December, '15] parrott, gloyer and fulton: tree-crickets 



535 



One of the most striking examples of the advantages of this method 

 that has come to our notice during the past season was in the case of a 

 farmer in the vicinitj^ of Wagonmound, New Mexico, who had made a 

 practice of discing all his ditches, fence rows, and other waste places 

 on an extensive ahalfa farm, as well as discing alfaKa itself. During 

 the summer of 1915 there were ver}^ serious ravages of grasshoppers 

 in that neighborhood but this farm almost entirely escaped grasshopper 

 attack. If this were a single instance it might be termed a coincidence, 

 but all through that country, where waste areas were treated in this 

 way during fall or winter, it was Yery easy to pick out such later on 

 during summer on account of the slight damage done by the grass- 

 hoppers. 



The greatest objection to methods of this sort is, however, the 

 difl&culty in arranging for a thorough cooperation. If farmers over a 

 considerable area would all combine and go over the waste lands where 

 possible with disc harrows, or even other harrows, and cultivate to the 

 depth of a couple of inches, they would derive a vasth' greater benefit 

 than would seem possible. In fact if this method of treating waste 

 lands were followed during the fall or winter where possible, supple- 

 mented the following year by the use of poisoned baits, it is doubtful 

 if any one need suffer seriously from the attacks of grasshoppers in any 

 section of the United States. 



SOME STUDIES ON THE SNOWY TREE-CRICKET WITH 

 REFERENCE TO AN APPLE BARK DISEASE 



By p. J. Parrott, W. 0. Gloyer and B. B. Fulton 



Recent years have been characterized by great activity in the study 

 of insects as carriers of human and animal diseases. A cursory peru- 

 sal of literature suggests that much less attention has been directed 

 to the role that these agents play in the dissemination of disorders of 

 plants. Observations of the snowy tree-cricket (CEcantJms niveiis 

 D.G.) on apples have indicated that the investigation of the activities 

 of this species on this host would prove a fruitful problem for study and 

 furnish a contribution to the knowledge of this somewhat neglected 

 field. 



One who has noticed the work of (E. niveiis on apple can hardly fail 

 to form the opinion that this species is in some way connected with the 

 spread of a bark disease of this fruit. Even to superficial observations, 

 that there is a relationship between this insect and some parasitic 

 organism, is plain and unmistakeable. The opinion that there is 

 some such association is formed from the fact that the tissues about 



