South Bend News-Times, Volume 36, Number 227, South Bend, St. Joseph County, 15 August 1919 — Page 19

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$500,000.000 banquet to alien

enemies ha3 been given an

nually by the American pub

lic. These allfns were not Invited tere. have perfomed ne service, and yet bave been fed on the fat of thw land, adding to the high cost of living. They havo tremendous appetites, consuming trees'or entire forests, garden crops and fields of grain and cotton. These undesirable citizens, that have made America their adopted home, are insects and plant diseases which have been introduced from foreign countries. The recent quarantine issued by the secretary of ngriculture, restricting the operation of nursery stock, assures us that the treasonable activities of these enemy aliens will be curbed In the future. There's a pest for every plant. Adam must have been an aged man before he got married if he first took time to name all of the insects and fungi. It would require the lifetime of an ordinary man even to pronounce thr; names which scientists bxvc given to the known species, and every day sees

Whole Chestnut Forest Destroyed by Blight.

And fought like Carrie Nation. In this case an investigator was ex-

The Landing of the rilgriin Fathers.

new discoveries added to these lists, prrimcnting in Massachusetts with The gardener and the fruit grower, the two gypsy moths imported in -onnecfarmer and the forester spend a gTcat tion with an experiment in silk culdeal of time and money in combating ture. Unfortunately the door of the pests. Some plants have more than a cage was accidentally opened and the thousand insects and fungus diseases usccts escaped. Tho Investigator lmwhich attack some portion of them. racdiately notified the authorities of causing death or injury. However, the danger but no attention was paid most of the pests which atack our (Q the warning. rA few years later the plants are native to America and have trees on a small area were defoliated, natural enemies which krep them in but still no conqern was manifested, check. "And all those Ceas have little However, the next year the insects befleas. upon their backs to bite 'em; came so numerous that a large tcrriand those again have lesser fieas, and tory was invaded by them and the außo ad infinitum." Thus native insects thorities at last woke tip. A flght warf have a host of voracious enemies. In- begun which has lasted for years, and eluding birds, animals and other In- today it has cost more than $15,000,scctR, which preserve the "balance of 000 in cash for applying control measN'ature." urcs, besides many times this amount The ravages of native pests seldom of property damage. "What next?" Is become devastating except occasional- constantly asked by the nurseryman, ly In small areas and for a short time, fruit growers and farmers, when told when conditions become exceedingly of a newly imported and dangerous favorable for their rapid propagation, plant pest. It would seem as though Hitherto, America has maintained the time had arrived when in order to an open door to plant Immigrants, and. grow a tree it is necessary for the one year after year, destructive insects who wishes to harvest Its fruits to and plant diseases have come to this stand guard over it day and night, country on these plants from abroad, armed with a spray can. Many a man Some of these pests havo found the has planted a tree and dreamed of the Land of Freedom entirely to their lik- enjoyment he would derive from It as lng. Sometimes the climate here has he rested under its benign shade, only been exceptionally favorable for their to awaken some morning and cry. rapid development, at other timc3 thej "Where, oh, where is my little tree havo found new food plants. In such gone?" Observe the classic example of cases they have propogated rapidly be- the chestnut blight. This la a bark cause the balance of Nature was no disease which was brought to this longer maintained. They escaped from country from the Orient on Japanese the enemies which held them in check chestnut stock. It was first found on in their own country, with the result western Long Island In 1904, and two in many cases that they increased so years later it had reached southward amazingly and wrought such tremend- to Philadelphia. In ten years It ous damage, that even the easy-going spread over half of the chestnut area "pacifist" American public has been of the United States, and at the presforced to fight them. In most cases, ent time it has practically exterminate however, the flght against imported cd the chestnut trees within a 100-mile plant pests has been begun too late, radius of New York, and Is rapidly We have waited until they became so accomplishing the complete ruin of thoroughly established over a wide our magnificent chestnut forests of area that it has been too expensive to the South. apply eradication measures that would The loss caused by this single lmhave been effective in the beginning, ported pest i3 many million dollars. Comparatively recent experience and its ultimate end will be the exwith imported pests has made it ap- tinction of one of the most useful and parent that the bug Is blightler than most profitable American forest trees, the sword. The uncontrolled ravages Only recently It was found that a of the late blight and rot of potatoes similar disease attacking the poplars in 1916 was responsible for the short- had been Imported from France and age In the potato crop, which sent had spread over a wide area of the prices soaring and brought the humble United States. spud Into prominence hitherto un- Other dangerous pests introduced known. Powdery scale and scurf are from abroad are the Oriental peach two other potato diseases which have moth, the Japanese beetle, the Eurobeen brought in from abroad. More re- pean earwig, the Leopard moth, the ccntly, the potato wart disease, tstab- alfalfa wccul. the European eelworm, lished in Pennsylvania from European and the European corn borer. The latImportations, has given cause for ter is a pest which apparently was alarm. The Hessian Cy, introduced brought to the United States in a carfrom Europe in revolutionary times, gc of hemp unloaded at a rope faccauscs an average xmnual loss' to the tory near Boston, Mass. It is excecdwheat crop of $50,000,000. and In some ingly destructive to corn, feeding by years the loss from this one insect has boring in the stalk. In its operation exceeded 5 100.000.000. The loss of it works upward, eating out a cham-

