The Colfax chronicle., 1904-07-09
INSECTS ARE EXPENSIVE.
Millions of Dollars Worth
Yearly.

Twelve insects will cost the United
States a0,OJo,G00 this year. The
chinchbug will draw $l00.000,000 OF
this amount. the grasshopper will take
S90,000,UGo and the hessian fly win
call for at least s50,000,000 more.
Three worms that attack the cotton
plant will assess the farmers for
total OF s60,0J0,0 600, and the potato bug
will eat $4,000 900 worth of its fayorite
kind Of garden produce. Ten millions
OF dollars is a moderate estimate of the
injury that will be done by the apple
worm, ard the caterpillar that makes
cabbage its speciality will destroy So
100000 worth of crisp green heads,
says the Milwaukee Sentinel.
The chinchbug is disgusting little
beast only a third of an inch long.
Originally it led upon wild grasses, but
when civilized man arrived and plant
ed wheat the cereal suited its taste ex-
actly and ii soon became what 1t is
to-day, the worst foe of the most
priced producing crops. 1t gets
into the funnel-shapcd part of the
leaf, where it joins the stalk, and
sucks the sap until the plant dies.
The bugs, multiplying at rate al
most inconceivable, attack wheat
field in armies which literally carpe,
the ground, and when the wheat has
tumnal corn.
Everybody knows the grasshopper,
Which in the cast is familiar but
harmless insect. In parts of the west,
however. 1t is a serious menace to ag-
riculture and in a "bad year" will
easily do more than s10.000,000 worth
of damage. II is the true locust ~cele-
brated in Biblical and other history
and in the United States ranks as the
worst enemy of man, barring only the
~chinchbug. 1t is foe most dreaded by
farmers over extensive areas. Droughts
they may combat by irrigation; from
tornadees they may take refuge in
suitably constructed cellars. but be-
fore the march of the devastating
swarms of grasshoppers they are help
less. 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.
In the year 1776 the Hessian troops,
engaged by the British as auxiliaTies,
landed on Long Island They brought
lot of straw with them for their
horses and in it, undoubtedly. were
come known in the country as the
hessian fly. Three years later the pest
began to make itself troublesome In
Z the neighborhood of the landing place,
and since then 1t has gradually spread
westward.
The army worm, which is one of the
most dreaded of the insect foes Of the
farmer. is naked, striped caterpillar
an inch and quarter long. In May
and June it makes its appearance in
immense numbers, devouring wheat,
oats and oCner grains and grasses. II
climbs up the seed stalks and cuts OFF
the heads. With a favorable success
sion Of seasons it niultiplies in geo.
metrical ratio and at last becomes SO
numerous as to necessitate migration
in search of food Then the army
worms travel and feed during both day
and night, inflicting enormous dam
age. 1t is from their mode Of march
ing In armies at such times that their
popular name is derived.
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 require
ments as the potato With the intro
duction of the potato by settlers came
the. opportunity of this Objectionable
insect to multiply ad infnitum. 1t be-
gan to march eastward and north
ward. at first slowly. depending upon
its power of flight. but later in great
jumps, assisted by the railroads. on
which 1t took passage.