Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year, 
Vol. LXXXI 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 26. 1370. at 
ORire at New York. N. Y., under the Act of March 
Rose Chafers and Chicks; a Timely Warnin' 
A SERIOT’S DANGER.—This is the time of year 
when the rose bugs or rose beetles, perhaps 
more correctly called (he "rose chafers.” are about 
in large numbers. They began coming out of the 
soil about (lie ninth of .June in this locality, and I 
expect to find them until approximately the middle 
of July. The greater portion of the year is spent 
in the immature stages in the ground, the grub feed¬ 
ing <ui the roots of the grass. The adults, which are 
long-legged, light brown beetles, crawl out au<l feed 
sprawling bodies, and eat them with a relish, some¬ 
times filling their crops entirely with these insects. 
Whether or not the insects have a sweet taste that 
the chickens like I cannot say, but I have found as 
many as !><; in the crop of a 10-weeks-old chicken. 
As a rule this is about the limit of the usual losses 
of them. There have been instances where 14-wcek- 
old chickens have been reported killed. We lost last 
year in our town nearly 1.500 chickens from this 
cause, and there have been cases where as many as 
of the crop, or sticking the spines through the same, 
or causing a crop-hound condition. Mr. Collingwood, 
the editor of The It. X.-Y., drew ray attention to the 
losses reported to him, and the writer, noticing that 
they died soon after feeding on the rose chafers, 
thought that possibly it might he due to a poison in 
the insect. lie then took the juices extracted with 
distilled water from the insect and fed it with a 
medicine dropper, and found that the chickens so 
fed died even quicker than though they had eaten 
This picture was taken at the meeting of the Ayrshire Cattle Breeders' Association at Devon. Pa. At the right is Paul O. Reymann. who was re-elected 
president, and Roland L. Taylor, retiring president of the Pennsylvania Ayrshire Breeders’ Association. The Ayrshire calf is Ella Lind 3, donated by President 
Reymann, and won by the New Jersey Ayrshire Club. 
on the many flowering plants, beginning with the 
peonies and passing to the rose bushes, grapes, 
daisies and Deutzias. In fact all the flowering 
plants in the rose family are attacked—apple trees, 
cherries, and so on. In other words, the rose chafer 
is :i feeder on at least 75 plant species iu this locality, 
and I think this would ho true in most of the Eastern 
States. Chickens running among daisies pick the 
insects from them, being attracted by the long, 
that have been lost on large chicken plants. I think 
there are a great many losses due to chickens eating 
rose chafers that are ascribed to other causes. 
EFFECTS UPON CHICKS.—Chickens begin to 
show a drowsy attitude some five or six hours'after 
eating the insects, and gradually this condition in¬ 
creases until they may die within five to 24 hours 
after eating the rose chafers. Years ago these losses 
were ascribed to the rose chafers biting the walls 
the rose chafers. This led to further investigation, 
and one fact after another was eliminated by ex¬ 
periment. 'That is, the spine legs were fed to chick¬ 
ens: rose chafer juice was tested for arsenic to see 
whether or not the poison could he due to the rose 
chafers feeding on sprayed leaves; feeding of 
crushed dead rose chafers in a mashed form, and 
the chickens dying: then feediug of rose chafers to 
chickens, killing them, and then opening up the crop 
