The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-09-12 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAT, PESTS.

Mr. Charles Whitehead in May last intimated to
the Agricultural Department of the Privy Council
that 'ne was willing to prepare reports on insects in-
jurious to hop plants, corn crops, fruit crops, and
root crops. The Lords of the Council accepted Mr.
Whitehead's offer, and he has now forwarded to the
Council, and the Department has published, the first
report of the series namely, that on insects injurious
to hop plants. Mr. Whitehead states in his intro-
duction that the risk of loss and destruction frcm in-
jurious insects is increasing. The 'pests that mock
the husband men have long been known to be many
and various. Mr. Whitehead gives several instances
of new ones discovered of late years. The increase of
insects follows pari passu the extension of culture and
the distribution of the plants which are the special
objects of their attacks. Insects are imported into
England with agricultural produce, and they are also
exported. It is a fortunate thing for us that the
climate is fatal to some of the worst of agricultural
pests, as, for example, the' dreaded potato bug. To
show how the inzect nuisance is increasing, it may
be mentioned that the hop aphis was unknown in
America 25 years ago, and now it has become a
serious trouble. Mr. Whitehead says that
America has, in revenge for the importation of this
and other insects, retaliated by the exportation into
France of the phylloxera. Mr. Whitehead blames
the wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter of insec-
tivorous birds and animals. The hand of the farmer
is, and has been since Virgil's time, against moles, and
yet men wonder that wire-worms become more abundant
each succeeding season. Mr. Whitehead specifies ten
enemies of hops, and in each case he gives an account
of the appearance of the insect, illustrated by a reprO-
sentation of the size both natural and magnified, the
mode or attack and results, the prevention and
remedy. The hop, we find, is attacked by. its own
fly (aphis humuli), cone fly (dilophus vulgarzs), wire-
worm (dater lineatus), jumper (euacanthus enter-
ruptus), flea (haltiea concinna), and bug (Ikgus umbel-
latarum), as well as by the otter moat (hepialus
humuli), the red spider (tetranyehus telarius), the
strig miner (psylliodes attenuatus), and last, not least,
an ugly creature—it is not to be scientifically classed
as an insect, for it undergoes no transformation, and
has only two stages of life—called the thousand legs
(Julus Londinensis or Alas guttatus.) As a remedy
for the attacks of this beast Mr. Whitehead recom-
mends the use of paraffin.

For an epigrammatia description of the popular
bicycle, perhaps this is the best: "The bicycle is a
slender, graceful, and altogether harmless arrange-
ment, chiefly composed of two wheels turned by two
cranks, one of which is seated on a little saddle, and
operates the machine with his feet."
An Indiana woman bought some poison for rats,
wrote the word " poison " on it four times, hid it on
the top shelf in the pantry, and yet the hired girl
used it for baking-powder within a week.

MS

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