The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1917-07-12
No Quarter in War
Pleads Prof. Burrill
Reprisal on GrasshOppers for Trying
to Starve PeOple-Tells New Means
of Killing Them.

Professor A. c. Burrill the entOmO-
logist is out with a new scheme for ex-
terminating insect pests that have es-
capped so far and urges continuance OF
the war against them, sparing not a
single insect. Here is what he says:
BE on the job against insect pests
this season. Make our food contri-
button to the human family, not the
insect family. Farmers who provide
themselves with insect pOisons and
then keep a vigil for the first out
breaks of crop enemies will bring
through the largest yields. Failure
to detect an outbreak at its begin
ming and delay in getting combative
material may be fatal to the crop at
tackled. In south Idaho. too many
well-to-do farmers are loath to stock
up with the poisons which they know
they will need. They lost hundreds
of acres to cutworms because they
did not have Paris Green on hand, o
their druggist neighbors, and mean
time the retail price of this insecticide
has tripled. They did not know what
substitutes to buy. and when too late
to lay in the needed fighting materials,
they smarted while hundreds of acres
went to the costly cutworm plague,
the past two months.
Get your county agent, farm bureau,
or county commissioners to estimate
how much poison of each kind is need
ed and the local druggists or insecti-
eide dealers notified in advance of the
more common annual epidemics. Then
see to it that the farmers buy the dope
and not force the local dealer to
year. The farmer complains he does
not want to lock his money up in buy
ing poisOns in advance of their use;
but just as rightfully the local dealer
complains he does not want to furn-
ish large stocks of poisons and then
have the local trade fail to take them
off his shelves, so that his money is
also locked up, while these insecti-
cides are forced into storage.
A great part of the annual loss to
grain crops due to insect injury can
be avoided by vigilance and vigorous
action on the part of the growers.
Alas, that so few growers realize this
Frequently insect outbreaks originate
within a limited area, and when this is
the case, it is often quite possible to
stamp them out before any great dam
age has been done. If the outbreak is
general, then community action is es-
sential to prevent widespread infesta-
ton.
Watch your crops constantly. Make
a daily survey of the fields during the
most active growing season, if posi-
bic. When fruit trees are in blossom
or newly planted crops are Just COM
ing through the soil, take a lantern
and go out and watch between the
rows and OF the blossoms for signs
of cutworms and click beetles and
other night-attacking enemies.
Three weeks ago., we gave the fol-
lowing formula for spraying road
sides. ditch banks, and fence rows for
newly Matched grasshoppers before
they could migrate into cultivated
fields.
One pound sodium %arsenite.
Two quarts cheap molasses (pre-
ferred.)
Fifty gallon barrel Of water.
Enough for n acre. Cost soc to
81 an acre.
Now it is too late to get all the
grasshoppers in such situation at
least in south Idaho, although the
roadside locations are still producing
the most hoppers. Fields in clover or
alfalfa sod or pasture also produce
hoppers in numbers and a telegram
from the county commissioners of
Oneida county, July 5, says: Grass
hoppers are clearing the grain crops
in this county. We are putting I'D a
good fight but need a man to lead who
understands the work of destruction
Similar reports are expected
elsewhere from rumors received and