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The European Corn Borers Getting In Their Deadly Work.

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Magnificent Chestnut That lias Succ umbed to Blight, Many of them, especially fungi, are necticut and' New York. The corn borhidden under the bark and aie entire- er was probably brought into this ly inisible. It must be remembered country several years ago, possibly on that of many of these pests wo have hemp, and from Its present distribu-

no conception, based on experience in tion it would seem as though it was country and cause serious loss. About on currant and gooseberry bushes. The its Dtive land as to its destructive first established in or near Charleston, half of these are European insects fungus can net go directly from one powers under American conditions. Mass. It has spread rr.pidly and is

which feed upon forest and shade pine tree to another, but first must Fumigation has been tried, but it is now known to be present in not less

Where, Oh, Where Is My Little Tree Gone?

corn stalks together with all old vines and all large weeds throughout and around the garden. a The How of "Quiz" Hoaxers exist in every profession and walk of life; they flourish in every age and clime; they play their art either as a means o flivc-lihood or fron; the solo desire to gull the credulous public. It was tho latter which Incited that prince of practical pokers, Theodore Hook, to perpetuate tho most audacious of all hoaxes. Hook bet a guinea that ;t certain modest dwelling in a quiet thoroughfare leading out of Oxford street would become the most notorious house in town, and set about winning bu wager by aduressng over 1,000 letters, containing orders to tradesmen, with the request that they would at a certain hour oa a certain day deliver their goods at a certain house in Berners street. The lord mayor, the chief Justice, the archbishop of Canterbury and tho commander in chief were among the niuuy victiniö that fell Into the trap, und, duly arrived at the appointed spot, experienced the mo3t unceremonious treatment amid the turbulent and exasperated throng. As a result of a bt between tho

duke of Montague and Lord Chester-

trees and the balance infest various spend part of its life on currant or manifestly impossible for any gas or than thirty towns in Massachusetts, 6 ...t.nn.t .w- i i i 4 limiid tn npnrtrato in tlm interior tin- rrnctlv nnrth arH nnrthwpst of Roston 1 110 Ioniier OUld, by ad-

cultivated crops. Among the impor- gooseberry leaves, and in this stage it liquid to penetrate to the interior ti

tant insects which it is hoped to ex- has the power of spreading rapidly sues ' a plant where fungus or borer

elude from the American continent and widely to other currant and goose are tho Mediterranean fly, considered berry bushes. The fungus then de

by entomologists to take first prize as velops another stage by which it is swered correctly by the federal ema destructive fruit pest, and the pink enabled to pass from the currant or bargo, which prohibits further impor-

boll worm of cotton from Mexico, cooseberrv bushes back to the pines

may be hiding. The questicn "what

shall we do about it?" has been an-

whieh is canahlp nf mni-in? thn hrst if drctm,- ih mrrt huchos we such as are specifically sanctioned by

fruit duo to the codling moth, togeth- bcr from the pith. The developin? u n . . J. . , , tt , thp I'nitPd qatr; . .. . V Us efforts of the cotton boll weevil ap- prevent the disease from infecting our ine Lnuea Plates.

pear puny In comparison. The life white pines. Hence, Improbable as it

stories of some of these pests, as un- appears to the uninitiated, the salva

er with the money spent in control!- ears are also sometimes hollowed out.

