. The green bug was first
described by an Italian scientist in 1852.
In June of that year it was so numerous
in the city of Bologna as to cause great
annoyance. A grain field infested with
green bugs speedily turns brown? In
health the bugs are bright green, as their
popular name shows, but when attacked
by the parasites they change color speed
ily." Protecting Fruits From Moths.
The importance of Mr. Marlatt's special
work is apparent from the wide distribu
tion of the grain crops of the country and
the equally widespread work of destruc
tion done by the Insect enemies of grain.
Mr. Howard's special work in fighting
the gypsy and the brown tail moths is
not less important, although as yet these
pests have not got west of New England,
where they were first known in America.
It Is Mr. Howard's business to see that
they never leave New England, as It Is
that of the bureau to confine the cotton
boll weevil to the Southwest, and he is
orosecutlng his task with intelligence,
vigor and enthusiasm.
The estimated damage' done to fruit
by insects in this country is $27,000,000
annually, the total fruit crop being fig
ured as worth $125,000,000. Thus the
percentage of damage is much less
than the damage to wheat. Should
the destructive moths ever get a foot
hold tn the great fruit regions of the
Middle West, in the orange groves ot
Florida, the vineyards and groves of
California and the -apple orchards in
the West the damage would be incal
culable. This is no exaggeration.
These moths feed on practically all
trees and shrubs as well as on fruit
trees; the gypsy moth attacks pine,
hemlock, spruce, cedar and all other
coniferous besides deciduous forest
trees. Fifty-acre patches of forest.
JULY 2i, 1907.
. ''
v -
CCS&ClLfO FTZOrt THE
5
every tree on which has been killed by
moths, are found in some places.
Both these moths came to Massa
chusetts first; the gypsy moth in 1869,
brought by a Harvard professor, who
wished to study It. The insect got
away . from him before he had been
studying It long, and he notified every
body at ence. Tet it was not nbtlced
in large . numbers until 1889. The
brown-tail moth probably was brought
here In 1890 on rose plants, but it did
not become a nuisance until 18V- Now
both are found in many parts of New
England; the brown-tall has gone as
far as New Brunswick. The State of
Massachusetts appropriated money to
fight the gypsy moth soon after its
dangerous character, was realized, but
in 1899 all work was stopped, not to
be resumed until five years later, in
1904.
Mr. Howard is enabled to give the
help of the bureau and himself because
of appropriations for that purpose, first
made by Congress in 1905. The bureau
Is employing a large number of la
borers to destroy moth nests in New
England this Summer. Both these
moths are the prey of birds and para
sites, but the native American insect
eating birds are not so numerous in
New England as formerly, having been
killed off by pot hunters, and driven
away by the rapidly multiplying Eng
lish sparrow, another importation. The
sparrow does not ,eat the gypsy moth
to any extent, although it does attack
the Drowm-tail.
Both moths are attacked .by several
different parasites In Europe, over
which they are spread very generally,
and Mr. Howard's trip abroad this year
has to do with their importation. Sev
eral Importations, aggregating hund
reds of thousands of parasites, were
made in 1905 and 1906, but as yet it
Is too early to know how effective
they will prove In this country. Many
thousands of dollars have been spent
in spraying trees and otherwise poison
ing the moths and in burning their
nests. These methods of fighting them
. - f, , vt, ' iS ; i t i vs- '
Enormous Damage Done to
Cereals , Fruits and Other Crops by
All Sorts of
Bugs and Worms.
A T.
rj?ClT
must be used if the moths are ever,
to be checked, but they are so ex
pensive that individual use of them
can never check the pests effectually
For several years Oeneral S. C. Law
rence of Massachusetts -spent more
money each year fighting the gypsy
moth on his own and adjoining lands
than the lands were worth. The brown
tail spreads more - rapidly than the
gypsy moth, -making long flights,
which the latter does not.
The Deadly Boll Worm.
Until the cotton boll weevil came to
the United States from Mexico. the
boll worm was the most seTious insect
enemy of the cotton crop. It is quite
as bad today as e'ver, but it has been
overshadowed of late by the weevil.
' It works quite differently in corn
and cotton, and it attacks tomatoes,
tobacco, peaches, peas, beans and okra.
It Is found In almost every land in the
world, as far south as New Zealand
and as far north as Denmark. It works
at the sea level, and Is met in Africa
6,000 feet above sea level and In the
Mexican mountains at an altitude of
5900 feet. It Is supposed to be native
American, but It has spread to China
and South America. It has not been
reported in Japan. It was not reported
as an enemy of cotton until 1820.. It
did not attack corn, so far as known
until 1842. .
It Is not nearly so destructive elsewhere
as in this country; it does more damage
to sweet corn than to field corn, and it
does more damage to field corn South
than North. Sometimes when the plant
grows rapidly the worm . is squeezed to
death between the rows of kernels as it
Is feeding on the ears. It has many ene
mies, including certain ants, beetles,
wasps, spiders and flies which eat it.
