52 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MY FIGHT WITH THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



MRS. S. IRWIN, VINECROFT, EXCELSIOR, MINN. 



Had I chosen the subject of my paper, I should certainly not have 

 called the infinitesimal creatures with whom I am expected to deal 

 chiefly by a name of three syllables, but titled the smallest b)' one 

 of as many letters — bug — and the largest by one of four letters — 

 worm — for I have vainly tried to find some person who could boldly 

 classify and properly name the little insect that has caused so much 

 damage to our grapes in Minnesota. All style it simply "aphis." Well 

 what is '-aphis"? I turn to my little dictionary and read "a vine 

 fretter," or "plant louse." Well, it certainly is the first, for it fretted 

 all the leaves off my Delawares last season. "Plant louse" I find is 

 a wingless, sucking insect. That definition does not fit my "vine 

 fretter," for it has wings, or something that answers the same pur- 

 pose, something that enables it to pass rapidly from one row to 

 another, and I have not yet determined how it gets all the life out 

 of millions of leaves, leaving only the main fibers and stems to 

 fall at their leisure. 



But I believe I was to give my experience, and, being a thorough 

 Methodist and used to doing so, I can really handle my subject 

 better in that way. I suppose the bugs were with us a long time 

 before we noticed them in particular. So we went on through last 

 season, dealing out Bordeaux inixture, though we did this on the 

 home(Ppathic plan, as the entire summer was so dry that the earli- 

 est doses fell off with the leaves. It was not until about three weeks 

 before gathering time that we began to notice an unusual noise 

 among the vines on approach and see numberless little flies flee 

 before us. At first, we thought no especial harm could come to the 

 vines so late in the season, but when the increase became so rapidly 

 immense, and the leaves began to take on the somber hues of the 

 frost king, we began to think fast and hard and talk, too, for that 

 matter, enquiring of everybody we thought likely to know anything 

 about it for a reiuedy and impressing upon ever}^ grape grower we 

 met, the importance of making enquiry about them when among 

 people from other sections of the country. No one except ourselves 

 seemed to care much about the subject, and we almost concluded 

 that we were fussing unnecessarily (you know w;omen always do 

 that), and we learned nothing. Our grapes hung and hung out in 

 the blazing Septetuber sun upon branches browned and nearly 

 bared, while the bugs played an incessant victorious march upon 

 the dried leaves, and, at last, because the frost kindly held off, and 

 there was really nothing else to do, they ripened and the harvesters 

 began their work, a silent, solemn crew, learning of necessity the 

 lesson so hard for us all to remember, viz: — that there are times and 

 places when we would fare better if we keep our mouths shut My 

 grapes for some reason were not lly-specked as were many of my 

 neighbors; I suppose because the leaves were not destroyed quite 

 so rapidly. Just as we had finished our harvest, the long desired 

 rain began to fall, and we buried our grapes in the inud. 



Almost with the first appearance of leaves this spring came indi- 

 cations of bugs — very small indications, to be sure. Our glass did 



