RECENT INVENTIONS FOR INSECT DESTRUCTION. 



By Daniel Breed, Washington, D. C. 



There are few crops cultivated in any part of the country that are 

 not at some period of their growth liable to injury from some form 

 of insect life. Some of our agricultural districts have, within a few 

 years past, been signally visited, and in some sections extensive crops 

 have been wholly destroyed. Kansas, Colorado, and adjoining States 

 have suffered severely, even to such an extent as to call for legislative 

 action both from the State and General Governments. 



Many of the older States have, in view of the gradual encroachment 

 of predatory insects, by legislative enactments endeavored to check 

 the evil by making it a penal offense to destroy insectiverous birds, and 

 there is little doubt that such laws have resulted in much benefit, 

 especially to cultivators of fruit. 



Some crops appear to be more exposed to the depredations of insects 

 than others, the protection of which has called into action the inventive 

 genius of man, and patent rights have been sought for the construction 

 and use of machines and instrumentalities designed for that purpose. 



Among the most exposed may be named the cotton, potato, wheat, and 

 other small grain and grass crops. A machine or device that will afford 

 protection to one class of plants may not to another. For example, the 

 cotton-plant is preyed upon by the army-worm, larva of a night-flying 

 moth, {Leucania unipuncta^) and the cotton-worm, larva of an olive-brown 

 moth called Aletia argyllacea. From the well- 

 known nocturnal habits of these moths, and the 

 certainty of their being destroyed by a light, a 

 cheap and effective mode of destroying them, 

 shown in the annexed figure, has been adopted. 

 It consists of a pan of viscid matter placed upon 

 a stake, which is set in the field of cotton at 

 suitable distances. A block of wood is placed 

 in the center of the pan, upon which is placed 

 a lighted glass lantern. The moths, being 

 attracted by the light, dash against it and fall 

 into the pan, and are thus destroyed before 

 depositing their eggs upon the tender leaves of 

 the growing plant. 



The army-worm is arrested in its migrations 

 by plowing a deep furrow around the field, and 

 making it smooth by drawing a smooth log of 

 wood along the furrow. The worms fall into 

 this, and are unable to ascend the steep sides. 

 A safe and novel method for killing the worms 

 has recently been invented. It is shown 'in 

 Figure 2. It consists of a sheet-iron furnace, having the form of a half 



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Fiff. 1. 



