INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1903. 25 



A correspondent of Dr. Fletcher's, in speaking of the use of the 

 Criddle Mixture, says: "In this section all used poison, and only a few 

 acres of crop were destroyed. I am convinced that, had we begun the 

 fight earlier, hardly a bushel of grain would have been lost. It is no 

 exaggeration to say that dead locusts could be gathered up in wagon 

 loads, and at times be smelt for half a mile." The same writer states, 

 further, that two men "with horse and rig, kept the locusts from about 

 600 acres during the entire season." Another correspondent wrote as 

 follows: "For a space of 50 yards from the edge of this crop (wheat), 

 where the remedy had been only once applied two weeks before, the 

 ground was literally strewn with dead grasshoppers, and all along the 

 edge of the headland, where they had gathered during the wet weather, 

 the dead insects were lying in such numbers as to resemble a winrow; 

 on one spot 117 were counted in 18 inches square." 



The Minnesota Entomologist has not had, of course, an opportunity, 

 since learning of this mixture, to test it here, but there is no question 

 but that, if it is so successful in Manitoba, it would be equally successful 

 here. It certainly is less expensive, and, according to Dr. Fletcher, 

 much more effective, than hopper-dozers, the use of which has been 

 practically abandoned in that section. 



This question probably occufs to the careful farmer: "Will not 

 turkeys and chickens, wandering about the fields, be poisoned by such 

 bait?" 



It has already been definitely settled that it is extremely difficult to 

 poison poultry with arsenic. To bring the matter nearer home to the 

 Minnesota farmer, this department of the station has recently made a 

 most severe test, using a full-grown turkey and full-grown and two- 

 thirds grown chickens with most satisfactory results. The conditions 

 were much more severe in this test — which was with confined fowls, 

 lasting over two weeks, and using meal into which some grain was intro- 

 duced, instead of horse manure — than could possibly exist in the use of 

 the Criddle Mixture, the fowls being obliged to pick their food from 

 this poisoned mess or go without. I do not hesitate to say, then, that 

 the Criddle Mixture is perfectly safe in this connection as far as full- 

 grown fowls are concerned. While we have not, as yet, had an oppor- 

 tunity of determining whether or not greedy young turkeys and chickens 

 would succumb, it is fair to conclude that the use of the Criddle Mix- 

 ture is also perfectly safe with them, for it must be borne in mind that 

 it is simply the particles of undigested grain which fowls seek in horse 

 droppings, and it must be further remembered that in the majority of 

 cases this mixture would be used in the fields far from the house, and 

 consequently not in situations frequented by young chicks. In response 

 to my question, "How about turkeys and chickens eating the dead grass- 

 hoppers?" Dr. Fletcher replied that either these were not eaten, or, if 

 they were, no ill effect followed, because no complaint of this kind had 

 been made. I have no hesitation, therefore, in recommending this 

 method to Minnesota farmers. 



