Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-25

not been an outbreak since, and that
was more than 20 years ago.
Indians and others sometimes eat
grasshoppers In preference TO the white
mans oysters and snails. There In no
accounting for cultivated tastes: un-
cultivated folk are not fond of hoppers,
unless properly cooked, but st. John
ate them raw with wild honey for a
spread. = y \
Next after grasSnoppers came cotton
caterpillars, which had been raised on
wild nettles in Mexico, but acquired a
taste for Texas cotton about 1873 and
swarmed across the Rio Grande like the
bootleggers that they were.
About that same time the Colorado
potato beetle met the Horace Greeley
young man and heard his excelsior cry:
Pixies Peak or bust" and the beetle
Initiated that by singing Go East,
young bug, and grow up with the
AS the farmers had one long potato
field from the pioneer border to Main
street. the beetles feasted to their
hearts content until the farmers be-
gan to feed them paris green and lon
don purple consisting of from 80 to 40
per cent of arsenate Of lead.
The question being asked Of an en-
tomologist aS to why the street con, :
missioner Is now spraying Washington
shade trees. the expert smiled and Sug-
gested that he had no idea, unless it
waS. to get rid of surplus stock Of
arsenate of lead. 1t is an amusing pas
time in hot weather and does no spe-
cial harm, except to automobiles: other
bugs don't mind it. up or under the
trees.
This revived story Of an incident
on a Mississippi River boat some years
ago. when the poisons were less familiar
The chef decided to serve ice cream to
the passenger. and when 1t came to the
table, 1t was so pretty in color that
some curious guests inquired how the
color was produced The chef. confessed
that he had no idea what the coloring
matter was, but he had found some
In bags on deck and used IL. II proved
to be London purple-arSenate of lead
mixture. All witnesses are now dead,
but the arsenate is still fed to insects
mot Including. men,, either, sprinkled
from airplanes or by Negro and mule
machins".;-the, Negro astride . mule,
enough to reach over two rows Of cot
ton. On each end Of the pole Is a
cheesecloth bag with powder, and it
sprays .the. poison upon two rows At
once.
The San Jose scale in California at
tackled fruit trees in the decades 1870 TO
1890, and toward the late years spread
with shipped nursery stock into the
Atlantic Coast region. DR.. Marlatt of
the Department of Agriculture imported
the ladybirds never got fair play, for
the farmers killed the scales faster with
sprays. So the experts. feeling the i'm
position on the ladybird guests. used to
board them free In ladybird hotels,
ready to sally out when needed as re-
serves. Those ladybirds were of the
aristocratic family of Chilicorus sin1ilis,
but later another family of ladybirds,
Novius cardinals came over from Aus
tralia and ate up the cottony cushion
scale, and they also got free board from
the Department Of Agriculture while
being held In reserve after all the cot
tony cushion scales had been devoured.
/ Children used to sing to torment
"Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home;
Your house Is on FIRE; your children
alone"
But nobody ever seemed to scare a
real ladybird with the song 50 long as
the cottony cushion scale was found or
for ladybirds.
II Is explained at the department
that the mamma which saved the lives
of the fleeing Israelites was the product
of scales. II so. why should We feed 1t
now to iadybirds. while our own cpl
cureans can get nothing more delicate
than Chinese birds nests? Will not
sonne enterprising breakfast food maker
serve us mama In Moses?' We are
ruined by Australian ladybirds. Maybe
it. would reduce" some ladybirds We
know. who want boyish shape like Q
marching ISraelite.
Ths cotton bell weeyil pest % 70 re-