THE 



VOL. 1. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., SEPTEMBER, 1868. 



NO. 1. 



%^t %mtxuKn (BntamakcjiBi 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 

 R. F. STXJI>X,E-5r Sc CO. 



104 OLIVE STSEET, ST. LOUIS. 



TERMS One dolLir per annum in advance. 



EDITORS : 



BKNJ. D. WALSH Kock Island, lU. 



CHAS. V. IIILEY, 2130 Clark Atc St. Louis, Mo. 



S.4LUTAT0RY. 



To the Agrlcnlturists and Horticulturists of the 

 United States. 

 Few persons are aware of the enormous 

 amount of wealth auuually abstracted from the 

 pocket* of the cultivators of the soil by those 

 iiisiguiflcaut little creatures, which in popular 

 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, the IIcs- 

 sian Fly, the AVheat Midge, or the Joint Worm. 

 It is notorious among fruit growers, tliat the 

 Curculio has now almost entirely vetoed the 

 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 choicer 

 fruits, the nectarine and the apricot. The 

 strawberry and the grape vine are infested by a 

 host of insects, some of them known for many 

 years back to science, other.s described and 

 illustrated for the first time by the editors of 

 this paper in various publications ; while there 

 are still others the natural hi.'story of which has 

 never yet been "imblished to the world, and 

 which will be figured and described by tlie edi- 

 tors in the progress of this work. What with the 

 Bark-louse in the North, the Apple-root Plant- 

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

 where, the apple crop in North America is 

 gradually becoming almost as uncertain and 

 precarious as the plum crop. The White Grub 

 attacks indiscriminately the timotliy in (he 

 imeadows, tJie corn in the plowed field, (he 



L 



}oung fruit trees in the nursery, and the straw- 

 berry beds in the garden ; always lurking insidi- 

 ously under ground, and only making its 

 presence known to the impoverished agricultur- 

 ist by the losses which it has already inflicted 

 upon hira. The Hop Plant-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 Michigan hops. 

 It has now pretty nearly taken possession of 

 Wisconsin; and already the affrighted hopgrow- 

 ersofthe West are fleeing before its face into 

 the remotest districts of Iowa. Almost every 

 sliade tree and fruit tree has one or more pecu- 

 liar Borers, which if 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 five 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 diflerent 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 Minnesota, and the more 

 westerly parts of Missouri and Iowa, the Hate- 

 ful Grasshopper, in particular seasons, swoops 

 down with the western breeze in devouring 

 swarms from the Rocky Mountains, and, like its 

 close ally, the Locust of Scripture and of Mod- 

 ern Europe, devours every green thing from ofl" 

 the fiice of the earth. 



Nor are our Southern brethren any more ex- 

 empt tlian 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 



