St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-04-18
FARMER AND PLANTER.
PESTS or THE FARM.

PESTS OF THE FARM.
UooeehlnG About the Insects That xroo
Cpoa the Farners' Crops.
Until quite recently, the study of the
habits and instincts Of insects has been
considered by tho average farmer as
entirely unworthy the attention OF
people of sense. Ono of the most dis
tinguished naturalists Of England was
known among his neighbors as that
old fool who goes around catching bugs
In . net"
People who have not investigated the
subject. are apt to speak sneeringly OF
the notion of spending . few hours in
watching the transformation of insects
and the study of their habits and In
stincts. They think the time thus
wasted might he more profitably
employed in chopping out cotton
or in hocing cabbage. Yet these crops.
although tended with ever SO much
care and industry, are liable to be en-
tirely destroyed in few days by the
ravages of the cotton caterpillar, or OF
the habits Of these insects would have
enabled them to save their crops.
When the damage is done and the crop
destroyed the farmer then learns to
his cost that this bug" business is a
matter Of considerable importance.
and he writes to the department OF az
riculturc, or the entomologist, and
wonders why it is that he can not be
furnished with q remedy that will at
once destroy these pests.
Farmers regard flies as mere trifies
until their wheat crop is ruined by the
ravages of the Hessian fiv or the
nudge, and they consider beetles as UNI
worthy of notice until their plums are
rendered worthless by the attacks of
the curculios.
To be at all successful in exterminat-
ing those noxious insects that ravage
the crops. one thing must be remem-
bered, and that is to commence maxi
ing war while the enemy is weak. In
the early spring. when the insects first
make their appearance. they arc few
In number and weak in power to do
harm.
This, then, is the proper time to
push the war. One insect destroyed in
the early spring may represent hun
drcds, even thousands, two or three
months later. One single female cat
erpillar may, in the course of season,
be the maternal ancestor of more than
a million caterpillars, for in this eli
mate there are four or Ave generations
Of these pests during the summer.
This is = very low estimate. A fe-
male moth will lay about eight
hundred eggs. We will suppose that
half of these, which is far below
the mark, will produce female
caterpillars in the second generation.
These 4OO female moths will each lay
600 eggs, making an aggregate Of $780,
600 eggs. Half of these. representing
the females, would be 100, 600. Each Of
these might lay 800 eggs, making :s,-
0oo,Oo0. The third generation then
might consist Of 64,OOO,O 900 female
moths. The fourth generation of tho
enormous number of $4,000, 600, 900
female moths. So that when we say
that a single female cotton moth COM
ing into Georgia in the early spring.
from the extreme south where it has
hibernated, may become the ancestor
OF more than one million of caterpil-
lars to prey upon the cotton fields At
Of Georgia, we have spoken far below
tho mark.
Five minutes spent by the farmer in
destroying q nest Of tent caterpillars
in his own hedge, or in fence row of
his neighbor, early in the year, may
save, not only his own orchard, but
the orchards Of many Of his neigh
bors.
The killing Of one cabbage butterfly
in the early spring may save your cab
bage and the cabbage Of your neigh
bors for . mile around. Killing the
first cucumber bug that alights on
your vines may prevent the ravages of
thousands of it's descendants during
the summer. In turning over the rub
bish about the farm and garden. under
boards, around stumps and alongside
of fences, the few injurious insects
that have survived the frosts of win
ter may be dic,vcred, and then their
destruction is comparatively easy.
There is not at the present moment
. single cotton caterpillar. moth. egg
or pupa alive anywhere north of a
line running from the latitude of Ma
con across the continent. This moth
hibernates in Florida, and perhaps in
southern Louisiana and Texas. The
first warm winds of spring will bring
. few of these moths to the cotton
fields of southern Georgia, where they
will lay their eggs on the under side
of the lower leaves of the cotton weed.
They will first make their appearance
in tho month of May in the counties
on the extreme southern border of
Georgia. by the 1st of June they may
reach the latitude Of Macon, and by
the last Of June may appear in the
neighborhood Of Atlanta. In the mid
die Of July they may be found near the
Tennessee line, while in the extreme
northern portion of the cotton belt
they may not put in an appearance I'M
til the last of August or the LIST of Sep
TENDER. Now, one of these moths de-
stroyed ON it's arrival in the southern
part Of the state in May, may prevent,
perhaps, million caterpillars from
preying on the crops.
The distinguished entom0logist, Mr.
Riley, estimates the damage to the cot
ton crop of the south from the cotton
worm alone at 9l6, OO0, 600 annually.
This is known to be much below the
real amount of loss, and the statisti-
clan Of the same department has de-
clsred that the loss will reach to 20
per cent. of the entire crop.