12 INJURIOUS INSECTS OF KANSAS. 



frequently used, actually cost far more in wasted time and materials 

 than would pay for the best special instruments; added to which, when 

 the work is done, it is neither satisfactory nor effective. 



Some objection has been made to the use of arsenical poisons 

 on fruit-trees, but repeated experiments by careful men have con- 

 clusively proved the absence of sound basis for this objection. 

 Arsenic is not absorbed by fruits or plants, and as the applications 

 are made while the fruit is very small, giving opportunity for the 

 minute quantity of poison to be washed off by rains and blown 

 off by winds, no danger is incurred. 



PREVENTION. 



As elsewhere, an "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 

 cure" in fighting insects. Preventive remedies are the surest, 

 cheapest, and, at present, least used of all remedial measures. It 

 seems wasteful to fight bugs when there are apparently no bugs 

 to fight. High cultivation is the most general preventive remedy. 

 A weak plant inevitably succumbs to the attacks of insects sooner 

 than a strong plant. The many natural enemies of the various 

 insect pests will often prove effective in saving the crop, if the 

 crop can maintain itself against the invaders long enough for the 

 massing of these enemies against the destructive insect species. 

 The time that a crop can maintain itself in the face of insect at- 

 tack certainly varies with the condition of the crop at the time of 

 the attack. A well-fed, healthy crop will stand more than a 

 starved one. 



Cleanliness of the farm, garden or orchard is an important pre- 

 ventive remedy. Many noxious insects hibernate, as adults, in 

 brush heaps and rubbish of various kinds. This is especially true 

 of the Hemiptera, the sucking bugs. Early or late seeding and 

 crop rotation are evidently preventive remedies, and, where ap- 

 plicable, usually the most effective of any remedies available. 



Covering the trunks of fruit trees with an alkaline or poison- 

 ous wash, to prevent the attacks of borers ; coating young apples 

 with arsenic, to prevent the young Codlin Moth larvae from get- 

 ting into the fruit ; mechanical contrivances to prevent the lay- 

 ing of eggs on the food-plant, or the access of the insect in its 

 destructive stage, such as covering plants with screens and encir- 

 cling tree trunks with barriers, to prevent the ascent of foliage- 

 eaters, are preventive remedies of a "deterrent" (Fletcher) nature. 



