64 Keport of State Board of Horticulture. 



stances for their destruction. To this end materials are used which 

 Avill act externally on the bodies of the insects, either as a caustic 

 or to smother or stifle them by closing their breathino: organs. I 

 might say in this place that insects do not breathe through their 

 mouths, as do higher animals, but through small openings on either 

 side of the body, called spiracles. By spraying anything of a caustic 

 or oily nature over the body of an insect, these spiracles are closed 

 and the creature is destroyed. Sometimes the fumes of poisonous 

 gases are employed to suffocate insects, as will be described later on. 

 Insects are sometimes repelled by obnoxious substances. 



The above remarks apply especially to insects which feed upon 

 the exterior of plants or pass the greater portion of their lives in an 

 exposed condition, where they can be readily reached by one of the 

 methods mentioned. Certain other insects, of both classes, biting 

 and sucking, are subterranean in their habits ; that is, they feed 

 and live upon the roots of plants below the surface of the ground. 

 Among these the white grub and root lice are conunon examples. 

 Still other insects live in stored grain, seeds, and manufactured 

 product of the mill, and even the mill itself. Here again the 

 arsenics and irritants cannot be used, and we nnist resort to various 

 fumes and gases. 



FUNGI. 



Prof. Charles 0. Townsend says: 



WHAT IS A FUNGUS 1 



A fungus (plural fungi) is a low form of plant. It has neither 

 green stem nor leaves, and therefore depends for its food upon 

 other plants or upon animals. Sometimes fungi live upon dead 

 plants or animals or upon their products, and sometiines they live 

 upon other living plants or upon living animals. They are very 

 numerous, and differ greatly among themselves in form, structure, 

 and habits of life. All fungi, sooner or later, produce small round 

 or oval bodies, called spores. These spores under favorable condi- 

 tions produce new fungi. They are not destroyed by ordinary 

 weather conditions, and often live over the winter in the fields and 

 orchards. Sometimes they remain alive for several years in the soil 

 and other suitable places, and begin their, growth when the condi- 

 tions are favorable. Many fungi are very small, and can be seen 

 only when greatly magnified. 



