526 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 4 
In this instance we sprayed 100 acres in two days, 
and thoroughly tested the method from every stand¬ 
point, using various materials. We abandoned the 
spraying apparatus, and began the brush-and-culti- 
vator method, which was followed up persistently, 
with the results already noted. 
Many natural enemies, such as parasitic and pre¬ 
daceous insects, have been found feeding upon this 
pest in the fields, and in this manner, no doubt, the 
number has been somewhat reduced. The most im¬ 
portant factor, however, we have observed in the de¬ 
struction of this pest has been the fungous disease 
which was common the early part of the season upon 
this insect, in both clover and peaflelds. It is a con¬ 
tagious disease, and destroys the pest in very large 
numbers, under certain conditions. In one instance 
we found 58 dead lice upon the under surface of a 
single lobe of a clover leaf, and it was not an un¬ 
common thing two weeks ago to find 15 or 20 dead 
lice upon the under surface of a pea leaf. With the 
recent rains which have prevailed throughout this 
section, which fostered the development of this dis¬ 
ease, it spread rapidly throughout the infested fields, 
and as a consequence, it is now very difficult to find 
the Pea louse upon late peas. A careful examina¬ 
tion of peas where the insects were abundant a few 
days ago, shows that they are now practically free 
from them. We feel, therefore, that the climax, as 
far as the development of the insect this season, has 
been reached, and that these silent factors in nature 
are now actually reducing the pest to such a point 
that it may possibly be several years before it will be 
such a destructive pest in this section as it has been 
for the past.two seasons. At any rate, the conditions 
are such that the farmer and canner have taken new' 
hope, and we trust the future will bring few'er lice 
and more peas. [prof.] av. g. Johnson. 
State Entomologist, Maryland Exp. Station. 
A NEW STRAWBERRY PES T. 
Ground Beetles That Love Fruit. 
We send you sample of bugs that have almost ruined 
our strawberry crop this season. They are under the 
straw (thousands of them) and attack the berries when 
they begin to color, eating the seeds and a part of the 
surface of the berries. We wish to get another crop of 
berries off this field; how would you advise the extermi¬ 
nation of the bugs without destroying the old plants? 
This is the first trouble of this kind we ever had, and 
we have never heard of any other strawberry plantation 
being ruined in this way. Is there anything that can be 
put in the soil that will keep the insects from working 
under the straw another season? w. r. 
Leech burg, Pa. 
The depredators are beetles which have heretofore 
borne a good reputation as predaceous enemies of 
other and oftentimes injurious insects. I had my 
doubts that the beetles were the culprits, and to sat¬ 
isfy myself I had W. R. send me several live beetles, 
wnrch I put in a cage specially prepared with fresh 
and nice, ripe strawberries. In less than an hour I 
saw several of the beetles at their nefarious work, 
and in 24 hours 12 of the beetles had made about 20 
strawberries look like those in Fig. 182. The beetles 
ate off the seeds from the berries, even from the 
smaller green fruits, and often ate into the pulp also. 
The fruits were ruined for any purpose, and soon be¬ 
gan to rot. Later W. R. wrote me that 
The beetles eat the berries at night, beginning about 8:30 
or 9 P. M. We had to take a light to watch them work¬ 
ing. Since writing The R. N.-Y., the beetles have become 
much worse, completely taking one-fourth acre of late 
strawberries in three nights. We haA'e noticed more or 
less of the beetles all ewer the farm ever since we came 
in possession of it five years ago, but they never did us 
any damage until they made a charge on our strawberry 
patch this season. We estimate our damage at $350. The 
beetles would start on the very largest berries, and at last 
would eat green berries, too. They completely destroyed 
e\'erything on the plants. The strawberry patch contains 
two acres. We find from six to 10 beetles around each 
hill of berries. At first they ate only the surface of the 
berries, but they know now that they have found some¬ 
thing good, and eat the whole berry. 
There were two kinds of beetles sent me by W. R. 
as the authors of the mischief. Most of them were 
the large ones, a male and female of which are shown 
in the lower part of Fig. 181. These were one of the 
Carabid, or ground beetles, and they are known to 
scientists as Harpalus caliginosus. The smaller 
species is shoAvn in the upper part of Fig. 181, and it 
bears the name of Harpalus Pennsylvanicus, tbus 
being sort of first cousin to the larger one. Both of 
•these beetles are very common in most parts of the 
country. They are usually classed among the bene¬ 
ficial insects and are credited with eating young 
grasshoppers and various kinds of 'injurious cater¬ 
pillars. But little is known regarding their life story. 
