The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1903-04-04
...........S35S, 900, 900
Total
MAN Is HELPLESS

than any ever before possessed, should be
helpless in fight against twelve objection
able bugs
Yet such is the fact The individual
bug is small, but its stronghold is Its
tremendous power of reproduction. What
is to be done in conflict with an adversary
which is capable of having 900, 900, 600
descendants in a summer. In conflict with
such an enemy Uncle Sam finds himself IN
much the same situation as that of GULL
yer when he discovered that he was at the
mercy of the Lilliputians.
The chinch bug is disgusting little
beast, only third Of an inch long. Origi-
nally it fed upon wild grasses, but when
civilized man arrived and planted wheat,
the cereal suited its taste exactly, and it
soon became what it is today, the worst
foe of the most priced Of bread producing
crops. 1t gets into the funnel-shaped part
of the leaf and sucks the sap until the
plant dies. The bugs multiplying at a
rate almost incouceivable, attack a wheat
field in armies which literally carpet the
ground, and when the wheat has been
harvested they fly to the autumual corn.
THE GRAssHoPPER PLAGUE.
Everybody knows the grasshopper,
which in the East Is familiar but harm.
less insect. In parts of the West, how
ever, it is a serious menace to agriculture,
and in bad year will easily do more than
500, 900, 900 worth of damage. 1t i.
the true locust celebrated in biblical and
other history, and in the United State.
ranks as the worst enemy of man, barring
only the chineh bug
1t is foe most dreaded by farmers
Droughts they may combat by irrigation
from tornadoes they may take refuge in
cellars, but before the march Of the deyas-
tating swarms of grasshoppers they are
helpless. The plague arrives, and 10 as
if by magic, the crops are swept from the
face of the earth; all vegetation disappears
and starvation stares them in the face.
THE HEssIAS FLY.
In 17T6 the Hessian troops, engaged
by the British as auxiliaries, landed on
Long Island. They brought lot of straw
with them for their horses, and in it. al
most undoubtedly, were eggs of the insect
which has since become known in this
country as the Hessian hy.
Three years later the pest began "a
make itself troublesome in the neighbor-
hood of the landing places, and since then
it has gradually spread westward Bar
ring the chinch bug it IS the worst enemy
of the wheat, making its first appearance
as a tiny maggot at the base Of the young
plant, and sucking the juice Of the latter.
Eventually the plant is weakened and de.
stroyed and the maggot is Transformed int
a fragile, dark colored gnat, closely re-
sembling small mosquito-the destined
parent of maggots yet to be
the ARMY WORN.
The army worm, one Of the most
dreaded Of the insec, foes Of the farmer, is
a naked striped caterpillar an inch and a
quarter long. In May aud June it makes
its appearance in immense numbers, de-
vouring wheat, oats and other grains and
grasses.
1t climbs up the seed stalks and cuts of
the heads. With favorable succession
of seasons it multiplies in geometrical ratio,
and at last becomes so numerous as TO
necessitate migration in search of food.
Then the army worms travel and feed dur
ing both day and night, inficting enormous
damage. 1t Is from their mode of march
ing in armies at such times that their pop
ular name is derived. The parent of the
worm is brown moth.
POTATO BUG PEST.
The potato bug seems TO have been
originally native to Colorado and New
Mexico. Various wild plants furnished it
with food, but nothing seems to have been
so exactly suited to its requirements as the
potato. With the introduction of the po-
tato by settlers came the opportunity Of
this Objectionable insect to multiply ad
infnitum.
1t began to march eastward and north
ward, at first slowly, depending on Its own
power of flight, but later in great jumps,
assisted by the railroads, on which it took
passage. 1t made trips Of hundreds of
miles by river, floating on chips or voyag-
ing by boat. Its spread was startling,
and at the present time its territory com
prises nearly all of the United States. All
efforts to diminish its numbers have been
in vain, and So, 900, 600 is moderate
estimate of the damage it does annually.
THE GYPSY MOTH.
In 1868 a French naturalist named
Trouvelot, residing at Medford, near Bos-
ton, was engaged in making experiments
with various silk spinning insects other
than the common silkworm. He had i'm
ported the eggs from France, aud with
them, by some accident, had come a few
eggs of the gypsy moth, already known as
a destructive insect in Europe. These
eggs were in pasteboard box on window
ledge, and were blown away.
As result the State of Massachusetts
has been obliged to spend more than
$500, O0e since then in trying to exter
inmate the bug, which has threatened to
eat every green thing off the face of the
earth in the region over which it has
spread, comprising about fifty square miles.
1t is a ravenous defoliator of fruit and
shade trees, and, if it should extend its
operations over large part of the country
it might easily do hundreds of millions Of
dollars worth of injury yearly 1t is
dark gray caterpiller, two and half inches
long, and its parent is moth of yellowish
hue with black bands on Its wings.
SCALES AND wEEvILS.
The San Jose scale gets its name from
the fact that it first appeared in the San
Jose Valley, California, having been i'm
ported probably from Australia or Hawaii
It is the worst of all enemies of fruit trees
Almost microscopic in size, it will spread
through an orchard in half dozen years,
and, in place of green leaves and blossoms,
Iesve nothing but dead trunks and branches.
A Embarrassing district attacked by it is de-