THE 



CIjc l^medtaix ^niomobgist 



•PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 



R. F. STXJX)LE-5r <Sc CO., 



104 OLIVE STHEET. ST. LOtJlS. 



EDITORS : 



BENJ. D. WALSH Eock Isliiiid, III. 



CILVS. V. RILEY, 2130 Clark Ave St Louis, Mo. 



SALUTATORY. 



To the Agriculturists and Horticulturists of the 

 United States. 

 Few persons are aware of the enonnous 

 amount of wealth aiumally abstracted from the 

 pockets of the cultivatoi's of the soil by tiiosc 

 iiisiguificaut little creatures, which in i)opular 

 parlance are called " bugs," but which the scien- 

 tific world chooses to denominate " insects." 

 Scarcely a year elapses in which the wheat crop 

 of several States of the Union is not more or less 

 completely ruined by the Chinch-bug, tlie Hes- 

 sian Fly, the "Wheat Midge, or the Joint Worm. 

 It is notorious among fruit growers, that tlie 

 Curcnlio has now almost cntii-ely vetoed tlie 

 cultivation of the plum ; and of late years this 

 pernicious little Snout-beetle has extended its 

 ravages to the peach, and even to the apple and 

 pear, to say nothing of those rarer and clioicer 

 fruits, the nectarine and the apricot. The 

 strawberry and the grape vine are infested by a 

 liost of insects, some of them known for many 

 years back to science, others described and 



/ illustrated for the iirst time by the editors of 



'^ this paper in various publications ; while there 



ire still others the natural history of which has 



never yet been published to the world, and 



— which will be figured and described by tlic edi- 



-■*|( tors in the progress of this work. What with the 

 \ 3ark-louse in the North, the Apple-root Plant- 

 l louse in the South, and the Apple-worm every- 

 M where, the apple crop in North America is 

 if gradually becoming almost as uncertain and 



^f precarious as the plum crop. The White Grub 

 attacks indiscriminately the timothy in the 

 meadows, the corn in the plowed field, (lie 



young fruit trees in the nursery, and the straw- 

 berry beds in the garden ; always lurking insidi- 

 I ously under ground, and only making its 

 I presence known to the impoverished agricultur- 

 j ist by the losses which it has already inflicted 

 I upon him. The Hop Plaut-louse— a recent im- 

 portation from Europe— has for the last three 

 or four years diminished the value of the hop 

 crop of New York by at least one-half. In 1867 

 it almost entirely ruined the ]\Iichigan hops. 

 It has now pretty nearly taken possession of 

 Wisconsin; and already the affrighted hopgrow- 

 ers of the West are fleeing before its face into 

 the remotest districts of Iowa. Almost every 

 shade tree and fruit tree has one or more pecu- 

 liar Borers, whichif unchecked and uncontrolled 

 by man, will often girdle, and eventually kill it; 

 and even our squash and pumpkin vines are, 

 especially in the Eastern States, infested by a 

 distinct Borer, which perforates one of the main 

 stems near the root, and finally destroys it. 

 Under the popular name of "Potato-bug" at 

 least tive distinct insects are confounded to- 

 gether, each grievously destructive to the 

 foliage of the potato, each confined at present 

 within certain geographical limits, each with 

 distinct habits and modes of propagation, and 

 each to be fought and controlled by different and 

 entirely distinct methods. Turn them which 

 way they will, the agriculturists and horticul- 

 turists of the Northern States are met by Plant- 

 lice, Bark-lice, May-bugs, Rose-bugs, Weevils, 

 Cutworms, Caterpillars, Palmer-worms, Cank- 

 er-worms, Slug-worms, and Leaf-rollers; and at 

 periodic intervals the Army-worm marches over 

 their fields like a destroying pestilence; while in 

 Kansas, Nebraska, and Itfinnesota, and the more 

 westerly parts of Missouri and Iowa, tlie Hate- 

 ful Grasshopper, in particular seasons, swoops 

 down with the western breeze in devom-ing 

 swarms from the Rocky Mountains, and, like its 

 close ally, the Locust of Scripture and of Mod- 

 ern Europe, devours every green thing from off 

 the face of the earth. 



Nor are our Southern brethren any more ex- 

 empt than we are from the depredations of these 

 tiny foes. Not to weary the reader with endless 

 details, it is notorious that the cotton crop is 



