The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-03-08
17 YEAR
 LOCUST IN MAY

02 " ~ "
 Washington, Mar. S.-Great swarms Of the 17-year locust will infest the United States in late May or June this year, which is expected by scien- lists to be one of the worst locust years" on record. Experts of the De- partment of Agriculture, however, see nothing alarming in the prospect.
 One regarded supersitiously as q harbinger of disaster, the periodical cicada, popularIy knOWda as the IT. year locust because it comes at long intervals, is se sn now to be no moro than an ordinary non-poisonous in sect pest, which can do little dam- age if proper precautions are taken. The chief injury inflicted by the in- sect consists almost wholly in chisel- ing grooves in the branches of trees for desposi1inS eggs. Young fruit trees sometimes are killed, but the damage generally seems greater than it actually is, according to the ento- mologists, and popular alarm is out of proportion to the real danger.
 Suggested precautionary measures are:
 Defer putting out young fruit trees until next year; postpone budding op- erations; do no pruning this spring. When the insects begin coming out 1 hand pick them from young trees or spray them with pyrethrum powder, kerosene emuIsions, or a solution. OF i carbolic acid or acettc acid. Later, when the insects are ready to begin laying, spray young fruit trees with whitewa ash.
 Fg4l,.- ! kept close check for many years e 1 all the broods of locusts and can | forecast accurately when and where the pests will appear. Large regions will be affected this year where ons l brood appeared IT years ago and in 1 other regions which suffered 13 years | ago, the states including Alabama, 1 District of Columbia, Delaware, Geor- gia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ken lucky, Maryland Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pepn sYlvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, T-r-:nont, Virginia, West Virginia and xs'scon- sin.
 Belief that the 1919 brood will be exceptionally large is based on the fact that the 17-year brood coming out this year is brood 10, perhaps the
 
 | brood 8 of the 13-year family comes out at the same time. The year 1868 was the greatest locust year in his tory, when brood 19, the largest of the 13-year family, appeared in con- junction with brood 10 of the IT, year family.
 There will be three regions of greatest occurrence of brood 10, one covering New Jersey, Maryland and eastern Pennsylvania; another cover- ing all of Indiana, the greater part of Ohio and southern Michigan; and a third covering western North Caro- lima, eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia While brood 10 will affect 20 states, brood IS will appear in only five states-Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. and only limited areas in those states.
 c. L. Marlatt, chairman of the Federal Horticultural Board, who has perfected the information on the clouds, calls the insect the most in teresting in the world, h cause of the spectacular sWarms in which it ap- pears, it's queer recurrence at long in- tervals and the portentous signif- canoe frequently attached to 1t. Every locust year has been a year of fear anu ufebd' even III clVlIzed tnes- Some people have fancied that they could detect in the cry of the Insect a resemblance to the name of the Egyptian monarch, Pharaoh, who persecuted the Israelites. Supersti- ton attached also to the shape of the fflmsy bars on the cicada's wings, which seemed to form the letter ''W," interpreted as a forecast of war.
 Since this outbreak will come just at the conclusion of the greatest war; Mir. Marlett said and when even the imagination of the rural prophet could hardly conjure up the likelihood of another one. some new explanation will apparently have to be found