The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-09-23

an opportunity to use them was pro-
scented. Yet from this pair 200 young
were produced In the following, warm
months in cages of wire screening
placed over trees In the experimental
orchard of the department of agricul-
ture From this first brood colonies
have since been sent to various ayri-
cultural experiments stations. In four
months Loco specimens were lately
Matched out and distributed.
Mrs. BlastophaSa 10 Interesting.
More interesting still Is Mrs. Blasto-
phaga, lately imported from Algeria,
to grow delicious figs on American soil.
Although nearly every southerner sits
beneath his own fig tree, the Ameri-
can fig has never been Il commercial
success. Hitherto 1t has been impossi-l
Bile here to compete with the large
and delicious Smyrna fig. Cuttings OF
this latter variety have been imported
have invariably dropped off before
reaching the size of marbles. Since
time immemorial the Oriental fig
grower has raised tasteless wild figs
together with the delicious Smyrna
variety, and at the beginning of each
and tied it to the limbs bearing the
edible figs. This has been looked upon
by white men as mere superstitious
hocus pocus until recent date, when
1t remained for scientists of our de-
partment Of agriculture to solve the
mystery. They found that the vari-
cites of Smyrna figs are all exclusively
female and that the wild or capri figs.
on the other hand, are all exclusively
male.
In the fig belt of the Orient was re-
Gently discovered Il strange insect, the
BlastoDhasa, which acts as d matri-
nonial agent for these two sexes OF
fig trees. The male or wild capri fig
tree bears three crops Of fruit each
year The last crop. remaining on
The trees over winter, serve as houses
for the full grown Blastophasa. There
this good insect remains until the first
warm breath of spring, when she
energies and bores her way into the
first crop Of the next seasons fruit
fast developing upon the same tree.
Lays Her Eggs in Figs.
She lays her eggs in these young,
wild figs and soon her young emerge.
covered with pollen. If these newly
Matched insects thus bearing the pol
len Of the male capri fig are then al
lowed to enter the flower receptacles
OF the female Smyrna fig. fine crop
or fruit on the latter tree will be the
result. 1t Is thus that blastophaga
marries the wild, insipid male to the
cultivated, delicious female. Their off,
spring combine the good points of both
parents-the strength Of the father
and the sweetness of the mother and
thus 1T produced Smyrna fig, which,
instead of dropping before 1t is as
large as a marble, swells into maturity
and sweetness.
From Algeria were imported large
numbers of blastophaga snugly en-
sconsed for the winter in six boxes
of capri fig cuttings. They were taken
to Fresno. California and allowed to
emerge in the spring and lay their eggs
In the first crop of fruit upon some
growing capri fig trees. The young
insects beginning to hatch out OF the
capt figs, the latter were strung upon
rods fastened in the hitherto frultless
Smyrna fig trees. Eighteen thousand
insect-laden wild figs We're thus hung
In 1900 Smyrna trees. The result was
fifteen tons Of good Smyrna figs thus
grown on American soil in the one
season.
All of this was the good work of Mrs
Blasophaga and her youngsters. She
Is a very minute creature, somewhat
less than an eighth Of an inch In
length, with long paddle shaped wings.
large compound eyes and protruding
horns. Mr.. Blastophaga, on the other
hand, is Wingless and partially blind.
. rapPy WIKI lrclr ask.
All OF these foreign insects are APP
parently happy at their tasks. They
are being given every comfort, are pro-
tected from uncomfortable weather and
their enemies are being killed. But
some OF our domestic bugs which DR..
Howard has recently put to work have
Jared less happily. They have been
given the martyrs role to play. That
there are several pestilences which,
at times, reap wholesale harvests Of
insect life is now known to etymol-
oglsts. One Of these given the unpro-
nounceable name Of ertomophthorea,
Is fatal to the common housetly, as
we'll as to certain mosquitoes cater
piil3s. Srasshnppers, small gnats and
mi5"es. Germs Of this disease and
.'her' can now BE- grown III glass tubes
with which healthy insects may be
infected. d.. Howard and his assist
t'nts have alr"ady made sonat llelln-
mary work along this line.
Certain grasshoppers were enlisted
for the enterprise. They We're dipped
in the glass tubes of diseased fluid,
borne into the field and allowed to re-
tur.: to their kind. In many cases
the insects in the field died by thou
sands. But the success OF the process
depends largely upon weather condi-
tons.
AS yet no experiments along this
novel line have been made with the
housefy and the mosquito. The ma
ton will approve OF fund for the en-
ployment OF any number of these in
sects to sow seeds Of this pestilence
among their kind. The savant who
hits upon scheme for spreading mos
quito entomophthorea or fly ditto will
be assured a generous monument and
long, front page obituary with por-
trait.