St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-07
BROCHURE OF BUGS.
Prof. Lugger5s Pretty Picture Book
Is Issued.

Prof. Otto Lugger, of the division of
entomology at the st. Anthony Park
state experiment station, has issued a
report on insects which were injurious
to agriculture in 1895, notice of which
| appeared in the G | o b when the ad-
vance sheets were issued. This bro
chure of bugs is filled with pretty
pictures. Nor is it lacking in spicy per-
sonal abuse of certain insects which
have incurred the writer's dislike. If
the chinch bug had vote, Prof. Lug
ger would regret that he began his
book with the assertion that this ami
NAL was Mormon louse" Were his
subject gold bug, and himself a Pop
ulist orator, it would require courage
to insist that during the year 1887
alone the wheat-growing states of the
West lost $6OO,000,O00 as the rsult of the
maleVolent Vaccinations of the chinch
bug. r4.--.
Prof. Lugger has adjusted his ami
mostly to arithmetic, and maintains
that at the end of 1887 it would have
required $6,790,821 to make his fellow
citizens of this state forget the visit
of the six-legged demon from the sands
of Utah. This bug, says the picture
book, is as fond of rubbish as an an
tiquarian, but detests oats in a man
ner to insult the shades of Wallace and
Robert Bruce. Therefore oats should
be grown by any farmer who -yould
rather spite the chinch bug than make
money in wheat.
But if the healthy chinch bug is dis
liked, an invalid bug. stricken with
contagion or isaria vexans, which is
probably worse, is welcomed on every
farm. Prof. Lugger sent 14,S77 boxes
of these invalids to 1941 farms last
year, thus turning whole counties in
to bug hospitals. The result was many
he iyo tIn aI,i INr1rr for
a Svengai eXhultation on the part of
the professors trained nurses. "If,"
as has once been said, fame consists
in having your name spelled wrong in
the Gazette" the chinch bug died with
glory. One farmer gave the result of
a post mortem on some "schinsboks,"
while another revelled in the dying ag-
onies of a "gingebuk."
Many portraits are presented of the
professors friend, the grasshoper, who
has been incorrectly styled the hate
full locust" The pressure of public
opinion has decreed the death of this
playful little bug, who is never so hap
py as when amusing innocent child
hood. But Prof Lugger has dealt with
the hopper gently. He has provided
farmers with "hopperdozers" on which
the doomed insect can ride to his de-
struction in slow and solemn state,
like the last triumph of a Roman gen
eral. Even the cruel road to Avernus
is smoothed to the hopper's foot with
an oleagenous bath of kerosene.
',The doryphora decemlineata," says
the professor, with glib inaccuracy,
hardly needs an introduction to the
farmers of this state. But in the name
of sacred truth, where, from Austin to
st. Vincent would agriculturist
"shoo" the potato bugs out of his back
yard with reflections on the character
Of "those demnition doryphora decem-
linata."
In spite of these trif1ing faults the
report shows that the small losses from
injurious insects in Minnesota during
1895 would have been great, indeed, but
for the scientific and able efforts of
Prof. Lugger and his assistants.