The larvae or grubs of the smaller beetle have only 
recently been definitely identified, and were found 
nearly a foot below the surface in the soil, in condi¬ 
tions indicating that they “subsisted to considerable 
extent upon angleworms rather than on larvae and 
pupae of insects,” while larvae thought to be those of 
a species of Harpalus beetle have been found eating 
grasshopper eggs. The evidence is apparently con¬ 
clusive that the beetles are often carnivorous, and eat 
other insects, often injurious ones. But the beetles 
have also been found feeding upon seeds, especially 
the seeds of ragweed, hence it is not so striking a 
change of diet for them to acquire a liking for straw¬ 
berry seeds. 
This is my first experience with these ground 
beetles as injurious insects, and I have as yet found 
no published record of their having previously trou¬ 
bled strawberry growers. But at the meeting of the 
Association of Economic Entomologists in New York 
Oity in June last, the Entomologist of the Ohio Ex¬ 
periment Station, Mr. Webster, presented some notes 
on these insects as strawberry eaters. He has kindly 
given me a copy of his notes, from which I glean 
the following interesting facts: 
The larger beetle, Harpalus caliginosus, has been ex¬ 
cessively abundant about Wooster, Ohio, this year; so 
much so that people were driven Indoors in the evening 
on account of their numbers. On June 17, 1898, there came 
a complaint from Flushing, Ohio, of serious injury to the 
ripening strawberries. The matter was investigated by 
an assistant who was unable to solve the problem, but 
saw at once that the injury must have been due to the 
attacks of an insect with a biting mouth, as it did not 
appear to depredate especially upon the pulp of the 
berry, but upon the seeds, the hulls of which were in¬ 
variably thickly strewn upon the ground or fallen leaves 
underneath the injured berries. There was also a simi¬ 
lar complaint from Greene County, Ohio. Nothing was 
heard of this trouble last year, but June 11 of the present 
year 1 received a telegram from the owner of the prem¬ 
ises at Flushing to the effect that the insects were again 
at work upon his strawberries. A personal visit to the 
locality very soon developed the fact that the cause of 
the damage, which was severe, and had also been in 1898, 
was due to the attacks of a large, black beetle, Harpa¬ 
lus caliginosus. The beetle seems not to care at all for 
the berry either green or ripe, but in extracting the seeds 
it leaves the ripe berry a pulpy mass that is absolutely 
worthless (see Fig. 182), while the younger berries are so 
gnawed upon the surface as to prevent their maturing. 
Wherever the clusters of the injured berries Avere found 
A PLOT OF EARLY WHEAT. Flo. 180. 
in the field one or more of these beetles were to be found 
in the near vicinity, generally hiding away under a clod, 
a small stone or in holes in the ground. An examination 
of the stomach of freshly-caught beetles showed a vast 
amount of the softer portions of the strawberry seeds re¬ 
duced to small bits. In no case did the hull of the seed 
appear to have been eaten. [Examinations here at Cor¬ 
nell of the stomach of one of the beetles gave similar 
results.] The beetles are large and conspicuous, easily 
trapped and killed when it is once known that they are 
the authors of the mischief, but in every case where this 
injury has been reported to me, specimens of a sucking 
bug (Myodocha serripes) have accompanied the complaint. 
I have already received other reports of this injury from 
the same vicinity. One of the parties who has suffered 
from the ravages of this Insect states that they worked 
very badly on his premises in 1898, but not very severely 
in 1899, but this year again they are seriously destructiA'e. 
Burning the patches over does not seem to be effective. 
From the above report, it avouM indicate that W. 
R. avouM be likely to suffer from the pest next year 
also. He writes that he has about two inches of 
mulch on his field. This mulch affords a fine place in 
Avhich the beetles may hide, and it would prevent one 
from enticing the beetles to hide during the day un¬ 
der boards, chips, etc., placed near the plants, where 
they might be collected and killed. But one could 
rake off the mulch and then many of the beetles 
could thus be trapped. The Entomological Labora¬ 
tory at Cornell needs 500 of the larger beetles for 
students to dissect and study, hence their offer of one 
cent for each beetle which boys may collect in the 
straAvberry patch will doubtless materially decrease 
their numbers. On small patches this hand-picking 
could be profitably practiced, as in W. R.’s case, it 
may be a question of paying out $10 or $25, and hav¬ 
ing a $300 crop of fruit, or of letting the beetles get 
most of the crop. I think the destruction and keep¬ 
ing out of all ragweeds in and near the patch will 
help in the warfare, for the ragweed seeds are said 
to be a favorite food of the beetles, and perhaps they 
feed upon these seeds, and thus maintain themselves 
in the patch after the strawberries are gone. Again, 
these ground beetles are freely attracted to lights, 
especially brilliant lights like an electric light. Just 
now dozens of the smaller species come to a small 
electric light in my porch, and they swarm about the 
light and over those sitting near. I would try a bright 
oil light in the field infested. Fasten the light on a 
brick in a pan set on top of a post, and fill the pan 
about two-thirds full of water, with a liberal film of 
kerosene oil poured on the surface. This trap-lantern 
is well worth trying; an electric light would doubt¬ 
less be much more attractive if it could be secured 
without too much expense. The above are the only 
methods which occur to me as practicable and likely 
to prove successful so as to allow W. R. to expect to 
fruit the bed again in 1901. I do not believe any 
substance can be economically applied to the soil or 
the plants that would kill the beetles or prevent their 
working and not kill or injure the plants at the same 
time. In many cases it would doubtless be best to 
plow up the infested bed and devote it to other hoed 
crops for a season, transferring the strawberries to 
a distant field. This method would seem to be ef¬ 
fectual to check the pest. m. v. slingerland. 
