The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-02-04
ORCHARD AND GARDEN.
A Chapter on the Bugs that do so much
Damage.

A Chapter OH the Bugs that do so much
Damage.
Major Hugh r. Brooks, of Pearl
Creek, in his remarks before the West
ern New York horticultural Society, as
sured his hearers that the bugs are hay
ing good time generally, and that emo
body about here disturbed them to any
alarming extent, and we bear our ills with
patience. When we don't like the taste
of the worm in the apple we spit him
out. When cucumbers and melons dis
appear we expected it, and we moralize
on the transitory nature of earthly
things. We flare up if somebody kicks
our worthless cur, but we stand by and
without remonstrance see worms devour
our currants and our cabbage. Bugs of
old seemed to respect the Jewish arrange
ment, and contented themselves with a
tenth; now they frequently take the
whole, and the question arises, How long
can we stand it! There are many DANA
ges that money cannot measure. Shrub
berry, watched and nourished with ten
der care, perhaps planted by loved ones
departed, puuctured by little worm and
turned to dry wood. Can you enter that
/ upon your ledger
Assuredly we need concerted effort to
overcome insect enemies. We must all
work together. If one man kills worms
and another breeds them, the breeder
will get the best of it, or the worst. But
where is the right topropagate nuisances!
We might as well set up pest-houses as Il
worm factory; as we'll send ont our pigs
and poultry to depredate upon our neigh
bors, as our codling moths. Our Mich
gan friends have met this crisis reso-
lutely. One of their genealogical asso-
ciations resolved that if any fruit-grower
neglected to bandage his trees and de-
stroy the codling worms, the society
would do it for him. Every man did his
duty, and the past year the fruit was
greatly improved. The codling moth
came to us us one of the benefits of our
foreign commerce. fact which illus.
trates the importance of chronological
/ knowledge, when we consider how much
we have lost by not knowing these enc
mics and suppressing them when they
were few. If we had killed them all
/ during the first two or three years of
! their soiourl, at an expense of 81, 200
apiece, we should have made money
/ by it.
1t gives frightful interest to those de-
predations when we consider that the
repeated destruction and failure of the
young fruit will lead to shy bearing and
sterility from the force of habit. Ami
mails that prematurely cast their young
from injury soon do so from force of
habit and we may well infer that trees
which drop their immature fruit from
the sting of insects will soon utterly fail
to perfect their fruit even if insects do
not trouble them. With trees, as with
us all, good habits are quite indispensa-
bic to usefulness. This codiing nuis-
ance, like certain devils in Scripture,
don't yield to mild treatment. You can't
frighten them with scarecrows, nor coax
them with sweets, but you must fight
them by any and all methods known in
civilized and uncivilized warfare.
The Colorado potato beetle is now
subject of great anxiety in our States.
Next i'll Importance to wheat, the potato
demands our best endeavors for its pro-
lection and preservation. So great has
been the destruction of this household
necessary at the West by grasshoppers
and drought that it is at present in many
sections the dearest article of food in
the market 1t has been a very protita-
BILE crop III Western New York, and we
cannot urge too strongly that growers
make a concerted and determined effort
for the destruction of its relentless enemy.
1t is probable that its stay with us will
be short, and this and several other in
sect pests have Il more congenial climate
at the West, where they originated, than
here
A good kitchen garden is one of the
possibilities of rural life. In its best
state it is perfect fountain of good
things, but every tin peddler knows that
our country gardens are O. fizzle and a
fraud on the women who coax them into
a feeble existence when they are allowed
to "go to the bugs ~ Currant sprouts
cost nothing, and being persistent grow
ers we had them, and they did great SER
vice. The worm spoiled the curIants,
and we meekly gave them up. Now,
this is to bear witness that white helle-
bore busted on the bushes when the dew
Is on will save the currants, and any one
who has lost his bushes should forthwith
replace them and take care of them.
/ One of two or three things that we ex-
pect to find i'll country gardens besides
/ weeds is cabbages. A green worm, about
an inch long, acquired taste for cab
bage and quietly took it. Sprinkle on
soapsuds, or salt, or dust from the road,
and the worm will be disgusted. Shake
in the cabbage cayenne pepper, or sprin-
kle on boiling hot water, and you will
soon be rid of him. A moderate appi-
cation of hot water will not injure the
plant, as it has a thick, tough leaf
Coop a hen among your squash vines
with a brood of chickens, and the chick
ems will take care of the squash, if
you only plant plenty of seed. Don't
fail to put boxes, II inches by IA, round
| your cucumbers, and 10 inches high.
/ Do this when You plant, and then it will
be done. Neglected gardens don't pay;
well-cultivated ones do pay. In conclu-
sion, the major earnestly invoked deter
mined and united effort against insect
enemies. The work is duty every hus-
/ bandman owes to his generation, and
the individual who can lay his hand on
his heart, and looking you in the face
truthfully declare that he has killed, or
even seriously crippled, one coddling
worm, has not lived in vain, and may
sink into the silent tomb with a glenn
OF JOY.