STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 98 



THE STRAWBERRY LEAF ROLLER. 



Anchylopera Fragarice, Walsh and Rilei/, 



By Oliver Gibbs, Jr., Lake City, Minnesota. 



* This is an insect which, although not new to entomologists, has 

 recently made its appearance in large numbers in Minnesota, and 

 is now threatening every district in the State where strawberries 

 are extensively grown. After twenty-six years of strawberry cul- 

 tivating, I can say of it that it is the most nearly omnipotent little 

 villian that has come around to vex the business. It makes no 

 difference how large the fields, when it comes in earnest it sweeps 

 them like a fire, and can drive the strongest of us out of the straw- 

 berry market unless we can find some wholesale means for its de- 

 struction. I first discovered its works last summer in a half acre 

 patch on my place in Lake City, at about the time the berries 

 began to set. What first attracted my attention was that some- 

 thing was folding the leaves of the plants, causing them to look 

 dry and shriveled and that the berries were not coming forward to 

 maturity. I then, on closer examiuation of the plants, found the 

 worms in all stages of growth. There being myriads of them at 

 work, I sowed a barrel of salt on the patch as soon as what little 

 fruit they left me was gathered, and then plowed the vines under, 

 but the insects soon after made their appearance on newly set 

 plants in another part of the same field, and although not so num- 

 erous, continued their work without intermission till the first hard 

 frosts in October. 



Prof. Riley says in his first Missouri Entomological Report, that 

 he first heard of the strawberry leaf roller in the summer of 1866, 

 when it did considerable damage at Valparaiso, Indiana, and de- 

 stroyed ten acres of plants, belonging to R. N- Strong of that 

 place, so Completely as not to leave plants enough to set half an 

 acre. In 1868 they entirely destroyed a strawberry patch at 

 Princeton, Illinois, containing several acres ; and Mr. W. E. 

 Lukens, of Sterling, Whiteside county, Illinois, in forwarding 

 specimens to Prof. Riley, said : " Where these insects are thick, 

 I would never think of raising strawberries. It is strange that 1 