AN EXPERIMENT WITH WHEAT. 
I nave recently had an experience in wheat grow¬ 
ing which is so much at variance with my previous 
ideas on the subject, that I think it may be of in¬ 
terest to your readers. In 1898 I observed in the mid¬ 
dle of my field of Golden Chaff wheat one stool which 
was headed out more than a week in advance of that 
about it. It was a foot taller, and had larger heads 
than the other. There were six heads, containing 274 
kernels of bald red Avheat. I planted them in a little 
plot by themselves, where there had been no wheat 
raised for many years, and though I had other wheat 
in the vicinity, I know there was no mixing of seed, 
for I conducted every operation myself from begin¬ 
ning to end. In 1899 I harvested from this little plot 
as mixed a lot of wheat as I ever saw. Some of it 
was dark red, some clear white, and the rest every 
possible shade of color between the two. I sorted it 
carefully, grain by grain, putting the red, the white, 
and the mixed shades (about one-half of it) each by 
itself. I sowed these again in adjacent plots, taking 
special care not to mix the seed. I have just har¬ 
vested the crop, about 30 large bundles, and I have the 
same result as in 1899. fine wheat is of all Shades, 
from pure white to dark red indiscriminately, with¬ 
out regard to what I sowed. I have harvested red 
AVheat Avbere I sowed white only, and white wheat 
where I sowed red only, and all shades between mixed 
up together. It is an extra-early, strong-strawed, bald 
Avheat, which was fully headed out this year by June 
1, from 10 days to two weeks in advance of other 
wheat in the vicinity. It was soAvn September 16. 
I shall sow it again this year, and make no attempt 
to separate it into different varieties. Fig. 180 shows 
part of the plot. f. hodgman. 
Michigan. 
DWARF PEAR TREES. 
The Favorable Side. 
We have an orchard on our home grounds which is 
over 50 years old, and the trees are still healthy and 
productive. We have other orchards about 25 years 
old, Avhich bear large crops of the finest fruit an¬ 
nually. We find the fruit of some varieties produced 
on dwarf trees to be larger, finer and of better quality 
•than if grown on standards. The Duchess and Anjou 
pears are particularly fine as dwarfs. We do not 
consider dwarf trees short-lived by any means. The 
A'igor of the trees must be maintained by proper 
pruning annually, preserving the pyramidal shape, 
and by the application of manure. Dwarf pears can 
be planted 12 to 15 feet apart, and in this way a large 
yield per acre is obtained. Dwarf trees, too, can be 
planted in small grounds and yards where large trees 
would not be admissible at all, and then they are 
both useful and ornamental. We consider dwarf pears 
valuable for orchard planting, and are surprised that 
orchardists do not plant them more extensively. 
ELLWANGER & BARRY. 
I imported and planted out for orchard in 1852 about 
3,000 dwarf pear trees, 10 by 10 feet. They have been 
thoroughly pruned annually, and the ground has been 
cultivated through each season. When they had been 
out about 20 years, it was found that they were too 
close together for convenient culture and the good of 
the trees, at which time we dug out half of them (al¬ 
ternate trees) so that they have sufficient space. They 
make an annual average growth of wood of perhaps 
two feet or over, but they have been so cut back an¬ 
nually that their average height is about eight to 10 
feet, and an average diameter of the Duchess (they 
are mostly that variety) at the trunk Of nine to 12 
inches, and we think there has not been an annual 
loss from blight and other causes of one per cent. 
They commenced bearing when planted three to four 
years, and have borne annually since, giving varied 
crops, about 150 barrels up to 750. Lewis F. Allen, a 
noted horticulturist, remarked to me about the time 
I planted this orchard that pears would never be 
grown in sufficient quantity to bring the price down 
where the common people could afford to buy them, 
but the price the last 10 years has not averaged more 
than 25 per cent of what it was 30 years ago. The 
orchard is in a thrifty, vigorous condition. For fur¬ 
ther information as to its condition, etc., I would 
refer you to Prof. Bailey, of Cornell University, who 
has seen it many times, and is high authority in such 
matters. t. g. yeomans, 
Walworth, N. Y. 
