Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1918-05-03

inch in length. and usually bears con-
spicuous white wings folded over its
back. The young ones are bright red
and wingless. The old bugs live over
the winter hidden among cluEos of
wild grasses, especially those known
as the broom sedges,r which grow
ahundantly in uncultiyated places
throughout the greater portion of the
main wheat belt of the United States
1t is the usual habit of the cinch bug
first to attack fields of wheat, rye, or
barley, and its presence often is un-
noticed because the injuries inflicted
upon these crops are obscure or of no
apparent Importance About harvest
time the bugs leave the small grains
and crawl over the surface of the
ground TO The nearest fields of corn,
where they begin at once to wreak Sc
we're Injury.
Corn fields may be protected and
the migrating bugs trapped about the
time of wheat harvest by blowing a
deep furrow along the edge of the
field, running the land side of the pillow
toward the field to be protected. In
dry weather ths side of the furrow can
be mo de SO smooth and the sides so
steep that the bugs will find 1t easier
To crawl along the bottom than to
climb up the sides. Circular holes
from 30 TO 40 feet apart, made with a
post-hole digger, then may be dug in
the bottom of the trench. Into these
holes the bugs will fall in large num-
bers, and mere they may be killed cas-
lily by sprinkiing kerosene oil over
them. Ia wet weather line of liquid
tar or crude petroleum. which the bugs
will not cross, may be maintained in
the furrow bottom.
Hessian Fly Is Old Foe.
Another notorious insect whose func-
ton it is. in the order of nature, to
take bread out of our mouths Is the
Hessian fly, SO called because Hessian
soldiers, hired from their sovereign by
King George III, were believed to have
brought 1t over from Europe during
the revolutionary war. This pest gives
Il.
upon which 1t levies an average an
nual tax of approximately 10 per cent.
Experts figure that sixty million bush
els was the shortage In the 1917 wheat
crop of the country which may be
charged up TO this insect. And its
members, increasing year by year. have
deferred many farmers from sowing
wheat. notwithstanding the rapidly
rising market prices.
The Hessfan fly is minute mos
quitolike fly which lays its eggs upon
the leaves of wheat. These eggs hatch
into little maggots which crawl down
into the leaf sheaths. There they live
upon the plants sap which they obtain
by gnawing into the soft portions of
the stem. Usually two but sometimes
three or more, generations of the in
sect occur during year.
After the HeSsian fly has once thor
oughly infested the crop OF wheat there
is no known means of SAVING it, and
the only known means of preventing
damage from the fly is to keep it cut
of the wheat.
The remedies for the Hessian fiy
are, therefore, entirely preventive.
One Is to pillow down the wheat stub
BILE imme lately after harvest In or
der to destroy the maggots which re-
main in It, This is for the protection
of future crops. Another is to pay
great attention to the preparation of
the seedbed for the wheat by blowing
early and working and packing the soil
thoroughly In order to eliminate Jumps
and clods, thus producing finely pull
verified, compact. and moisture-co con-
serving bed for the seed. Care should