62 



range from 50 sen (25 cents) for the first offense to 5 yen ($2.50) or 

 more for the second or later cases of neglect. The regulations are to 

 plant these seed beds in patches 4 feet in width with a small path 

 between, and to attend at the proper season to the kerosene treatment. 

 The planting in 4-foot strips instead of in a broad bed, as was formerly 

 the custom, is to facilitate the going through the beds and knocking the 

 rice and jarring the insects into the kerosene-covered water. These 

 Jassids are the most important insect enemies of the rice in Japan, 

 but many other rice insects hav^e been studied and the information 

 gained has been exploited b}^ means of popular circulars. One of 

 these placards or circulars is illustrated in Plate 1. 



ANCIENT METHODS OF INSECT CONTROL. 



Prior to the enormous development of applied entomology in Japan 

 practically on the lines followed in the United States there were 

 undoubtedly certain native methods of controlling insect pests. These 

 for the most pai't were purely hand methods, which were especially 

 applicable on account of the tiny areas under the supervision of indi- 

 vidual cultivators, the rice fields often being only a few j-ards square, 

 and the orchards and gardens covering only very small fractions of an 

 acre, and perhaps rarely two or three acres. Mr, Hagino, secretary 

 of the local agricultural society of Okayama, in the province of Bizen, 

 informed the writer that during winter as a means of eradicating scale 

 insects, principally the Diaspis on the peach and the Leucaspis on 

 pear, he had all of his trees given a thorough scraping with a little 

 oval knife or blade made from bamboo, and washed the trunks and 

 limbs at the same time with salt water of a])out the strength of ocean 

 water. The low pruning of these trees and the growing of most of 

 them on trellises, after the fashion of grapevines, rendered it compara- 

 tively easy to go over the trunk and branches very thoroughly. The 

 work was done by women, who were able to clean about 30 trees a day. 

 With labor as cheap as it is in Japan this system is undoubtedly inex- 

 pensive and fairly efiective. 



In the adjoining province of Bitch u a proprietor of a considerable 

 orchard, Mr. Watanabe, the pioneer of the fruit industry in that region, 

 in his work against insects employs a lot of l>oys to beat his trees 

 (peach and plum) and collect and kill curculios and case-bearers, the 

 latter being picked off by hand. The curculio is jarred to the ground 

 by a quick stroke given to .the trunk of the tree, and is readily 

 detected by the sharp-eyed ])03\s and promptly crushed. By the same 

 hand methods peach curl and blight are removed from trees. 



In northern Japan a primitive method of insect control was wit- 

 nessed in a vineyard. A patriarchal Japanese gentleman, clad in 

 nothing but his loin cloth, the season being in August and very hot, 

 was observed going slowly about underneath the trellises of a vine- 



