ENTOMOLOGY. 267 



flood the market every year, all claiming either greater earliness, product- 

 iveness or finer flavor. If they keep on in the future as they have in the 

 past, names for them will be almost exhausted. We have now over eight 

 hundred varieties by name, that I know of, but in a few seasons they be- 

 come almost unknown, and their place taken by other varieties for which 

 greater merit is claimed. In 1872 1 planted the first bushel of the Early 

 Eose in this county, unknown to me except by the description of the in- 

 troducer, but to-day every cultivator of potatoes is familiar with the Early 

 Rose. After more than twenty years they are still very popular. They 

 have lost some in productiveness but in quality are extra fine. With all 

 the improvements in name we have no better early varieties to-day than 

 the Puritan, Early Minnesota, Lee's Favorite, Early Rose, Beauty of 

 Hebron, Sunlit Star, and Early Vermont; of intermediate and late, Rural 

 New Yorker No. 2 (new), Green Mountain, O. K. Mammoth, Magnum 

 Bonum, and Rural Blush. The above varieties are among the best kinds. 

 They are hardy and robust growers, wonderfully productive, and in qual- 

 ity-will be hard to beat. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



A NEW PEST TO FRUIT TREES. 



BY PROF. OTTO LUGGER, ST. ANTHONY PARK. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



Though expected to make some remarks in regard to insects injurious 

 to the vegetable garden, I have prepared another paper treating of a new 

 pest to our fruit trees and to a number of vegetables as well. After con- 

 sulting with your secretary, we both reached the conclusion that it would 

 be best to describe as soon as possible this new pest, so as to enable horti- 

 culturists and gardeners to be upon their guard, and, if possible, to pre- 

 vent its introduction into regions as yet not reached. 



The new pest — new in the sense that it has not been found before in 

 Minnesota — is not an insect, nor even allied to insects, butisatrue nema- 

 tode worm, the Heterodera radicicola Midler. Some of its stages of life are 

 illustrated upon the canvass before you. The worm itself {Fig. 1) occu- 

 pies — for lack of space — a rather cramped position, resembling a genuine 

 German pretzel with a handle. Extended, it would, if drawn in the same 

 proportions, be much longer than the whole canvass. No doubt many, if 

 not most of you, have seen closely allied animals. At a time when vine- 

 gar was made solely of apples or other fruit, and not from various myste- 

 rious sources not supplied by horticulturist or gardener, vinegar-eels could 

 be detected, even with the unaided eye, in most of the home-made vin- 

 egar. The so-called "vinegar mother"' was largely composed of such ani- 

 mals and their remains. In fact, these vinegar-eels were the manufac- 

 turers of the vinegar, and they perished as soon as the product of their 

 united labor became exhausted of food suitable for their needs. It is, of 

 course, an open question, and one rather difficult to settle, as tastes differ 

 so greatly, which is the most appetizing vinegar, the one made by thou- 

 sands and thousands of little worms, or the one made from all sorts of 

 refuse materials. 



