Febbuaby 27, 1919. 



The Florists^ Review 



15 



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s»s THAT JAPANESE BEETLE <^ 



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A BEPLY TO DB. MABLATT. 



The Statement. 



The Japanese beetle, which is a new 

 injection into the subject of plant im- 

 port prohibition, as published in Dr. 

 Marlatt's memorandum on quarantine 

 regulations sent out by the Federal Hor- 

 ticultural Board under date of February 

 1, a copy of which appeared in The Ee- 

 view of February 13, is one with which 

 the trade is not familiar and on which I 

 will herewith note my own observations, 

 compared with the published report as 

 it appeared in The Review, from which 

 I quote: 



"The Japanese beetle," says Dr. Marlatt, 

 "brought in about the same time as the peach 

 moth, has already obtained such firm foothold 

 that in view of its habits and powers of pro- 

 longed flght It is probably incapable of exter- 

 mination and will no doubt ultimately overspread 

 the United States. It attacks not only prac- 

 tically all fruits, but also many garden vege- 

 tables and corn. The amount of damage which 

 it will ultimately cause to American agricul- 

 ture is undoubtedly tremendous. It is worthy 

 of note that this beetle, in the opinion of the ex- 

 perts of this department and of the state of New 

 Jersey who have investigated the matter, was 

 brought In by the Dreer nursery with importa- 

 tions of iris from Japan. The insect first ap- 

 peared in the heart of the Dreer nurseries and 

 has spread from this center over an area approx- 

 imately of 25,000 acres, involving four town- 

 ships in New Jersey opposite Philadelphia." 



The following covers my own observa- 

 tions of this supposed Japanese introduc- 

 tion since its discovery: 



The Nursery Becord. 



In the first place, I want to make it 

 perfectly clear that this pest did not 

 make its appearance "in the heart of 

 tlie Dreer nursery." In fact, not a sin- 

 gle specimen has ever been found in the 

 Dreer nursery. It was first found at our 

 Locust Farm, a branch nursery located 

 fully two and one-half miles from the 

 Dreer nursery or the heart of same. It 

 was even not found in the heart of this 

 branch nursery, but in one corner of it. 



Only a very few specimens of the bee- 

 tle were first found. This was late in 

 August, 1916, on some shrubs which 

 were growing in ground near to which 

 in 1911 Japanese iris were growing 

 which had been imported from Japan. 

 The finding of these beetles was inci- 

 <lental to one of the regular summer in- 

 spections of our nursery stock made by 

 the New Jersey inspector. The beetle, 

 not being known to the inspector, was 

 submitted to the National Museum at 

 Washington, where it was identified as 

 the Japanese beetle (Popilia japonica). 



The following July, 1917, I personally 

 accompanied the New Jersey inspector 

 to Locust Farm to make a further search 

 for this bug and at this time we found a 

 scattering few in the same locality on 

 flowering shrubs, but more particularly 

 on the edge of the field on smartweed, 

 which it prefers to all other food. 



Originally from a Neglected Field. 



A representative from the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture appeared a 

 week or ten days later, and with him I 

 went over the ground again and it was 

 not difficult at that time to find quite a 

 number of the beetles. 



The question was naturally asked: 

 "Did you at any time plant any Japan- 



ese stock in this nursery?" As a result, 

 our records were looked up and I found 

 that near this spot where the first bugs 

 were located an importation of Japanese 

 iris was planted in 1911. On this is 

 based the department's inference that 

 the bug was imported with Japanese iris 

 by Dreer. 



It was probably two or three weeks 

 after this that a representative of the 

 Department of Agriculture was perma- 

 nently placed on the ground to study the 

 pest. In the meantime, we had not been 

 idle in using arsenical poisons in the 

 affected part and finally we put a num- 

 ber of men to work to hand-pick the 

 beetle. In making these hand-pickings, 

 these men worked across the boundary 

 into a 15-acre, much-neglected field, at 

 that time belonging to a Mr. Abbott, 

 where much smartweed was growing 

 and where many thousands of the bee- 

 tles were then at work. 



