85 



fested areas with Paris green, the insect could be prevented from 

 spreading to them. 



Rotation of crops should always be practiced, as well as the burning 

 over of fields in the fall when the crops have become too badly injured 

 for recovery. It is even advisable to burn over crops and to plow 

 up fields just as soon as permanent loss is assured, and thus prevent 

 infestation of neighboring crops. 



Above all other precautions it is necessary to keep fields free from 

 volunteer grain and wild grasses that would attract the moths for the 

 deposition of their eggs, and thus serve as a breeding ground for the 

 insects. A potent source of injuiy is the planting of one cereal after 

 another with grasses, and the planting of crops in ground which has 

 been permitted to run waste to wild grasses and weeds. 



Before planting to grass and- cereals the soil, particularly in the fall, 

 should be thoroughly broken up by plowing and harrowing. Fall 

 plowing is alwa} T s to be practiced where suitable to the crop, the soil, 

 and other conditions, and it is also well to follow with a harrow and 

 level the ground where possible. For alfalfa, Professor Hunter rec- 

 ommends u disking," and for lawns a thorough going over with a long- 

 toothed steel rake. Such methods of treatment serve to break up the 

 cells in which the chrysalides are resting, as well as to destroy the 

 larva when present in its several stages. 



From the observations of Dr. Howard on the occurrence of this 

 insect in 1881, it would seem obvious that where rice fields can be 

 flooded many of these insects will be destroyed, and in localities where 

 flooding is practicable there need be little fear of injuries. In many 

 cases it is possible to overflow the fields at will, and, where necessary, 

 negro laborers can be sent through fields to brush the "worms" from 

 the stalks and leaf blades into the water. 



During the outbreak of 1881 in Kansas it was learned that the rav- 

 ages of this insect could be prevented by postponing the planting of 

 wheat and rye until between September 20 and October 20. 



THE STRAWBERRY CROWN MOTH. 



(Sesia rutilans Hy. Edw.) 



A destructive enemy to small fruits in the Pacific States and one 

 particularly injurious to strawberry, blackberry, and raspberry in Cal- 

 ifornia is a borer larva of the Sesiid moth, Sesia rutilans Hy. Edw. 

 Although the species has not often come to the notice of this office 

 through correspondence, it has received some little attention at the 

 hands of western entomologists and has already a considerable litera- 

 ture. Of recent reports of injury we have only one, that communi- 

 cated by Mr. A. F. Bowen, Mountain View, Cal., February 26, 1900, 

 when specimens were sent of crowns of strawberry that showed injury 



