The Topeka state journal., 1908-07-18
FROM OTHER PENS
ECONOMIC EFFECT OF BUGS.

ECONOMIC EFFECT OF BUGS.
The currant crop is cut down this
year by currant bugs and the scale
anthrocnose is killing the blackberries.
Club-root Is affecting the cabbage.
Yellow-stripe bugs are biting the Gu
cumber vines. Potatoes. besides the
Colorado beetle, have developed blight
and scab. Fruit trees by the thousand
have been killed by scale, moths and
other insects. Chestnut trees. which
have hitherto been immune, have now
a fatal parasite of their own. Straw
berry patches have been spoiled by the
cutworm. variation of the squash
bug attacks egg plants. Ants have de-
veloped liking for radishes.
Of the many products of the farm
and garden which grow in this neigh
borhood and climate, grass, corn and
lettuce are almost the only ones where
a reasonably certain crop is assured
through no other effort than prepar-
ing the ground, planting the seed and
cultivation. A farmer, truck gardener
or fruit grower has now to be chem-
ist and a naturalist in order to sue
ceed. He must understand the differ
ent combinations of lime, sulphur,
copper arsenic and other poisonous
compounds which should be admins
tered to each plant at the proper time.
If he makes the poisons too strong he
will kill the foliage as well as the
blight germs and insects. If he ap-
plies them at the wrong time he will
kill the fruit, blossoms and the pollen
bearing bees and birds. II he does
not apply them at all he will have no
crop. Fruit growers of oregon and
washington are crowding out nearby
orchardists because they stick to fewer
things, study them more thoroughly
and produce more attractive fruit. 1t
no longer pays to raise potatoes ex-
| cept on a scale big enough to warrant
| the purchase of expensive spraying
machinery.-New York World.
STRENGTHENING THE LINK.
The Douma marked the fiftieth ami
versary of Russian possession of the
Amoor provinces by taking steps for
| Immediately strengthening the railroad
| link that binds the empire to her Far
| Eastern possessions. The requirement
| of the Amoor established Russia as a
| power on the Pacific. and the Douma
| adopts the anniversary of the event as
| fitting time to take action to bind the
| provinces closer to the home govern
ment. There were two propositions be-
| fore the legislative body-one to de-
velop the road as now laid out by q
short cut through Manchuria; the 9TH
er to lay it out over a new route by
which it would reach the Pacific
through exclusively Russian territory
but by greater mileage. The nrst
plan was adopted in accordance with
! the recommendation of Count Wttte
ana Otner prominent PUDliC IieH Oh the
nation
The immediate proposal agreed upon
| by the Douma is for the rebuilding and
double-tracking of the existing line be-
tween the Urals and the frontier OF
Manchurfa, the entire cost to be some
thing like $4,000, 900. The road COM
pleted is to have a daily capacity Of 1e
civilian and "a military trains. Those
who remember the handicap Russia
found in her single track railroad dur
| ing the Japanese war will be able to
read into the action of the Douma an
| intention to be prepared against possf-
| BILE eventualities of that nature in the
! future. Had the czar been able ia
send to the Pacific "a military trains a
day in the early stages of that war he
might have been able to give the his
| tory Of the conflict a different aspect
than 1t must now forever bsar.-Cleve-
land Plain Dealer.