CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 2I/ 



ing sections of the United States. The loss caused by it amounts 

 to hundreds of millions of dollars. 



It is a harmless-looking little bug, about one fifth of an inch 

 long, with a black body and white wings. It winters under clumps 

 of grass and rubbish or in cornstalks. In spring it comes forth 

 and the female lays about one hundred and fifty eggs, which hatch 

 in two or three weeks into reddish little bugs. These feed on the 

 grain plants, and are full-grown just about harvest time. When 

 wheat is cut, they go to oats, and after oat harvest they go to the 

 cornfields. 



The period of their migration is the only time that man can attack 

 them with any degree of success. Though they have wings, they 

 travel on foot. If a ditch or deep furrow with steep sides of pulver- 

 ized earth be put around the fields, they 

 fall in, and can be crushed, or killed with 

 kerosene spray. A strip of coal tar an 

 inch or two wide will also catch and de- 

 stroy them. 



San Jose Scale. One of the most de- 

 structive insects in orchards is the San Jose 

 (ho sa') scale. It is so small that it is in- 

 visible to the naked eye, the mature insect 

 , . , . SAN TOSE SCALE 



being only one thirty-second of an inch 



, . T7 . A , e , ... Apple twig with scales on it, 



in length. Yet, if. unchecked, they kill slightly reduced 



shade and fruit trees, often destroying 



whole orchards. They were introduced into California about 1870, 

 and thence have spread to nearly every state in the Union. They 

 are so deadly and so easily spread, that the greatest precaution 

 should be taken against them. The laws of many states forbid 

 the selling of infested trees and require treatment of infested 

 orchards, 



