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STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



on the grass at the border of the celery, then two men go into the celery 

 and drive the locusts toward the pan. The two wings aid in crowding them 

 into the center, and soon a large number of the hoppers are on the tar 

 which has been previously coated over the inside of the pan. The collector 

 is then driven up another space and the same operation repeated. Mr. 

 Hardy used an old sugar pan with one side cut off and wings added. It is 

 easier to collect the hoppers before their wings are fully developed, or in 

 the cooler part of the day when they do not fly so readily. The regular 

 hopper dozer is not practical in the celery fields as it must be raised so 

 high to run over the plants without injuring them that the hoppers mostly 

 go under the pan. 



THE TRUE BUGS — OEDEK HEMIPTERA. 



This order of insects furnishes nearly one 

 half of the celery pests, and several of the most 

 injurious ones that we have. They do not bite 

 or chew, but puncture the plant and draw the 

 sap through the puncture. They are all charac- 

 terized by having a beak. In the accompanying 

 cut, the head and beak of the tarnished plant bug 

 are shown. The four needle-like parts work 

 together in the groove inside the beak, and, 

 after they have pierced the plant, the sap is 

 sucked up through this groove into the stomach. 

 The beak does not enter the plant, but only 

 presses against it. In the very young stage of 

 this tarnished plant bug, the whole operation 

 showed more plainly than any before observed. 

 The piercing needles entered the plant as 

 rapidly and apparently as easily as one could 

 push a pin into a cushion. As the needles 

 passed on through the stalk, the jointed beak 

 became telescoped till it was all in two joints 

 and scarcely half the length it was at first. It 

 is thought by many that these bugs injure the plants by secreting a poison 

 when the sap is drawn. It is quite probable this may be so for the pur- 

 pose of increasing the flow of sap. We all know of the mosquito poisoning 

 for a similar purpose the puncture it makes. 



Fig. 4.— Head of the tarnished plant 

 bag, showing the jointed beak, or 

 rostram, a, and the fear needle- 

 like mouth parts, 6, nsed in pierc- 

 ing plants— (original). 



LEAF HOPPERS. 



All through the season, leaf hoppers were common on the celery. Early 

 in the season they were especially abundant, usually flying ahead of one 

 like a swarm of flies, as he passed through the field. When the plants are 

 small, these leaf hoppers do a great deal of injury by sucking the sap 

 from the plant through the thousands of little punctures that they make 

 with their pointed, beak-like mouth parts (see 4a, plate I). While the 

 plants, for the first few weeks after transplanting, are having their hardest 

 struggle for existence, the little leaf hopper's work is the most destructive. 

 This season many fields of celery were retarded in growth at this period. 

 This is a part of the season when the celery grower can the least afford to 

 allow any interruption in the growth of his plants. 