This field of fifteen acres adjoining 

 Locust Farm is the only land between 



The Editor is pleased when 

 a Reader presents his ideas 

 on any subject treated in 



As experience is the best 

 teacher, %o do we learn 

 fastest by an exchange of 

 experiences. Many valuable 

 points are brought out by 

 discussion. 



Oood penmanship, spelling and 

 Krammar, though desirable, are not 

 necessary. Write as you would talk 

 when doing your best. 



WE SHALL BE GLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM YOU 



the nursery and the old, and for many 

 years abandoned. Parry nursery and my 

 own conviction is that the pest was in 

 this place long before it was at Locust 

 Farm and that its discovery was only 

 incidental to the regular inspection of 

 our nursery stock. 



Flights Are Not Long. 



It was natural for me to be on the 

 lookout for the pest and I well recall 

 the same year, 1917, late in August or 

 early in September, noticing a few old 

 althaea bushes in flower at an entrance 

 of the old abandoned Parry nursery, 

 which I, with three of my associates, 

 examined, and found quite an infesta- 

 tion. This entrance to the Parry nurs- 

 ery is fully three-quarters of a mile 

 from the corner of Locust Farm where 

 the first bugs were discovered. 



The department states that on account 

 of its powers of prolonged flight, the 

 beetle is probably impossible to exter- 



minate, and will no doubt ultimately 

 overspread the United States. The flight 

 of the pest is not of exceptional 

 strength; 200 yards is the longest rec- 

 ord. When disturbed in any manner, 

 it does not always fly away, but gener- 

 ally drops to the ground and "plays 

 'possum. ' ' 



On plowed ground that showed a 

 strong infestation of the grub in the fall 

 of 1917, all had disappeared by the 

 spring of 1918. The grubs that hiber- 

 nated successfully were in protected 

 places, such as neglected hedgerows. 

 • From observation of the work done 

 during the last season in the fighting of 

 this pest, I am convinced that its ex- 

 termination is simply a matter of proper 

 equipment to carry on the fight sys- 

 tematically and at the proper time. 

 Many beetles emerged during the last 

 season which would have been destroyed 

 in the soil if it could have been treated 

 at the proper time. 



The Japanese government in the prov- 

 ince of Tokyo, Japan, an area about one- 

 third as large as the state of New Jer- 

 sey, where this beetle appeared in large 

 numbers, succeeded in securing perfect 

 control of same. Why should our en- 

 tomologists despair of accomplishing the 

 same results? 



Department Exaggerates Danger. 



The department's report states that 

 the pest has spread over an approximate 

 area of 25,000 acres, while it actually 

 has only been found in an area not ex- 

 ceeding 10,000 acres and 5,000 acres is 

 all that is known as an infested breed- 

 ing area. 



The .10,000 acres show the very ex- 

 treme points at which single insects were 

 found, as, for instance, one beetle in 

 the garden of our secretary, J. O. 

 Thilow, at Fourth and Elm avenue. 

 Palmyra, N. J. Mr. Thilow found this 

 one insect in his garden and turned it 

 over to me with a report of its finding. 

 I promptly turned this over to the de- 

 partment's representatives, as I used 

 every means at my disposal to cooperate 

 with them. 



I would state that Mr. Thilow 's gar- 

 den is by road at least two and one-half 

 miles or in an air-line one and one-half 

 miles from any infested area, and that 

 the intervening unaffected space is 

 counted in on the previously mentioned 

 10,000 acres. 



I might also add that while the pest 

 will feed on many different kinds of 

 vegetation upon which it may land, its 

 preference is first smartweed, with flow- 

 ers next. It does not feed on iris and I 

 believe the economic damage which it 

 has done so far will amount to less 

 than $5. J. D. Eisele. 



Bichmond, Ind.— " What is the matter 

 with Eose Premier?" E. G. Hill replied 

 thus to an inquiry regarding the next 

 surprise to be sprung upon the trade. 

 "There is nothing but the highest praise 

 for Premier, Mr. Hill," his interlocutor 

 answered, "but it is believed you will 

 not rest with this as the climax." 

 "Wait and see," Mr. Hill responded. 



