GRAPEVINE ROOT WORM 35 



wheels are from a toy cart and the handles and frame are home- 

 made. The method of operation is simply to wheel the machine 

 between the rows, and then, elevating the handles, to slip the 

 farther side under the wire, and the trunk of the vine entering 

 the slit permits the placing of the machine directly under the 

 vine. It then remains for the operator to jar the insects off. Mr 

 Barden found that it required several shakings to dislodge all 

 the beetles. In one case he succeeded in catching 64 by jarring 

 a vine once. It was found advantageous to have three machines 

 operating together and placed simultaneously under adjacent 

 vines. This arrangement facilitated the work very greatly and 

 reduced to a minimum the beetles jarred from vines before a ma- 

 chine could be placed under them. 



This method appealed so strongly to Mr Hough, who by the 

 way is a very practical business man, that he used it daily for 

 a time on certain badly infested vines, and found that, in the 

 case of the third jarring, he did not get over three or four 

 beetles to a vine, whereas at the first operation 40 to 50 were 

 secured and 15 or 20 at the second jarring. An examination 

 in this vineyard July 24 showed that the beetles were not nearly 

 so abundant as two weeks before, largely due to four collectings 

 in two weeks. The Hough beetle catcher was further tested in 

 1903, with the result that 1343 beetles were taken June 26 from 

 approximately 110 vines, or an average of over 12 to a vine. The 

 principal difficulty with this device is the relatively large amount 

 of time consumed in placing it under a vine and making the 

 necessary jarrings. 



Collecting beetles, if rapidly done, appeared to be a feasible 

 method of checking this pest and our plans contemplated a rigid 

 test of its possibilities in 1903. Mr F. A. Morehouse of Ripley 

 designed an improved form of catcher, the essential idea of which 

 is continual motion and jarring. We arranged to have one built 

 and thoroughly tested, believing the situation justified the experi- 

 ment, and the results have been most gratifying. This 

 machine, illustrated on plates 10, 11, 12, is essentially a 

 pair of troughs on wheels and is drawn through the Vine- 

 yard astride the row. The troughs are connected over the vine 

 by bracing arms and wires (placed high enough to clear all 

 posts) and are hung by ^ inch iron rods, which permit the side 



