38 LEAFHOPPERS AFFECTING CEREALS, ETO. 
SPRAYING. 
Since the perfection of spraying apparatus, it is possible to apply 
broadcast sprays of insecticides over any pasture lands or meadows, 
or even cultivated fields, where the crop is not so far advanced as to 
prevent access to the surface of the land. Such treatment, so far 
as the mechanical features are concerned, would be entirely prac-_ 
ticable. At the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station 
such a broadcast sprayer is used for treatment of the fields to kill 
weeds and, using a kerosene mixture or emulsion, it would seem that 
very effective results on the leafhoppers could be secured. 
SOME PREVIOUS RECORDS OF INJURY. 
While actual records of appreciable damage are not abundant, 
there are a number which clearly show the possibility of destructive 
abundance and it may help to emphasize this to present a few such 
records. Most of these are in publications not now commonly 
accessible to most farmers, while some of them will probably appear 
new, even to professional entomologists. 
One of the earliest records of this kind is for Illinois, 1875. Per- 
haps the most definite and fully reported is given in Prof. Comstock’s 
report as Entomologist in 1879, which is given in full under Cicadula 
exitiosa. Another, from Orangeburg, S. C., November 20, 1893, 
reads as follows:! 
I send you to-day by mail sample of flies or insects which are infesting the small 
grainfields in this part of the country * * * 14mileseastofC.H. * * * and 
in some instances completely destroys the oats and rye. These insects appear in great 
numbers and when the oats and rye are just up they completely destroy it. After it 
gets a good root and begins to spread out they do not kill it out so bad but keep it from 
growing and it looks sickly and small. What is the name of the insect and how can 
we get rid of it? Under the glass it looks like a locust—can fly and hop. In young 
rye planted for grazing they are now in great numbers—millions—notwithstanding 
we have had several good frosts. I have been in several counties lately and I see 
them everywhere, but not so numerous as on my place. In some places they have 
destroyed the young turnips. * * * 
A particular instance that came under the observation of the 
writer and was reported in Insect Life, Volume IV, page 197, 1891, 
occurred in the city of Washington on a newly planted lawn on the 
grounds of Prof. C. V. Riley, then the Entomologist of the depart- 
ment. In this case the effect showed very plainly in shrunken, 
withered plants in spite of abundant watering. 
The bureau records include a number of more or less detailed 
reports for the country, usually without definite determination of 
the species causing the injury. 
1 See Insect Life, vol. 6, p. 267, 1894, 
