South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-08-15

nc. lleSe ALIENS were not invited
here. have performed ne service. and
yet have been fed on the fat Of the
land. adding to the high cost OF living
They have tremendous appetltes, con-
Stunning trees or entire forests. garden
crops and fields Of grain and cotton.
These undesirable citizens. that have
made America their adopted home, are
insects and plant diseases which have
been introduced from foreign countries
The recent quarantine issued by the
secretary OF agriculture. restricting
the operation OF nursery stock. assures
US that the reasonable activities of
these enemy aliens will be curbed in
the future.
There's a pest for every plant. Adam
must have been an aged man before he
got married II he first took time to
name all Of the insects and fungi. II
would require the lifetime OF an ordi-
nary man even TO pronounce the
names which scientists have given to
the known species. and every day sees
new discoveries added to these lists.
The gardener and the fruit grower. the
farmer and the forester spend great
deal OF time and money IN combating
pests. Some plants have more than
thousand insects and fungus diseases
which attack some portion of them.
causing death or injury. However,
most of the pests which attack our
plants are native 10 America and have
natural enemies which keep them in
check and all those fleas have little
1eas. upon their backs to bite 'em.
and those again have lesser fieas. and
so ad infnitum." Thus native insects
have a host OF voracious enemies. in
Guiding birds. animals and other in
sects, which preserve the balance of
Nature"
The ravages OF native pests seldom
become devastating except occasional
" In small areas and for a short time.
when conditions become exceedingly
favorable for their rapid propagation.
Hitherto, America has maintained
an open door to plant immigrants, and.
year after year. destructive insects
and plant diseases have come to this
country on these plants from abroad.
Some of these pests have found the
Land Of Freedom entirely TO their lik-
ing. Sometimes the climate here has
been exceptionally favorable for their
rapid development. at other times they
have found new food plants. In such
cases they have propogated rapidly be-
cause the balance of Nature was no
longer maintained. They escaped from
the enemies which held them in check
il their own country, with the result
IN many cases that they increased so
amazingly and wrought such tremend-
Gus damage that even the easy-going
"pacilst" American public has been
forced TO fight them. In most cases,
AAG ASnN dkdAloN AnHOIlcu
plant pests has been begun too late.
We have waited until they became so
thoroughly established over a wide
area that It has been too expensive 10
apply eradication measures that would
have been effective in the beginning.
Comparatively recent experience
with imported pests has made it ap-
parent that the bug is blightier than
the sword. The uncontrolled ravages
OF the late blight and rot of potatoes
in 1916 was responsible for the short
age In the potato crop. which sent
prices soaring and brought the humble
spud into prominence hitherto I'M
known. POwdery scale and scurf are
two other potato diseases which have
been brought in from abroad. More re-
Gently, the potato wart disease. estab-
lished in Pennsylvania from European
importaions, has given cause for
alarm. The Hessian hy. introduced
from Europe in revolutionary times.
causes an average annual loss TO the
wheat crop of 100000 900. and in some
years the loss from this one insect has
exceeded 500. 100000. The loss of
fruit due TO the codling moth, togeth-
er with the money spent in cOntroll-
ing this insect. costs the United States
about SI6.OOO.oOO a year. Another i'm
ported fruit insect. the San Jose
scale, entails a loss OF at least S10.-
GOO 900 annually.
The tale of the gypsy moth. in ribald
rhyme. illustrates what happens when
an insect reaches the United States
from another country. To para
phrase:
There was a man who freed two moths.
And those two moths were mothers.
That year there were a million more
The next a million others.