422 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



growth and give the trees a sickly appearance, and they did not re- 

 cover their greenness during the season. 



A. species of the grasshopper, or locust, became very numerous in 

 some localities toward fall, doing considerable injury to the pas- 

 tures and injuring nursery and orchard trees to some extent by de- 

 vouring the foliage and eating the immature bark. I expect a 

 method we practiced one season in Ohio would have been a good 

 remedy in the nurserj^; that was to drive them out two or three times 

 a day with a long rope and a boy at each end sweeping it along the 

 tops. A drove of turkeys will soon clear a nursery of them. In mj^ 

 young orchard I drive them out of the trees and then wash the 

 trunks and main branches Avith liine whiteAvash, in \vhich is dis- 

 solved a pound of copperas and a little carbolic acid to each bucket- 

 ful. As the most of them climb the trees the remedy seemed to help 

 considerably toward keeping them off. 



Toward fall the European ^cabbage worms were more numerous 

 than they had been for several years previous. We account for this 

 from the severity of last winter. While no amount of cold will de- 

 stroy the chrysolides of this insect, they have a natural enemy in 

 the ichneumon flies, that some seasons keep them well under sub- 

 jection; but in sotne of our most severe winters this little parasite 

 has its numbers greatly reduced. Wasps also and some other in- 

 sect that were scarce during the season, prey upon the larvae and 

 afford considerable protection. 



Early in the inonth of June an insect known to entomologists as 

 the false chinch bug (Nystus Augusta tus (Uhler) made its appearance 

 in great numbers and committed serious depredations upon the 

 strawberry plantations in the southeastern part of the state and in 

 La Crosse county, Wisconsin. The attack was made at a critical 

 period, just after the young fruit had set and needed the full ener- 

 gies of the plant for developing it. This little insect is a true bug^ 

 and like others of its kind, feeds by suction and injures the plant by 

 depriving the same of its juices and causing it to wilt. They are 

 very general feeders and often injurious to young buds, radishes, 

 turnips, etc., and we have seen them on grapes and raspberry plants; 

 in fact, one season we attributed the loss of our raspberrj'^ crop to 

 them. Last season their worst ravages were upon the strawberry 

 plants. ' During the hot, dry days that occurred between June first 

 and fifteenth, they could be found crowded upon the stems of the 

 plants sucking the juices, causing the plants to wilt and the fruit to 

 shrivel; and a great number of the plants finally died outright. 

 Like the true chinch bug, dry weather is most favorable for their 

 development, and in a wet season they are not generally nuinerous 

 enough to do much damage. As with the true chinch bug, one of 

 the best preventatives is clean cultivation. Prof. Keely, entomolo- 

 gist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, saj's that it winters un- 

 der. all sorts of field rubbish, and the careful burning of old weeds 

 and trash will undoubtedl}'^ lessen its numbers. He recommends the 

 use of pyrethrum powders and kerosene emulsion as among the 

 most practical reinedies. 



