•322 BOAKD OF AGKICULTUKE. [Pub. Doc. 



SOME INSECTS INJURING MAEKET-GARDEN CROPS. 



BY DR. H. T. FEKNALD, PROFESSOR OF ENTOMOLOGY, MASSACHUSETTS 

 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



Market gardening in Massachusetts is an important indus- 

 try. Created by the growth of cities, it must increase as 

 they do, in order to supply their inhabitants with the vege- 

 table necessities of life. The successful market gardener is 

 but a short distance from his market, and, in consequence, 

 one of the first indications of nearness to the city a traveller 

 sees on approaching it is a marked increase in the amount 

 of cultivated land and of green-houses. In fact, the market 

 gardens supplying a city surround it in a broad and often 

 almost continuous belt. 



The continuous acreage of crops thus produced is directly 

 favorable to the rapid increase of those insects which attack 

 the dilferent kinds of market garden crops, and, as this in- 

 dustry grows larger, we must expect an increased amount 

 of injury from insect pests. Some of the more common of 

 these and the most successful methods for preventing loss 

 by them are here considered. 



The Asparagus Beetle {Crioceris asparagiljmn.). 



This too familiar insect was introduced into New York 

 from Europe about 1856, and is now generally distributed 

 over the eastern United States. It passes the winter as an 

 adult beetle, hiding in any protected place. In the spring, 

 about the time the asparagus begins to appear above ground, 

 the beetles leave their hiding-places and lay their eggs on the 

 young shoots of the plant. The eggs are quite large, brown 

 in color, and attached by one end to the plant. They are 

 laid separately, but often quite close together in rows, and 

 when abundant are very noticeable on the asparagus tops. 

 They hatch in from three to eight days, producing little gray 



