ENTOMOLOGY 359 



fallow land is very important, as such fields attract many insects to 

 deposit their eggs, or to hibernate in the undisturbed soil. Burning 

 stubble at the proper time is also of great value in a number of cases. 

 If the standing stubble, or a layer of dry straw, is burned at a time 

 when young locusts are hatched the majority of them will be de- 

 stroyed. Dry and dense masses of dead grass harbor many injurious 

 insects, such as chinch-bugs, and should be burned. By burning the 

 stubble we destroy also injurious insects that hibernate in the culms, 

 such as the frit-fly. 



Ditching. To prevent such insects as young locusts, army- 

 worms, migrating chinch-bugs and others from reaching fields as 

 yet free from them, ditches prove of great value since the insects are 

 gathered there and can be destroyed in immense quantities in various 

 ways. When army-worms migrate they usually move all in the 

 same direction. A ditch of sufficient depth will soon trap large num- 

 bers, and by means of burning straw, kerosene oil, or by dragging a 

 log along the bottom of the ditch the insects can be destroyed. 



Isolating Fields from Insects. This can be done in various 

 ways, depending upon the character of the insects to be kept away. 

 To protect a corn field from chinch-bugs that migrate towards it 

 from fields already devastated, a low fence made of a six-inch board, 

 fastened by pins with its edge upon the ground, and having the ex- 

 pose edge covered with a fluid mixture of oil and tar, will prevent the 

 bugs from crossing. Even a thick rope saturated from time to time 

 with kerosene oil will prevent them from crossing this slight obstruc- 

 tion. The chinch-bugs, crowding together in front of this obstacle, 

 can be killed in various ways, best by making holes in the .ground 

 with augers, and to close these as soon as filled with insects, and then 

 to make others to take their place. 



Inundating Fields. Wherever this can be done farmers have 

 almost complete control over a large number of kinds of noxious 

 insects. 



Mowing Crops Early. This remedy can be applied in a num- 

 ber of cases and with very good effect. By mowing timothy badly 

 infested with the lesser army-worm at a time when these caterpil- 

 lars are still young, their food is destroyed and the great majority 

 starve to death. Insects infesting the flowers of red clover can be 

 combatted in a similar way. Other remedies consist of various de- 

 vices to prevent destructive insects from reaching their food. Sur- 

 rounding stems of young plants with paper or a piece of tin to keep 

 away the cut-worms; tacking a strip of tin or tarred paper around 

 trees to prevent the unwinged females of such moths as the canker- 

 worm from ascending the trees to deposit their eggs, and other similar 

 contrivances belong here. 



Introducing Diseases. This among injurious insects is receiv- 

 ing now a great deal of attention, and many trials have been more 

 or less successful; yet very much remains to be done in this line of 

 experimentation . 



Protecting Beneficial Mammals, Birds and Reptile*. This is 

 one of the best natural remedies we have. It is sad to \vak-h the 



