128 STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



NEW INSECT PESTS AND NEW WAYS OF FIGHTING OLD ONES. 



After calling attention to former statements concerning bisulphide of carbon 

 as an insecticide, Prof. Cook detailed his experiments with carbolic acid, which 

 the reader will find in the Secretary's Portfolio of this volume. He then said : 



I have a second remedy to bring to your attention, more as a suggestion than 

 as a positive recommendation. All observers have noted the fact that many 

 of our most destructive insect pests are attracted by lights. This led the great 

 pioneer of economic entomology, Dr. Harris, to recommend the building of 

 fires in the garden and orchard to effect tlie destruction of these insect de- 

 stroyers. Such fires involve so much labor, and are so local in their efEect, 

 that they are not generally adopted by those most interested in this insect war- 

 fare. 



Last summer I received from Mr. Carroll, of the Agricultural World, a 

 cigar box full of insects, with the remark that they were a part of about a 

 bushel which had been attracted and destroyed, in one evening, by the electric 

 lights in the city of Grand Rapids. The examination of the insects in this box 

 led to a knowledge of some very interesting facts. Among the beetles that I 

 found were more than two score of the rose chafer, Macrodactylus subspinosa. 

 You of South Haven know too well this little plague. This is he that is said 

 by some of you to grow fat on Paris green, and then chuckle at you for 

 thus trying to effect his banishment. Wouldn't it be sweet revenge to 

 invite him to an exhibition of the electric light, and then use him 

 to illustrate the beauty of cremation? There were many others of our 

 most dreaded insect foes in that box. The tent caterpillar moth, Clisiocampa 

 Americana, our worst cut-worm moths, as Agrotis subgotliica, and even the 

 little Turk, or plum Ciirculio, had become victims in great numbers to this 

 fatal curiosity to know more of this, one of the greatest of our recent 

 inventions. Thus we have clearly demonstrated the fact that this light will 

 attract and kill some of the very worst pests of the orchard and garden, some 

 of which are proof against any other practical remedy so far as we have yet 

 experimented. 



Another fact that has impressed me very strongly is the great distance that 

 this light throws its alluring beams. By elevating the light sufficiently it 

 would throw its inviting rays for miles into the country, and I see no reason 

 why it should not attract just as strongly as though it were nearer the earth. 



Now for the practical application of this matter. I know of no more 

 favorable place in which to try an experiment of this kind than right here at 

 South Haven. First, you are an enterprising folk, who are willing to put out 

 feelers where very likely you may feel in vain, for the very fact of an experi- 

 ment implies a doubt of any practical gain. Again, the motive power could be 

 had at one of your mills in town, and so the expense would be but a trifle. 

 The experiment for a month would cost less than the proceeds from one of 

 your exhibitions, in premiums, at the State Fair. Such an experiment 

 through the month of June, when it should be tried, might bring such fruits 

 as would carry the name of South Haven down all the long future as a bene- 

 factor in the pomological world. 



Again, from the variety of fruit and other vegetables raised in the very 

 suburbs of your favored town, there is no place where this experiment would 

 receive so fair a trial as here. One experiment for a single month would settle 

 the matter for all the future. But does some one say, why not do all of this at 



