852 
abdomen, by means of which the minute 
white eggs are laid in the very heart of 
the bud. 
Remedial Measures 
Strictly speaking, no direct remedial 
measures are known. It is not known 
positively how the insect passes the win- 
ter; hence control can not be attempted 
at that season. The worm never comes 
within reach of our ordinary insecticides, 
and therefore direct attack is not pos- 
sible. Since the loss of the tips attack- 
ed in spring does not injure the crop of 
that year, the effort must be to keep the 
vines in such vigor that they will set 
fruit buds on laterals and at leaf axils 
when the direct tip has been lost. 
This insect is not confined to the cran- 
berry, and in fact breeds much more 
abundantly on loose strife (Lysimacha) 
and on some of the heaths. Therefore, 
where the species is troublesome, those 
plants should be kept down on the dams 
and other bog surroundings. 
Vine Worm. See Yellowhead Cranber- 
ry Worm. 
Cress 
The word cress, when applied to plants, 
refers to any one of several species most- 
ly of the mustard family Cruciferae. It 
has generally a pungent taste and is 
used in salads. 
The common cresses are the English 
water cress; the American water cress; 
common garden cress and the Indian 
cress. The water cress is an aquatic 
plant, with long stems, which readily 
take root in water or very moist soil. 
It is therefore generally grown along 
the edges of streams, ponds, ditches, or 
other places, where it grows partly in 
the water and partly out. But it may be 
cultivated by the digging of trenches or 
small ditches, where the water may be 
turned on at pleasure. 
GRANVILLE LOWTHER 
CRESS PESTS 
Water Cress Leaf Beetle 
Phaedon aeruginosa Suffr. 
Attacks the under Side of the leaves 
and the stems, eating off the cuticle. 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
The beetles are less than an eighth of 
an inch long and “shiny, bronzy black.” 
Both the adult and larva are injurious. 
They probably range from Massachu- 
setts to West Virginia. 
Growing the cress in running water 
which carries the bugs away, or flood- 
ing for the same purpose are the best 
remedies thus far discovered. 
Literature 
Bureau of Entomology Bulletin 66. 
Water Cress Sowbug 
Mancasellus brachyurus Harger 
This pest has been troublesome in Vir- 
ginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, 
where cress 1s grown commercially. 
This creature is not a bug but belongs 
to the same order as the crayfish. It 
differs somewhat in appearance from the 
common dooryard sowbug though similar 
in general features. The water cress sow- 
bug is “decidedly shrimplike” in appear- 
ance, gray in color and when full grown 
about a half inch long. 
The only method of control which 
seems to have worked successfully so 
far is that of special construction of the 
cress beds. ‘ 
The beds are constructed sixteen feet 
wide with a general slope of about three 
inches to the 100 feet and graded toward 
the center, through which, running 
lengthwise of the bed, is placed a square 
trough made of three ten inch boards. 
When it is desired to get rid of the bugs 
the water is shut off from the bed and 
drained out through this central trough. 
The bugs follow the receding water and 
so are caught in the trough. After the 
water is well out of the trough the bugs 
are killed with bluestone. The water is 
kept off the bed for twenty-four hours to 
kill the bugs which remain in the cress. 
Literature 
Bureau of Entomology Bulletin 66. 
CROPPING, PREPARATORY. See Prepara- 
tion of Ground under Apple Orchard. 
