The Llano colonist. [volume] (Llano, Calif.) 191?-1937, 1922-11-04
in THEIR RELA-
LATIoN TO AGRICULTURE
By Geo. D. Coleman

United States. If vigorous and effec-
tive action Is not taken, agriculture
will go down. Years ago. now over
fifty, thought would become an en-
tomologist; but, when found that
there are over $4,000 varieties of
insects, it discouraged me, and never
took up the study. Since then, more
varieties Of insects have been discov-
cred and classified, and the end is not
yet.
Most entomologists in the United
States strongly advise the use of cost
ly poison sprays, with costly spraying
outfits, to kill the insects after they
are Matched out, but comparatively lit
tie thought to the ladies that lay the
eggs from which the pests are Matched.
They are h on effects, but give
little thought to the fighting of causes.
They remind me of the professor
whom the boys tried to fool-or the
German and the bed-bug poison.
| can remember that fifty years ago
they raised the finest Rhode Island
Greening apples and used no sprays on
the trees; but to-day, with all their
sprays, they cannot raise them at all.
Why2 Because the insects that prey
on the trees and fruit are more abun-
dant than they were fifty years ago.
Again why Because shot guns and
small-caliber rifles are plentiful, ignor-
ant men and boys have killed the
birds that ate the insects, and the pests
have therefore multiplied.
Another reason why crops of all
kinds suffer from insects is that soils
are generally deficient in the right
kinds of fertility, and the trees and
plants do not get the food that would
give them vigor. Just as lack of nu-
triton and the weakness that results
from it makes man susceptible to
tuberculosis and other diseases, so with
trees and plants. Have you never no.
ticed that the trees killed by insects are
the ones with the least vitality; while
vigorous trees not a hundred yards
away resist the attacks of the insects?
The vigorous trees, in fact, seem to
secrete some quality in their sap and
foliage that causes the insects to leave
them alone, while sickly tree attracts
them as a dead horse does flies.
remember a man in Pennsylvania
who had twenty plum trees, and of
these, five were attacked by insects.
! One of these five seemed about all in.
After studying over the matter, told
him ON the occasion of another visit
about a month later, that all the trees,
but especially the worst one, needed
nitrogen and potash. He had about
three hundred pounds of cracklings for
his chickens that got wet and went
bad. We pitted those trees, and all
of eighty pounds of the cracklings
went under the worst tree, the rest 60
ing to the other trees. The next year
] found the very sick tree in full bear
ing, with bark almost black, and no
insects seemed to trouble it. All plum
trees, to thrive, need plenty of nitro
gen and potash. Pear trees need iron
and sulphur and little sulphate Of
iron and suIphate of lime. In fact, sui
lphur and iron. or sulphate of iron, will
stop the blight so common to pear
trees in the South. Peaches may
be expected to have borers unless
the earth is dug away and they
are given three or four shovelfuls of
unleached ashes. Grapes need lime
above all other things. You may have
noticed, in fact, that the best kind of
soil for all kinds of fruit trees is cho-
colate-colored clay or clay loan. That
color comes from the sesquioxide of
Iron, with lime, and such soil is gen
orally rich in potash and holds lot
or humus, that IN turn has nitrogen
! and carbon. 1t is the sort of soil that
will grow anything, except, it may be,
those crops that demand sour soil,
such as blueberries and few others.
Some crops. like wheat and grains, de-
mand phosphates, and they go on
strike in soils otherwise good but with
out the phosphates. Any tree or plant
that does not get what its nature de-
mands is hundred times more liable
TO be attacked by insects and ten times
more liable to disease. Take cabbage,
for instance. If the soil is deficient in
lime, 1t is liable to club foot by the
third year. and all during the three
wears they are easy prey to insects