Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1901 — INSECTS HURT KANSAS WHEAT [ARTICLE]

INSECTS HURT KANSAS WHEAT

Expert Estimate* Crop at Slrty Per Cent of La nt Year's 'laid. Last week John Rawlins, an expert on wheat, was sent into southern Kansas by some Chicago grain men to in-' vestigate the damage reported by Hea-i' tian fly and Texas louse. Rawlins says there is not a field of wheat in Montgomery, Chautauqua or Cowley county that has not been damaged by these pests. The worst damage so far, he states, is to the early sown wheat. The late sown wheat is looking well. He found the fly in all three stages. In some fields he found that the fly was in the first stage and had done no apparent damage. This stage is called the flaxseed stage, it being only an egg, which resembles the grain of that name. These eggs are found at the conjunction of the roots with the stalk of the wheat in quantities of from five to fifteen eggs in one stalk of wheat. They were deposited in the roots of the wheat last fall and remained there until warm weather. When the Hessian fly changes from the egg stage it moves to the stalks of the wheat, and in scores of fields these have practically destroyed the crop. In the Verdigris Valley farmers are plowing up wheat and planting the Adds to corn.