The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-11-29
WAR ON FARMERS PESTS
THEIR DISEASES NOW THE SUB.
JEcT OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY.

SGSl VI 1SlENll lFlS
Novel scheme For Destroying Grasshop-
pers and CbinchbuGs--Scatterln the
Germs Tumblers Full of Pestilence--
How IA BacterIologist Can Win Fortune.
The use of diseased bugs to produce
wholesale pestilencc among their kind
and ultimately effect determination
thereof is an ingenious scheme lately
devised by Uncle Sans scientists.
The Idea of enlistlng the dread dis
Ease germ into useful service Is, in.
deed. Il novel one. Our medico-legal
authorities have considered its dan.
ger as factor in deliberately plotting
homicide, But who has dreamed of
its possible value as au agency of In
secticidcI
The cntomologists of the Agricultur.
al Department lately learned how TO
concoct several deadly and malignant
bug diseases, how to bottle them for
shipment, how TO spread them among
the vast insect fraternity and how 20
make infected bugs carry the scourge
to their unsuspecting kind. The pecu-
llar diseases in question are not COM
municable to man; otherwise they
would not be employed, of course.
The discovery of malarial germs In
the mosquito has directed scientific at.
tention TO bugs as means of trans.
mitting contagion. IL is being discov-
cred that these minute disturbers of
hA r.. Ill
and happiness have their character.
istic distempcrs, some of them highly
contagious. To artiflcially propagate
their bancful germs in incubators,
where the latter are fed and multi.
piled, Is found to be an easy matter.
CHRISTOPHER DISEASE IN BOTTLES.
Mr.. Grasshopper is one of the chief
victims prescribed by the conspiring
Dugologist. lie has been cutting unbe-
coming capcrs in our farm lands since
10, these many years, annually filching
thousands of dollars from the indus.
trious tlllor of the soil. Did willy Mr..
Grasshopper but guess the CHASTITY
fate awaiting him he would hasten his
kinsmen to pack up, bag and baggage
and to seek nsylums where bugs en-.
joy their natural rights and privileges
The American grasshopper has always
been healthy bug. In Australia and
South Africa, however, have been dis.
covered cousin species which suffer a
hidcOus disease compared to which hu.
man leprOsy Is Il means toward pleas.
urc and adornment. The unsparing
bugolOgists are importing from the
archaeological institute of Cape Town
phials filed with the pcstilencc, and
eighteen such vessels have lately been
shipped to flourishing graSshoppei
colonies in Mississippi, Nebraska and
Minnesota. And this is how the new
grasshoppcr disease is prepared:
Grasshoppers killed by the disease
are collected in large quantities, dried
and ground into meal. This meal is
mixed with Il gelatinous substance and
put up in the glass phials for ship.
ment. In these vessels the disease ele.
ments multiply until capable of kill
ing manifoldly more grasshoppers
than originally used in the preparation
of the deadly concoction. ON receiv.
ing the phials the Yankee farmer is
instructed to thoroughly mix the con,
tents of each with two teaspoonfuls OF
sugar. He adds this dose TO three
fourths of n tumbler of water, previ
ously boiled and allowed to cool. Into
the tumbler he places several pieces
of cork.
SCATTERING THE GERMS.
After allowing the mixture to stand
n day, during which time the disease
has attacked the cork and thoroughly
contaminated the fluid, he dips various
ana sundry grasshoppers, alive and
kicking, into the liquid, the more thus
doused being the merrler for the prom
ised result. After being vigorously
ducked and thereby terrified the pro
testing victims are imprisoned in q
box and fed on green plants well
molstened with the same fatal liquid
Having been fed on this poisonous diet
Tor twenty-four hours, the prisoners
are liberated, generally in the evening
hours. Then they hop glcefully away
TO mingle once more with their anxious
friends. Returning to their haunts
they innocently disseminate their con.
tagion far and wide, among all of their
KIND which approach to rejoice at their
safe escape ana marvel nt the accounts
of their terrible experiences. And as
result of repeated hoppings and gal.
llNantingS here and thnrp fran, ana
green field to another, the scourge is
spread. Then other grnsshoppers, bic
ana little, soon begin to feel indis
posed and as each surveys himself he
Is horriiied to discover that he Is be.
coming covered with furry, mouse.
colored crust. This increases until
eating into his very vitals Then he
gives up his ghost to the realm where
the dead grasshoppers go.
Mr.. Farmer soon appears on the
scene, bears away the corpse together
with all others he can find, dries them
all into state of naturalization, grlnds
them into powder and concocts many
more tumbersful of the liquid pes
thence. The contagion Is thus sown
to multiply over and over again, Il
greater harvest Of death being reaped
each time until determination Is com
plete.
Ground fairly covered with dead
grasshoppers thus killed was seen i'm
Bechuanaland. South Africa, after an
experimental distribution OF the dis.