The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-11-21
Notes From the PennSyl-
Vania Experiment Station.
The Periodical Cicado or Seventeen
Year Locust in 1902.

common and interesting insect.
1t will be seen by reference to it
that the brood of 1885 will be due
next year 1902 in the counties of
Bedford, Fulton, Huntingdon,
Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Franklin,
Cumberland, Adams, York, Dau-
phin, Lebanon, Lancaster, Berks,
Chester, Delaware, Montgomery,
Bucks, Lehigh and Northampton.
1t is not meant that the Cicada
will appear over the whole of this
large area, but that they may be
expected wherever the conditions
heretofore have been favorable
for their breeding and develop
ment. Brush covered and woody
pasture lands are particularly
good breeding places. Inasmuch
as seventeen years is liable to
make good deal of difference in
the utilization of land, it is quite
probable that in some places
lands which seventeen years ago
were not in cultivation, and were
good breeding grounds of Cicadas
are now cultivated. Upon them,
and in their neighborhood, the
insects, true to their nature, may
be expected to appear, perhaps
in dangerously large numbers.
In many places the older resi-
dents are able to locate these
grounds. If, now, there should
be young fruit trees or shrubs at
hand they run great risk of Sc
rious injury and mutilation by
the egg-laying process, since the
habit of the Cicada is to select
small twigs into which it proceeds
to cut in order to make q suitable
place for its eggs.
Hence it would be wise for
those in the counties named, who
contemplate setting out trees this
Fall or next Spring, to find out
whether they are on or near 90
Gust ground" of seventeen years
ago, and if they are, to defer
planting a year, or take this risk
into consideration.
If it seems best to take the risk
it would be well not to prune the
trees closely on setting, but to
postpone it until after the egg
laying of the Cicadas, which takes
place during June. By July 1st
at latest, probably two weeks
earlier in the southern tier of
counties, the egg-laying will have
been completed and all it's injury
accomplished. The pruning may
then be done and cutoff twigs
burned, thus destroying the eggs
of this insect, as well as giving
the form and character desired
in the young tree.
Nine-tenths of all the destruc-
ton caused by insects comes
from not taking time by the
forelock. " People wait until
horde of destructive insects sud
denly appear, and then comes the
pathetic inquiry, what are they,
and how can | destroy them or
prevent their attacks?"
Here is case which is of as
regular recurrence as the seas
ons, and preparation can be made
to meet it as one would prepare
Tor spring plowing or for winters
snow. 1t is true that the coming
locust swarm may be reduced in
size or numbers, and may even
have been exterminated in some
particular fields, but should it
completely fail it will be for the
first time in 1877 years, and that
is improbable.
In addition to the publication
referred to, excellent accounts of
the Periodical Cicada are given
in Bulletin 95, and the Annual
for 1894, of the New Jer-
sey Experiment Station, and, also,
in Bulletin 81 of the Ohio Expert
ment Station.
The annual reports and quar-
terly bulletin Of this station will
be sent, free of charge, on appli-
and inquiries on agricul-
tural subjects answered so far as
possible.
Il 11,,.a