Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-01-02

l.
ease is highly contagious among his
kind. The seed with which the pestil-
ence is sown is prepared in this man>
ner:
A bottle of raw cornmeal, mixed
with beef broth, is sprinkled with the
white particles of the moldy growth
previously separated from the dried
insects dying of the scourge. The
mold rapidly multiplies after taking
root in the new media and soon co;l-
teammates the contents of the bottle.
Live and healthy chinch bugs, caught
in the wheat and corn fields, are con-
fined in "contagion boxes" wherein
quantities of the infected mixture of
broth and batter have been left ex-
posed. The insects thus brought in
contact with the pestilence saturate
their systems with it. They are then
liberated in the fields where originally
found.
Mingling with their healthy kinsmen
they effect just such a widesweeping
pestilence as noted in the above case
of the grasshopper. Death ensues
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 DISTRIBUTING CENTER.
Uncle Sans agricultural experiment
station at Urbana, ILL.,, is being utilized
as distributing center for chinch
bugs thus artificially 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. The
farmers then capture as many live in
fants as can be caught and confine
them with the carcasses Of their rela-
tives until they show symptoms of the
disease. Then they are let loose in
the fields in time to create n wholesale
pestilence. 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 rayenous in
sects.
Caterpillars, seventeen-year locusts
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 compara-
lively recent times. Now the Govern
ment annually spends thousands Of
dollars year for studying diseases Of
such beasts. Such studies We're orig
inally devised by man with the direct
motive of self-protection against pois-
onous bacilli and parasites. Doubtless
in the future wise governments will be
instituting laboratories for research in
diseases of the insect kingdom with
the selfish motive of sowing seeds of
such diseases among ill-behaved bugs.
And perhaps in those progressive days
there will have sprung up anti-vivi-
sectionist societies for the protection
of such unfortunate insects or for the
dictation of the mode Of slaughter to
be meted out to them
STUDYING DISEASES.
Insects no doubt suffer from as many
characteristic disorders as do men and
beasts. 1t must be a terrible ordeal
for one of the many three-stomached
species of bugs to suffer indigestion
pains in all of his dinner receptacles
at once. And imagine what a poor
butterfly would suffer if all of his
$1,000 eyes were sore and running as
result of hay fever. Then pity the
centipede attacked with "rhenmatiz"
in all of his legs. And think of the
ravages of a hereditary disease which
might be bequeathed by our persistent
friend the housefly to the TAG, ,496 off
springs which she produces in the
three months of summer.
A fortune of uncountable millions
is certainly in store for the practical
bacteriologist who can successfully
| concoct and patent brand of deadly
mosquito smallpox, housedy plague,
caterpillar yellow fever, cockroach
| diphtheria or some pestilential means
of erasing any Of the famous insect
names now upon the black list of the
| farmer and housekeeper. And per-
haps science will some day brew mall
ignant diseases fatal to such larger
pests as rats, mice and snakes.-John
Elfreth Watkins, Jr., in the Washing
| ton Star.