The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-23
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HASKIN. Director,
Washington, d. G.
GAssING THE BUGS.


the instruments for the use of poison
gas and liquid flame, may be success
fully used against insects, which are
mans worst enemies. next to himself,
! seems to be indicated by experimenF
| which have been conducted here and
there.
The most Successful experiment.
and that upon which most of the high
hopes seem to be based, was thS
spraying of a grove of ornamental
trees in Ohio from an airplane, which
completely destroyed the caterpiIlars
| infesting the trees at a single flight
! The material used was calcium arSen-
ate carried in a hopper below the
| plane. AS the machine passed over
the trees it heavily busted with thu
poisonous material a belt of land 500
feet wide. 1t is reported that 80 per
cent of the caterpillars were killed
and that the ground, after the attack,
was literally covered with the dead.
Now the department of agriculture
! is al work on a plan for the use of the
airplane in fighting its ancient enemy,
the boil weevil Millions have already
been spent by the government in it's
| fight on the weevil, and billions have
| been lost by reason of the fact THAI
the boil weevil has not been destroyed.
The boil weevil has for generations
| literally been eating the shirts off our
backs and tires off our cars-for cot
]
tire construction.
The Wee yin Army.
| The problem of fighting the boil
weevil would seem to be in some re-
spects much like that of checking an
army. The boil weevil advances slow
/ ly along an immense front. The diff
| ficulty is to cover that whole front ct
one time, so as to check the advance
effectively. Presumably, if the adj
vance could be checked, the enemy
could be destroyed, but eradicatins
kthe weevil here and there does no per-
manent good if he is spreading in
other places Thus the government
cannot well put a large enough army
! in the field to check the weeviI all
along his advancing front at once by
hand spraying. The individual
planter does what he can, but what
between the boil weeviI and the fluc-
Etuating price of cotton, he often lacks
the funds to do the work. One planter
may spend SIS an acre in intensive
spraying, and clean the boil Weevil out
of his farm. But his neighbor may be
a poor tenant farmer who cannot af-
, which is necessary if any crop is t.
be made at all. So the weevil, checked
at one place, advances at another.
The plan sketched out by the gov
eminent calls for a series of airplane
stations reaching clear across the cot
: l.
| When you realize that a single plane
| flying across this front might destroy
! the weevil completely over Il swain
| 500 feet wide, and when you reflect
how much time and how many men
1t would take to do the same work by
hand. you get some idea of the posi-
bilities of the new method. But it has
its difficulties, too. The spraying to
be effective, must be done at nigh.
when the dew is on the TSant, it seems
1O ~ L,
prepared and willing to undertake the
work under these conditions. ssas=
Then again, the expense will be
heavy. Calcium arsenate costs about
10 cents pound, and enormous GUAM
titles of it would be necessary for this
lavish method of distribution. There
Is no doubt that the work would far
more than, pay for itself in the cotton
it would save.
Here, as in so many other ways, the
clumsiness of modern industrial and
governmental methods comes in The
trouble is that the saving cannot be
applied to the cost of the work. If
the work is to be done by the govern
ment it must be paid for by the tax
payer But the taxpayer feels that he
is already being taxed enough, chiefly
to keep up the army and navy and pay
the. war debts, and if he has an ounce
of sense he knows that the saving of
this cotton is not at all sure to reduce
the price of a cotton shirt to him. AS
for the planter he wants the boil
weevil eXterminated badly enough in
order that his whole living may not
be eaten up by the pest, but its COM
pleie destruction does not mean any
certainly increased income to him. In
fact. a large cotton crop is apt to
mean a low cotton price for the farm
err so that he really cannot afford any
extra large investment in this work.
How Science Is Blocked.
These same obstacles. rooted in the
stupid inefficiency of industrial or
ganization and political government,
are found blocking the path of num-
erous projects for the furtherance of
mans control over nature. Science
deviseS a solution of the problem, but
industry and government seem de-
signed to obstruct putting the solu-
ton into effect The fact of the mat
ter is that. while the physical sciences
have advanced steadily since the Mid
die Ages. trade and governmental
methods remain medieval in many re-
spects. Our methods of regulating
commerce, our diplomacy and our
wars, for example. are all essentially
medieval.
We cannot stop to elaborate this i'm
portant idea, because This is story
about bugs. The point is that the air
plane, if properly developed, may well
/
insects which are now getting the best
of us. OF course, the insects are slow
ly getting the best of us everywhere,
and many scientists, especially ento-
biologists. see life as a battle for su-
premacy between men and the insects.
Insects devour our crops and our for
ests and carry many OF the deadliest
diseases. The mosquito and the boil
weevii. the Hessian fly and the gypsy
moth and a long list of other insect
pests are mans most serious enemies.
The insects have the enormous adj
vantages of being very small. very nu-
merous and very prolific. We cannot
destroy them one by one as we DO
our other natural enemies. The INSECT
problem was admirably posed by that
friend OF the human race who, some
years ago, advertised positive method
of destroying potato bugs. He sent to
inquirers, for one dollar, two small
l. !, rr14sr 70