STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 459 



ENTOMOLOGY IN ILLINOIS. 



Bji a M. Werd, Champaign, III 



I may be permitted to mention one ov two of the practical re- 

 sults of investigations concerning economic entomology in Illi- 

 nois. The farmers of the state had for some years been troubled 

 by a worm that ate the roots of young corn, annually destroying 

 great quantities and entailing a serious loss of time and labor. 

 No successful remedy wjis known. The life'history of the pest 

 was studied by several of the leading entomologists of the state 

 and it was discovered that the insect wjis the young or larvse of 

 a common green beetle {Diahratica longicarnis, Say). It was also 

 found that these beetles deposited their eggs in the soil of corn- 

 fields in autumn, so that the following spring when the young 

 larviB hatch they are ready to attack the growing corn. From 

 this it was an easy step to the suggestion that by an intelligent 

 system of crop rotation, such jis that of following corn with oats, 

 the young worms would not have suitable food at hand, and be- 

 ing unable to escape from the environments of their birth must 

 of necessity perish. Thus there was provided a simple, prac- 

 tical and inexpensive means of escaping from the ravages of a 

 pest that had threatened to put a stop to the production of the 

 chief cereal grown here; and to-day this idea has entered into 

 the scheme of agricultural practice in the most successful farm- 

 ing communities of the state. 



Another instance is also in point here. As doubtless all who 

 listen to this paper are aware, the production of strawberries is 

 one of the chief pursuits of the horticulturists of Southern Illi- 

 nois. The business had been so long continued that a few years 

 ago insects of various kinds had increased to such an extent 

 as to seriously interfere with the successful production of fruit. 

 The state entomologist was appealed to, and the whole subject 

 was exhaustively studied a few years ago by Prof. Forbes and 

 his assistants, the result being an elaborate paper upon the in- 

 sects affecting the strawberry, which was read at the meeting of 

 the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society in 1883, being pub. 

 lished in the transactions of the society for that year and also 

 appearing in the thirteenth report of the state entomologist of 

 Illinois. It was there recommended that to prevent the undue 

 increase of injurious insects the old strawberry plantations be 

 plowed up at such times as would kill the young of the worst of 

 the pests by starvation, and that the plantations be frequently 



