212 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I maybe permitted to mention one or two of the practical results of investiga- 

 tions concerning economic entomology in Illinois. The farmers of the State 

 had been for some years troubled by a worm that ate the roots of young corn, 

 annually destroying great quantities and entailing a serious loss of time and 

 labor. Xo successful remedy was known. The life history of the pest was 

 studied by several of the leading entomologists of the State and it was discovered 

 that the insect was the young or larvae of a common green beetle {Diabratica 

 longicarnis. Say). It was also found that these beetles deposited their eggs 

 in the soil of cornfields in autumn, so that the following spring when the young 

 larvae hatch they are ready to attack the growing corn. From this it was an 

 easy step to the suggestion that by an intelligent system of crop rotation, such 

 as that of following corn with oats, the young worms would not have suitable 

 food at hand, and being unable to escape from the environments of their birth 

 must of necessity perish. Thus there was provided a simple, practical and 

 inexpensive means of escaping from the ravages of a pest that had threatened 

 to put a stop to the production of the chief cereal grown here; and to-day this 

 idea has entered into the scheme of agricultural practice in the most successful 

 farming communities of the State. 



Another instance is also in point here. As doubtless all who listen to this 

 paper are aware, the production of strawberries is one of the chief pursuits 

 of the horticulturists of Southern Illinois. The business had been so long 

 continued, that a few years ago insects of various kinds had increased to such 

 an extent as to seriously interfere with the successful production of fruit. The 

 State entomologist was appealed to, and the whole subject was exhaustively 

 studied a few years ago by Prof. Forbes and his assistants, the result 

 being an elaborate paper upon the insects affecting the strawberry which was 

 read at the meeting of the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society in 1883, 

 being published in the transactions of the society for that year and also appear- 

 ing in the thirteenth report of the State entomologist of Illinois. It was there 

 recommended that to prevent the undue increase of injurious insects the old 

 strawberry plantations be plowed up at such times as would kill the young of 

 the worst of the pests by starvation, and that the plantations be frequently 

 renewed, rotating with other crops as much as possible. This, too, is now the 

 ordinary horticultural practice in Southern Illinois. 



In conclusion I cannot better give an idea of the importance and scope of 

 the work now being carried on by the office than to ask your attention to the 

 following resume of the present season's work, as it appeared in a recent issue 

 of one of the local papers : 



"The State entomologist of Illinois, Professor S. A. Forbes, reports that the 

 work of li is office has been this year extremely successful, and its results more 

 important than for any previous year within his knowledge. The interesting 

 discovery was made last spring that the corn plant louse hibernates in the 

 ground, and invariably takes its first start in fields which have been in corn 

 the year before — a fact which brings this destructive insect under the control 

 of an intelligent rotation of crops. 



"Elaborate studies of the chinch bug outbreak in Southern Illinois have 

 brought to light new facts in its life history, and have suggested new and sim- 

 ple methods of attack upon it. 



"Concerning the Hessian fty — the arch enemy of wheat culture in both 

 new and old worlds — an insect which has been before the entomological world 

 for more than one hundred years — the professor reports that he has succeeded 



