CHAPTER III. 



GENERAL FARM METHODS AGAINST INSECT PESTS. 



In" the following pages artificial means of combating 

 insect pests, such as spraying with insecticides, are not 

 as often the remedies or preventives given as those which 

 consist of some method of general farm practice. That 

 such should be the case is but natural, for the staple crops, 

 being cultivated in large areas, can hardly be treated witli 

 sprays or mechanical devices, in many instances, with any 

 degree of profit. The best methods to employ against 

 most of the insects affecting the staj^le crops are what 

 might be termed cultural methods, consisting of some 

 mode of culture or handling the crop which fatally inter- 

 feres with the development of a given insect pest. Such 

 treatment is far less simple in many instances, however, 

 than the use of a spray-pump or powder-gun. In the 

 latter case the farmer merely waits until he observes a crop 

 being injured and then with a liberal application of poison 

 destroys his insect enemies; but in using the former 

 method he must have a more or less accurate knowledge 

 of the life-history of the insect which he wishes to combat. 

 It will also be necessary for him to observe or ascertain 

 the usual dates of the transformations of various insects 

 for his particular locality, as they vary considerablv for 

 different latitudes and altitudes, and to make due allow- 



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