Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-05
FARMERS GET A SHOW.
Unusually Brilliant Prospects for
Heavy Crops This Fall.
INSECT PESTS ARE VERY SCARCE.
a Startling Decrease in the Ranks of the
Colorado Beetle.
HISTORY OF ITS RAvAGES IN AMERICA

Notwithstanding the fact that wet weather
is greatly impeding the operations of the
farmers, and some of them are only getting
two cents a quart clear of freight for theil
milk-about what it is worth to extract il
from the cow-shipped to the city, they have
very great reason to be thankful on one
score, and especially thankful that it is
something for which politicians cannot
claim credit. Not since 1850 has there been
a season in this locality when insect
ravages were SO slight as this year.
Cucumber bugs, potato bugs, and, so far,
cabbage bugs and worms have made
scarcely any impress of devastation, and the
sale of bug powder and spraying liquids has
greatly fallen off. 1t is true that everything
is late this year except what was raised
under glass, and the late frosts were
discouraging, but if they effected
the destruction of the insect horde they
were worth all they cost. The curculio
alone seems to have survived to kill the
plums, as the ground under many trees in
some sections is covered with immature
plums, all branded with the crescent which
in some localities gives the beetle the name
of ''the little Turk"
TOMATOES IN GOOD SHAPE.
Tomato plants look healthy, and their enc
mics probably shared in the common insect
ruin. J. d. Hamilton says that there is
plant locally known as wild vernlifuge,
which grows abundantly in the streets of
Shousetown, and that the cabbage worm
has so strong an antipathy for it that sprig
of it placed within the leaves of each grow
ing cabbage Is a sure guard for that head.
1t is also made into tea and the huid
sprinkled on cabbage, but it seems that
plant will not be much needed this year. 1t
is true it is not too late yet for the worm to
do its work, but as the vegetable has es-
capped other pests this one alone will not be
hard to fight.
The ladybug has certainly saved the 20
tato crop and where it is poor it is the fault
OF the cultivator. Already, homegrown
potatoes are so plenty that they are scarce
worth sending to market. description of
the potato beetle and its destroyer the lady
bug is of interest:
The lady bug is a beetle of the family coc-
its graceful form and delicate coloring.
Its eggs are laid in clusters and the larvae
are for the most part tcaTniverous, feeding on
plant lice and bark lice and small insects of
all sorts. One, however eats the leaves of
plants. The adult beetles are in the main
pudacious, but sometimes feed on pollen.
One kind, known as the rosebug, is not a
favorite with women. The species al are very
lady-clock, lady-cow, lady-f1y, etc. 1t seems
that insects, like dogs, generally have their
day, though few, like the locusts on which
John the Baptist fed, endure from age to
age.
THE POTATO BUGS EVOLUTION.
Fifteen or 20 years ago the potato bug was
an insect very different in appearance from
the Colorado beetle. 1t had a long body and
was active, and could even fly a short dis
tance. Its ravages were frequently stayed
by driving it out of patch into dried grass
and then setting the latter on fire. 1t had
the same properties as the cantharlda and
people were sometimes badly bliStered by
crushing them in their hands.
Some people think the day of the Colorado
beetle is over, while others are apprehensive
that their fewnesS this year will make peo-
pie careless, so that they will generally al
low the beetle to go to seed and make the
condition worse These do not stop to con-
slider that if nature has decided to abate the
she can do 1t more etfectually
through even an insignificant little bug
han man can with his paris green and lon |
Ion purple. ~.
The Colorado beetle hasn't any wings |
worth speaking of, but he gets there all the |
same just as effectively as did his predeces- |
;or.
While on the subject, the learned name of |
,he Colorado pest and its history may as |
we'll be given. Naturalists say it Is chrys- |
omeltd beetle, the notorious doryphora de- |
which up to 1885 or 1856 lived in |
5be Rocky Mountain region, feeding on the |
Wild solanum roStratum, but which as the |
potato reached its habitat, in |
creased enormously and began to spread to |
the East, reaching the Atlantic coast at sew |
'ral points in 1874, and since then has had |
things pretty much its own way. 1t has got |
5en to Europe several times, but has always |
Deen promptly stamped out. Both Iarvae |
and beetle feed on the leaves of the potato, |
md the pupa is formed in the earth at the |
DOT Of the plant. There are three genera
ions annually, and the perfect beetles |
hibernate.