Woodpeckers and other birds also devour.
It. Half a dozen or more varieties -ot
parasites help destroy it, too, both in the
egg and in the larvae.
It has been fought with poisoned sprays
and poisoned sweets, but unsuccessfully
by the latter. As it likes corn better than i
71
KQFSK ON COTTON
cotton, strips of corn are often planted
cotton fields for the protection of the lat
ter, generally with success. Peas Jir
planted in cotton fields for the same rea
son, and as successfully. The worn
sticks, to the corn and peas and leaves
the cotton alone. Mr) Quaintance has
done much good fighting the boll worm,
and has also fought the plum curculio
most effectively.
The work of the Agricultural Depart
ment's Entomological Bureau is carriedl
on in complete harmony with the T8nto
mologists of the various stats experi
mental stations. Not a little is being
done by their Inspectors In fruit tree nur
series. All fruit stock found In then
which is Infected with any injurious In
sect is destroyed Invariably. Every year
new ways of fighting noxious insects ara
discovered, and, undoubtedly, the dam
age done by them now Is much less than)
It would be yearly were it not for the In
telligent, never-ending fight against them,
that the National and state governments
are keening up.
Only the barest idea of the complets
scope of this fight can be given here, how
ever: it would require a thick volume to
cover the ground In outline even. It in
cludes the fighting of mosquitoes, house
flies and cattle ticks; a warfare against
many Insects injurious to forest trees. In,
co-operating with Gifford Plnchot, chief
of the Forestry Bureau, and many other
things, all of which were briefly alluded
to by Mr. Marlatt In his talk with th
writer the other day. The work of the
bureau with bees and silkworms Is as in
teresting as Its Insect war.
Incidentally, at the end of the talk Mr.
Marlatt said that certain varieties of
trees, plants 'and vines are immune to
certain Insect pests. Thus the Le Conta
pear, a rather coarse variety, is Immune
to the San Jose scale, which attacks
practically every other sort of fruit tree.
The reason for this lmmunjty no one has
been able to find as yet.
Incidentally, too, Mr. Marlatt drew at
tention to the fact that while many of
our worst insect pests are imported, many
equally destructive ones have been sent
from this sountry to attack the crops and
plague the farmers of the world. The
phylloxera, which has sohedeltved Frencli,
and other European grapegrowers. Is ona
of these. Although natfve to this coun
try and found in nearly all American
grapes. It does not damage them material
ly, but it destroys eveYy European grapo
root or cutting It fastens on, even when
planted In America. The salvation of the
European vineyards was brought about
by planting them with roots and cuttings
from this country. By grafting they are
made to bear the European ;varleties of
grapes, and today the European vineyards
are almost as free from the phylloxera
pest as they were before If was Intro
duced ir. Europe. (Copyright, 1907, by
Dexter Marshall.)
The Wrong Paper.
Kansas City Star.
"I have been engaged In the practice of
law a good many years," said 3. S. Urmy,
police judge of Topeka, Kan., "and about
the most humorous imng I ever saw in
a courtroom was in Topeka.
"One day an old negro man was being
tried in the Justice Court that was be
fore the office of police judge was
created and he demanded a trial by a
Jury of his peers. He could neither read
nor write, and the lawyer insisted that
the jury, to be his peers, as required by
law, must be usable to read or write, too.
To avoid dispute I agreed to it, but wa
had a time finding 12 men in Topeka who
could neither read nor write. But we
did find them and the case went to trial.
"Before the jury retired I took two
pieces of paper and wrote 'guilty' on one
piece and 'not guilty' on the other, and
Instructed the foreman of the Jury to
destroy the one he did not wish used and
to return the other to me when the Jury
reached a verdict. The Jury was out only
a few minutes when it came in. The
foreman handed me a piece of paper witli
tse word 'guilty' written on it.
" 'Weil, gentlemen, you find him guilty,
do ytou?' I asked.
" 'No. sah, jedge. no sah, we dons
found him not guilty,' spoke up one of
the Jurymen. Then he added with dis
gust; 'I tole that fool nigger he tu
tearin' up the wrong piece of paper.' "
His t'se for a Fort.
Denver Post.
A Denver man had a friend from a
Kansas ranch in the city Saturday on a
business deal, and at noon they went to
a downtown restaurant and had lunch
together. The Kansas ranchman ate his
entire meal with his knife. When he
wa nearing the end he discovered some
thing. He discovered that he had no
fork.
"Say," he. said to Jhe Denver man,
"that waiter didn't give me a fork."
' "Well, you didn't need one," replied
the Denver man seriously.
"The deuce I don't," came from the
Kansan. "What am I going to stir my
uoffee with?"
VV -X;V5