Arizona republican., 1912-07-29


 roofed no houses. caused no loss of life. Professor Trouvelot rushed wildly about the neighborhod captur- ing all the insects he could find and destroying them. He suspected that dynamite had been set loose in Med- ford, that day. He sounded a warn ing but no more insects were found It was not until nearly twenty years later that the people of Medford mo- ticed that their shade trees were apparently stricken. They sent an alarm to Washington and corps of first-aid scientists hurried to the scene to discover the gipsy moth.
 The invasion of the brown tails was not nearly so dramatic. They are supposed to have come in upon rose bushes imported in 1890 by a florist in Somerville. It was not until 1897 however, that their destructive work was noticed.
 The biggest bug-fighting campaign ever waged, and one that is still going on, is that against the cotton boil weevil. The boil weevi first appeared in the vicinity of Browns vile, Texas, in 1892. By 1902 it had NdLSeu udIldSe to tne IeHdS cotton crops estimated at fifty million doll ars. In spite of the vigorous warfare Waged by the government the pest spread over a good part of the state and into Louisiana. It advances eastward at the rate of about fifty miles a year. but every foot of the way is being bitterly contested by Uncle Sam's trained bug fighters who have already found means of cir cumventing the boil weevil by yearly planting although they have not been able to exterminate it.
 These, of course, are the great pests, but there is scarcely a vege- table, or fruit, or grain grown in the United States that does not have several score more or less destruc- tive enemies. which the chronological army is compelled to study and fight. The sugar beet, for instance, though it's cultivation in the United States is only in it's infancy and it is not extensively subject to insect ravages has about 150 known species of in sects that feed upon it. The gov ernment has devoted particular at tentiOn to the parasites of the sugar beet because that humble vegetable is a most important factor in gen eral agricultural prosperity. It is the basis of scientific agriculture in Flu rope, where the farmers, by using it in rotation with other crops, have doubled and trebed their general yields per acre in the past half cen tury, so that European farming lands, though worn by centuries of culti- ah of fresher soils in productiveness. Ag- ricultural scientists maintain that with proper encouragement. the cul- ture of the sugar beet Witll bring similar advances in the United States and will add s1,5O0,0OO,000 a year to the value of American farm pro- ducts. The sugar beet crop itself was worth last year s70,O0O,OO0
 The belief that this crop is ca pablo of adding tremendously to the agricultural wealth of the country has long been by Secretary of Agri- culture Wilson, pr. Harvey w. Wiley and practically every other agri- cultural expert and they accordingly have exerted every effort to advance the industry urging congress to de- velop it by tariff duties on the i'm ported product as well as by apprO- priations to fight it's insect enemies. In support of this belief they point to what has been accomplished with old soils of France and Germany where sugar beet culture is the prac- tical basis of all modern agricultural development. Of five staple crops they show that Germany using the sugar beet as rotation crop is se- curing from two to three times the yields per acre secured in this coun- try with it's fresher soils And now that beet growing is developing so rapidly in this country the records show that the same results can be accomplished here. It is no wonder that the bug army should be assidu- ous in it's warfare against it's enemies since with the possibility of saving for our own farmers the S100,000, 900 now spent each year for foreign grown sugar, and at the time increas ing the yield of all our other staple crops from 25 to 50 per cent, as has been accomplished in sections where beet growing is already established
 it will be seen that the best is de serving of all possible protection ant encouragement.
 Of the 15O beet-eating insects only a few are particularly destructive and of these the curly-top leafhop- per is the beets worst enemy. Thl! is an agile tick like insect with { talent for long distance jumping. l pierces the leaves of the growing beets in order to deposit it's eggs and incidentally it appears to leave some poison in the veins of the plant After a time the leaves become curl! and shrivel and the beet itsel shrivels and grows a long and luxu riant set of "whiskers." and eventu ally rots away Needless to say the
 fashion of growing whiskers so ia
 as beets are concerned, is not ap proved by the farmers.
 Practically every fruit. grain, tree and garden plant grown in the coun- try has it's special collection of in- enemies ThpN range from two