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STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



class pests in the South do merely nominal injury here. It would be 

 strange indeed if some of these a'dvantages were not partially offset 

 by a few distinctly northern forms. . Such an enemy we have in the 

 mole-cricket. We can hardly call this a serious pest, since its attacks 

 are only occasional and for the most part, limited to damp, mucky soils. 

 The mole-cricket is a large, burrowing insect, having its front feet 

 fitted for rapid digging very much like those of the common mole. Like 

 the mole, this cricket lives underground, from time to time appearing 

 in large numbers. Nothing pleases the mole-cricket more than to have 

 potatoes planted in his domain. The tubers are tunneled through and 

 through, the blackened cavities sometimes leaving little more than a 

 shell outside. 



Fig. 44. — Work of mole cricket in potato. (Original.) 

 REMEDIES. 



Owing to tbe fact that these crickets are so irregular in their habits, 

 it has been difficult to carry on successful experiments with them. In 

 Europe, pits are dug in the soil and filled with horse-manure. The pits 

 are said to attract the pests by their warmth, and to shelter them dur- 

 ing the late fall. On the outside are placed poisoned vegetables such as 

 potatoes. It would seem that small* pits filled with the tunneled tubers 



