The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1901-01-15

Grasshopper. save that n white -ather
than a mouse-colored crust covers his
body and eats out has life The dis.
ease Is highly contagious among his
kind. The seed with which the peStil-
ence is sown is prepared i'm this man.
ner:
y 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 I'm the new media and soon cor.
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 /cx-
posed. The insects thus brought i'm
contact with the pestilence saturate
their systems with it, They are then
liberated In the fields where originally
found.
Mngling with their healthy kinsmen
they effect just such widesweeping
pestilcnce ms noted i'm 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 DISTRIBUTING CENTER.
Uncle Sans agricultural experiment
station at Urbana. Ill, is being utilized
as Il distributing center for chinch
bugs thus artidcially 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 ut and conine
them with the car sses of their rela-
tives until they show symptoms of the
disease. Then they are let loose i'm
the fields in time to create a 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 ravenous 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
i'll 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 a year for studying diseases of
such beasts. Such studies were 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 he
inStituting laboratories for research i'm
diseases of the insect kingdom with
the selfish motive of sowing seeds OF
such diseases among ilI-behayed bugs.
And perhaps in those progressive DAYS
there viii have sprung up anti-vivi-
sectionist societies for the protection
of such unfortunate insects or for the
Of 1tn 81
be meted out to them.
STUDYING DISEASES.
Insects no doubt suffer from as many
disorders as do men and
beasts 1t must be a terrible ordeal
for one of the many thrce-stomachcd
species of bugs to suffer indigestion
pains in all of his dinner receptaclcs
at once. And imagine what poor
butterfly would suffer If all of his
10000 eyes were sore and running as
a result Of hay fever Then pity the
centipede attacked with "rhenmatiz"
In all Of his legs And think of the
ravages Of Il '~reditary disease which
might be bequeathed by our persistent
friend the househy to the 7IG.I on
springs which she produces i'm the
three months of summer
a fortune Of uncountable millions
is certainly In store for the practicoI
bacteriologist who can successfully
concoct and patent q brand of deadly
mosquito smallpox. houseny plague.
caterpillar yellow fever. cockroach
diphtherla or some pcstilental means
OF erasing ahy Of the famous insect
names now upon the black list of the
farmer and housckeeper. And per.
maps science VIII some day brew NAL
ignant diseases fatal 10 such larger
pests rs rats. mice AMI snakes John
Elfrcth Watkins, Jr, in the Washing
ton Star.