350 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



It is interesting to know that attacks from grasshoppers, wireworms, 

 white grubs and often from cutworms, too, can be prevented by 

 simply following the practices of good up-to-date farming in which 

 a short rotation of crops with fall ploughing and thorough prepara- 

 tion of the soil before seeding play a very important part. This 

 is a great source of encouragement to the man who is trying to do 

 his best. A short rotation of crops means that there will be no 

 old pasture fields on the farm. These are the favourite breeding 

 places of grasshoppers, wireworms and white grubs. It is a rare 

 thing to find serious outbreaks of these pests on farms where no 

 old pasture fields exist. Again, a short rotation of crops means 

 that the insects in any particular field are deprived of' their special 

 food and either have to starve or seek this food elsewhere, often 

 failing to reach it ; for instance, wireworms and white grubs attack- 

 grasses and such cereals as wheat, oats and barley, but seldom do 

 any injury to peas or clover; hence a short rotation of crops in 

 which clover or peas play a part will help to starve them out. 

 Good farming, moreover, means careful preparation of the soil 

 for the seed and the selection of good plump seed, with the natural 

 result that the plants will be more vigorous and thus better able 

 to withstand the attacks of insects than weaker plants on poorly 

 farmed land. An illustration of this is seen in the case of the 

 Hessian fly. This insect delights in attacking weak or unthrifty 

 wheat plants. I have counted as many as 1000 of the pupa^ in a 

 single square yard in a poor field of wheat. It is not at all un- 

 common to see two fields close together, one scarcely at all injured 

 by the Hessian fly and the other severely injured; the chief reason 

 for the difference being the better seed and condition of the soil 

 in the former. I am not speaking now of the value of late sowing 

 to prevent Hessian fly attack, though this is often very helpful. 

 My aim has been to show that the better a man farms, whether he 

 knows anything about insects or not, the less injury will be done 

 by these to his field crops. 



It is impossible to go into this subject now in fuller detail, 

 but, in conclusion, it may be well to say that we should never get 

 into a panic about insects and fear that some day some new and 

 terrible pest will come to our country that will do incredible damage. 

 New pests are not arriving so frequently as most people think. 