ing this insect, costs the United States As high as 90 per cent of the stalks ubout $16,000,000 a year. Another im- in a corn field may be infested. Over ported fruit insect, the San Jose 200 borers have been found in the

nation to adopt measures to ade-

folded by years of study on the part tion of these magnificent trees depends Qtiately guard against the dangers in-

of patient scientists, are so amazing to a large degree on whether people cident to tiie introduction ct foreign

vertising an utterly impossible per-

This insect winters over as a cater- romance, find fooU enough to fill a pillar In corn stalks and some of the playhouse, it was announced that on larger weeds. About the middle of January 10, 1749, on the stage o! tha May it pupates and emerges as a "ayraarkct Theater, a person would

tation of plants from abroad except th, which lays a large number of f" a wu'u iuart "cluo ana

eggs, sometimes as many as 700. The vera; songs, caterpillars from these eggs feed upon On the evening appointed for the ac-

The United States Is the kt great tariy corn and weeds and do consid- ccmpnsnmcnt of this marvelous feat

erable damage. About the last of July me nouse was packed from floor to these caterpillars pupate and e;-.rly in ceiling, among the expectant audienco

August another generation of moths Icing no less a personage than tho

scale, entails a loss of at least $10,- stalks growing in one hill of corn. a3 t0 be classed with fairy stories by are willing -to forego the luxury of nursery stock. It is said millions of appear. These lay their eggs (this duke of Cumberland.

luv.vw wuua,.,. uiiutuii oy me lhose wbo are mtie acquainted with currant iellv and cooseberrv 1am.

The ule of the gyrsy mcth. In ribald fact that the borer feeds on a number (he WOnders of Nature. White pine Congress has passed a literacv test and there remains the possibility of

rhyme, inusiraics nai nappeaa ween oi oiner pianis. inciuaing the stalks of blister rust is an instance. This para- which will bar undesirable human im-

an insect rcacnes ice Louca states weecs and flowers, and may live over sitlc fungus i3 native to the Old World, migrants, but there is no test which nable economic plants

from another country. lo para- winter in grass roots.

phrase

dollars have been wasted annually, time about 900) on corn and weeds A hoax equally diverting, and with

(principally corn) and go a vast no harmful isue, wa3 that originating

complete extermination of certain val- amount of damage, feeding on the with Daly, the manager of tho Dublin

stalks and ears of corn. It i3 this Theater, who wtgered that within 2-.

There i3 always the possibility of caterpillar or borer that passes the hours he would introduce a perfectly

attacking the stone pine and otber na- we can apply to exclude the army of

Many people believe that we have tive five-leaved pines of Europe. When injurious insects and plant diseases -bringing in pests in cargoes of mer- winter in the corn sulks and largo meaningless word into the English

been bringing in plants from abroad extensive interest In planting forest from abroad which enter as stow- chandise, but the action taken by the garden weeds, such r.s pigweed, rag- language.

There was a man wno ireca two moms, for so many years that now we have trees first began to develop abodt a aways on nursery stock and other horticultural boards, backed up by And those two moths were mothers, all of the pests to which plants are score of years ago. white pines import- plant material. adequate supervision, is certain to That year there were a million more. heir. This is a mistake. la the opinion ed from Germany, France and Holland. The system of inspecting the impor- prevent greaf losses in the future.

of plant physicians who are beat qual- brought this disease to the United tations of foreign nursery stock has tu lfled to know. The Bureau of Ento- States, principally in 190S and 1909. proved ineffectual because the eye- enar0 0 0 mology has published descriptions of Curiously, the safety of our white sight of the cost competent inspector turPean Coru BorerI

over 3.000 distinct insect pests which xlnes depends entirely on whether we Iü not capable of discovering every In- The European corn borer has made weeds, very effective destructive mcas- ing the circulation of a word that has are likely to be Introduced into this can control tho spread of the disease sect or plant disease on every plant, it aDtearance in Massachuse-.ts. Con- ure3 are offered. Pull up and burn all remained current till the present daj.

The next a million others.

They had tremendous appetites, And wrought great devastation. Vatil the state with wrath arose,

weed, and barn-yard grass. The cat- To eSect which he chalked on every erpillar which was present in the old wall to which he could gain access the corn Etalks early in the spring has four letters. QUIZ, which at once been responsible for 315,000 borers up set Dublin wondering as to their slgto the first of October. As this insect nificanct wondering in vain the. solo passes the winter in corn stalks and result of the general bewilderment be-