The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1916-08-24
ANOTHER BUG PEST
The Leaf-hopper and Tarnished Plant
bug Work Havoc in Potato
Fields.
What Was Supposed to Be Blight
and Tip Burn Is Caused By
These Bugs.

against. AS far back as 1911, Mr..
Edward Saxon, who has been an ex-
tensive grower Of potatoes for years,
discovered that a little green bug in
Tested and seriously injured potato
vines. His neighbors made light of his
discovery and laughingly referred to
"Saxon's bugs" But it was no laugh
ing matter with Mr.. Saxon. He found
that apparently without cause potato
vines wilted and died prematurely, and
the yield of tubers was greatly re-
duced. He corresponded with the De-
partment of Agriculture at Washing
ton as we'll as with the Farm School
at St. Anthony Park, but obtained
little satisfaction until this year, when
he became so insistent that about two
weeks ago S. Marcovitch, assistant
entomologist at the experiment sta
ton, arrived at his farm to investigate,
and for ten days Mr.. Saxon and Mr..
Marcovitch have been experimenting
with hopperdozers and kerosene emul-
sions.
A Union representative visited Mr..
Saxon's farm in the town Of Green
bush yesterday and found Mr.. Mar
covitch and Mr.. Saxon hard at work
devising means to fight the pests.
Mr.. Saxon has 70 acres in potatoes,
go Of the Triumph variety. The vines
on one field looked as if they had
been frost-killed. Mr. Marcovitch said
to the Union man, *You can see for
yourself the havoc these bug pests
are working in Mr.. Saxon's fields"
Then he said:
"The leaves Of the vines and espe-
cially Of the Triumph variety, because
of it's tenderness and comparative
small number Of leaves, are being
curled, turning brown and dying. In
the vicinity Of Princeton the crops are
being damaged severely. Because this
is a new pest the cause has been laid
to blight, bad weather, Paris green
injury and many other reasons but
the right one. Even one of our
pathologists called it tip burn at first
sight, but upon making a careful
study we find that the leaf-hopper is
the destructive agency. In addition,
the furnished plant-bug, we'll known
and extremely injurious insect, is also
present in fairly large numbers, and
should they increase at their present
rate, under favorable conditions it is
easy to see that the vines will be de-
stroyed entirely We have counted
from $50 to 500 leaf-hoppers and
about so furnished plant-bugs on a
single plant.
*'The leaf-hopper is a small, green
bug, about one-eighth inch long, lives
under the leaves, and jumps when
disturbed. The furnished plant-bug
is nearly one-fourth inch long, with
brownish wings, giving it a furnished
appearance, while the young ones are
about one-eighth Of an inch long with
five spots on the back. These bugs
are very difficult to control at present,
because they possess a beak like
mosquito and suck sap. For this rea-
son Paris green or any other stomach
poison is worthless. The leaf-hoppers
suck on the small veins, causing the
leaf to curl and finally die while the
furnished plant-bug sucks on the mid
rib or the tip Of the growing shoot,
causing the leaf to curl upwards or
the shoot to wilt entirely.
"In the east this same furnished
plant-bug stings the leaders of the
peach nursery stock and kills them, so
that the trees become bushy causing
thousands Of dollars loss. One Of the
| best entomologists in the east has
just completed three years Of study
and experimentation and as yet has
found no practical remedy. We know
that one suck Of this bug is not suf-
fcient to draw out all the sap, yet
the leader dies because a poison is
injected into the tree. Furthermore,
it is we'll known pest of strawber-
ries, causing the young berries to be
deformed. Such injury is known to
the growers as buttoning. The tar
nished ~plant-bug, therefore, may even
become more serious than the leaf
hopper.
| eve have tried the remedies recon-
mended by the State Experiment Sta
ton and the United States Department.
OF Agriculture, and have found them
Impractical on the large scale Of pro-
duction in which potatoes are grown
around Princeton. Since the produc-
ton OF potatoes is very important to
the Princeton farmers and to the