Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 12, March 22, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and FiresideVarious
Science
Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 12, March 22, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside
Various
Agriculture -- United States -- Periodicals; Farm life -- Periodicals; United States -- Rural conditions -- Periodicals
"The entomological record of the orchard and the fruit garden is not less
eventful than that of the farm. In extreme Southern Illinois, the forest
tent caterpillar (Clislocampa sylvatica) made a frightful inroad upon the
apple orchard, absolutely defoliating every tree in large districts. It
also did great mischief to many forest trees. Its injuries to fruit might
have been almost wholly prevented, either by destroying the eggs upon the
twigs of the trees in autumn, as was successfully done by many, or by
spraying the foliage of infested trees in spring with Paris green, or
similar poison, as was done with the best effect and at but slight expense
by Mr. David Ayres, of Villa Ridge. Great numbers of these caterpillars
were killed by a contagious disease, which swept them off just as they
were ready to transform to the chrysalis; but vast quantities of the eggs
are now upon the trees, ready to hatch in spring.
"A large apple orchard in Hancock county dropped a great part of its crop
on account of injuries done to the fruit by the plum curculio
(Conotrachelus nenuphar). There is little question that these insects were
forced to scatter through the apple orchard by the destruction, the
previous autumn, of an old peach orchard which had been badly infested by
them.
"In Southern strawberry fields, very serious loss was occasioned by the
tarnished plant-bug (Lygus lineolaris), which I have demonstrated to be at
least a part of the cause of the damage known as the 'buttoning' of the
berry. The dusky plant-bug (Deræcoris rapidus) worked upon the
strawberries in precisely the same manner and at the same time, in some
fields being scarcely less abundant than the other. I have found that both
these species may be promptly and cheaply killed by pyrethrum, either
diluted with flour or suspended in water, and also by an emulsion of
kerosene, so diluted with water that the mixture shall contain about 3 per
cent of kerosene.
"The so-called 'strawberry root-worm' of Southern Illinois proves to be
not one species merely, but three--the larvæ of Colaspsis brunnae, Paria
aterrima and Scelodonta pubescens. The periods and life histories of these
three species are curiously different, so that they succeed each other in
their attacks upon the strawberry roots, instead of competing for food at
the same time. The three together infest the plant during nearly the whole
growing season--Colaspsis first, Paria next, and Scelodonta last. The
beetles all feed upon the leaves in July and August, and may then be
poisoned with Paris green.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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