The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-11-29

| teammates the contents OF the bottle.
Live and healthy chinch bugs, caught
in the wheat and corn fields, are con.
fined in 'contaglop boxes wherein
quantities of the infected mixture of
broth and batter have been left OK
| posed. The insects thus brought in
contact with the pestllence saturate
their systems with 1t. They are then
liberated in the fields where originally
| found.
Mingling with their healthy kinsmen
they effect just such II widesweeping
pestilCncc as noted In the above case
of the grasshopper. Death ensucs
few days after exposure to the disease.
| After death the white mold increases
in numerous spores. The mold is then
collected placed back in the cold
broth and batter and left to multiply.
THE D1sTRIBuTISG CENTER.
Uncle Sans agricultural experiment
station at Urbana, ILL.,, Is being utilized
as distributing center for chincb
bugs thus artificlally infected. This
| institution has been corresponding
with farmers in various parts of the
country requesting them to box up
and ship by express as many of the
live insects as they can collect. After
exposure to the disease laden broth
and batter at the experiment station
the contaminated bugs are shipped
back to the farmers. The latter are
instructed to keep the bugs confined
until dead from the disease. Tho
farmers then capture as many live in.
fants as can be caught and conliue
them with the carcasscs of their rcla,
tivcs until they show symptoms of the
disease. Then they are let loose in
the fields IN time to create n wholesale
pcstilence. Some farmers not only dis
tribute the live bugs thus. but scatter
the dead ones left in their contagion
boxes. attaching them TO vegetable
growths threatened Other farmers
have applied the broth and batter mix.
lures directly in plants preyed upon
by large colonies of the raycnous in.
sects.
| Catcrpillar3, seventeen year iOcusts
and various other insect pests have
been experimental with. the object be,
ing to determine some infectious dis.
ease capable of their eradication. But
in these cases difficulty is as YET met.
Insect diseases are little understood
Man was ignorant of the ailments OF
/; domesticated animals until compare
lively recent times. Now the Govern.
ment annually spends thousands OF
dollars year for studying diseases Of
such beasts. Such studies were orig
inally devised by man with the direct
, motive of Sclf-protcction against poiS
onOuS bacilli and parasites. Doubtless
in the future wise governments will he
insttutug laboratories for research In
diseases Of the insect kingdom with
: the selfish motive OF sowing seeds OF
such diseases among ill-hehaycd bugs
And perhaps in those progressive days
there will have sprung up anti-vivi
sectlonist societies for the protection
of such unfortunate insects or for the
dictaton of the mode of slaughter IL
he mctcd out TO them
STUDYING DISEASES.
Insects no doubt suffer from rs many
characteristic disorders as do men and
beasts. 1t must he terrible ordeal
for one of the many three st0inached
species of bugs to sptfer indigestion
pains in all of his dinner reccptaclcs
ut once. And Imagine what poOi
butterfly rould suffer If all of his
25,OOO eyes were sore and running as
II result of hay fever. Then pity the
ccntipede attacked with "rhenmatz"
In all of his legs. And think of the
ravages Of hereditary disease which
might he bcqueathed by our persistent
friend the househy to the 74G, ,4OG Off
springs which she produces in the
three months of summer.
\ fortune of uncountable millions
is certainly In store for the practical
bacteriologiSt who can successfully
concoct and patent brand OF deadly
mosquito smallpox. houseny plague,
: caterpillar yellow fever, cockroach
diphthera or some pcstilcntlal means
of eraslng any of the famous insect
names now upon the black list of the
farmer and housekeeper And per.
haps science will some day brew NAL
ignant diseases fatal TO such larger
pests as rats, mice AMI snakes John
Elfreth Watkins, Jr.. in the Washing,
ton Star.