The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-06-18
THE WHITE GRUC.
Bow to Prevent Its Destructive Work fr
the Strawberry Patch.

- the
This creature has history, briefly.
as follows: The egg which is to pro-
duce the larva is deposited in the
ground by the mother bug in the lat
ter part of May or early June, after
few weeks is developed, but during
that season is little noticed; the next
season is its chief destructiveness. Al
the decline OF this second season il
takes on the aurelia state and SO re-
mains through the winter months anC
until May or June Of the next year,
when it is developed into the perfect
insect, and goes forth on wings as die
its predecessor, and becomes the pro-
genitor of another generation. The
synopsis of this is: One year for the
deposit of the egg, another for the de-
velopment of the grub and a third for
the coming forth and maternal duties
Of the flying insect.
Now the question arises, how can we
take advantage Of its inherent charac-
teristics SO as in measure to avoid its
devastatiOns upon our growing
crops, particularly, in this exposi-
ton, the strawberry? The parent
deposits its eggs in some field OF
growing vegetatiou-preferably grass
so that. the young Larvae will have
roots to live on. A barren field will
have no charms for a creature like
this; hence newly plowcd field, with
undeveloped vegetation at the time
when the insect deposits its eggs in
the ground, will not be chosen; il
places its eggs III some grass field in
stead of potato, corn, or other hoed
crop field. Thus it may be seen
why a field one year planted
is a safer place to set strawberry
plants in than a grass field. In the
grass field of last year, the eggs were
deposited and the grub partially de-
veloped; this year those grubs will be-
corle fully developed, and their de-
structive power fully developed also:
so that should one pillow such field.
and set strawberry plants this year,
the plants will be liable to damage,
because the worm, being already in
the field, must live on the strawberry
plant, from the fact that there is moth.
ing else there to live on.
One noteworthy phenomenon, cor
roborative of the above principles, was
observed two years ago in a straw
berry patch where beets had been
raised the year before. In cultivating
the beets, three rows in the middle OF
the piece were neglected and the weeds
allowed to grow; the straw berry plants
set where these weeds grew, were
more than half-killed by the white
grubs, but not one was touched by
them in any other part of the field.
In view of all this, are farmers &c
set strawberry plants only upon ''Old
grOund?" The conclusion is imper-
ative that greensward is an unsuitable
place to attempt their cultivation. 1t
is true that Strawberries have been
raised to perfection on new-ploVed
grass land, but no person is safe in at
tempting it. The earlier cultivators
81 the fruit lost acres by so doing,
But yet the grub is not always pro-
life; some seasons there is such a
dearth of them that that their depre-
dations would be of minimum impor-
lance; hence, were a greensward well
adapted to strawberry growth, there
need be no fear of failure, but unusual
pains must be taken with it to insure
a fair yield of berries, hence it would
be advisable to plant invariably upon
ground that was planted in some Guilt
waited crop the previous year.-Cor.
Country Gentleman.