The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
963 
Getting Ahead of the Squash-vine Borer 
i Oti page SOG Glenn W. Herrick gives 
ns a good article on the stinkbug. Will 
he tell us how to control the stem-borer? 
Syracuse, N. Y. c. w. c. 
The squash-vine borer is about as much 
dreaded by the professional bug man as it 
is by the gardener. In fact, nearly all 
insect borers are the bugbear of the ento¬ 
mologist, because there is no way of get¬ 
ting at such pests, since they are hidden 
within their burrows inside of the plants. 
However, a knowledge of the life history 
of this insect will help in the fight. 
The parent insect is a handsome moth 
with transparent hind wings and opales¬ 
cent front ones, and with the body marked 
with red or orange, while the hind legs are 
long and ornamented with tufts of long 
black and white hairs. Unfortunately the 
acts of this moth are not as handsome as 
her looks, for when she appears in the 
garden in June she soon begins to deposit 
tiny, dull-red eggs, perhaps to the number 
of over 200 before she stops, on the stems 
and other parts of the squash vine. In j 
one or two weeks each egg hatches and 
the tiny white caterpillar bores straight 
into the stem or leafstalk of the plants. 
Here it barrows lengthwise of the stem 
for about four weeks, when it becomes 
full grown and about one inch long. It 
then leaves the vine and enters the soil 
to the depth of one or two inches, where 
it constructs a cocoon, changes to a quiet 
pupa and rests there through the Winter 
until the following June. This is the 
weakest stage of the insect’s life and 
most open to attack by the gardener. 
No very easy way has ever been found 
of getting directly at the borer itself 
while in the vine. The borer may be 
located in the stem by the little piles of 
chewed-up material resembling sawdust 
that are pushed out on the ground through 
small holes which the caterpillar makes 
here and there along the stem. When 
the borer is located the stem may be slit 
lengthwise with a sharp knife and the 
borer killed. The vine should immedi¬ 
ately be covered at this point with fresh 
earth, so that the wound will heal. It is | 
also well to cover the stems of squash 
plants with fresh earth two or three feet 
from the base, so that the vine will throw 
out new roots at this point, which will 
sustain the plant in case the main stem 
is injured by the borer at the base. 
Moreover, it will often pay a gardener 
to keep a lookout for the moths in the 
evening, for at this time they may be 
found resting on the vines and can be 
easily picked off and killed before they 
lay their eggs. It is sometimes profitable 
to plant a row of early crookneck 
squashes to attract the moths and induce 
them to lay their eggs on these early 
plants. As soon as the later plants come 
on the early ones may be well pulled 
and burned in order to kill the borers 
in them. All of the foregoing suggestions 
toward control may be considered of 
minor importance, yet often adding great¬ 
ly to the effectiveness of other methods. 
The major means of control is to de¬ 
stroy the insect while in its cocoon an 
inch or two below the surface of the soil 
during the Fall, Winter and Spring. 
Here is a long interval in which the pest 
may be got at and destroyed. In infested 
gardens the vines of all melons, cucum¬ 
bers, pumpkius and squashes should be 
pulled up and burned just as early as the 
crop can be harvested. Then the garden 
should be thoroughly harrowed in at 
least two different directions in order to 
bring to the surface and expose to the 
action of Winter weather the cocoons j 
that may be resting in the soil. Effort 
should be made to get the cocoons that 
may be about the edges of the garden. 
Not one of them should be missed. Then 
in the Spring the garden might well be 
harrowed again before being plowed, while 
the plowing should be done well and done 
deeply so as to bury beyond resurrection 
any cocoons that may be left. If the 
burning of viues and the harrowing and 
plowing are carefully and thoroughly done 
each year the pest and its injuries will 
tend to diminish to the vanishing point. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
Friend: now’s your boy getting on 
in the army, Mr. Johnson?” Johnson: 
“Wonderful! I feel a sense of great 
security. An army that can make my 
boy get up early, work hard all day and 
go to bed early can do anything.”—Amer¬ 
ican Boy. 
Tractor Use, Profit, and Safety 
r j V RUE progress is always slow. 
■*- The change to mechanical power 
for farm work has been twelve ychrs in 
the making, but today there are few 
American farmers who have not given 
serious thought to the question of tractor- 
izing their farms. 
For the benefit of those who may not yet be 
convinced that the tractor is a useful, profitable 
farm power machine, we present again a few of 
the opinions of farmers who are using the Inter¬ 
national Kerosene Tractor. Some of these are 
about essential features, and some mention only 
conveniences, but taking them altogether, almost 
any farmer will feel, after reading them, that 
the International 8-16 is a tractor worth con¬ 
sidering. 
“My International supplies a power flexible 
enough to handle the large amount of seedbed, 
harvest and other work without delay.” 
“It can be used for continuous work if emer¬ 
gency demands it." 
“It produces power at much lower cost than 
horses, and it can be used for both drawbar and 
beltwork." 
“I like the steady way it works. Without seem¬ 
ing to hurry, it gets through a surprising amount of 
hard work.” 
It does a lot of good work at a cost so low I 
could hardly believe it. You did a wonderful thing 
for Eastern farmers when you made this tractor to 
run^n kerosene.” 
“It is not bothered by flies, nor by bumble bees. 
It works steadily on the hottest davs.” 
“Requires very little care. \Yhen the day’s 
work is done, I run the tractor tail first into an in¬ 
expensive shed. In the morning, 1 fill the fuel tank 
and the oiler, look into the radiator, and am ready 
for another day’s work.” 
These opinions are typical. They prove at least 
that the International 8-16 is a useful, profitable 
tractor. Now consider just one other thought for 
a minute. 
This tractor is the outgrowth of twelve years 
of active tractor experience by a company that 
has sold all kinds of farm machines for many 
5 -ears. The beginning of this business goes back 
to 1831 — almost 88 years ago. Does it not seem 
reasonable that with this experience we should 
offer you a tractor that you could use with profit, 
especially when we expect to come back some 
day and sell you more of the machines listed ia 
this advertisement? 
If you are now convinced that the International 
8-16 is a useful, profitable tractor on some farms, 
and that you don’t have to be an expert to buy 
one safely, write us to find out what this tractor 
will do for you, on your farm. A post card 
will bring you full information. 
Grain Harvesting Machines 
Binders Push Binders 
Headers Rice Binders 
Harvester-Threshers 
Reapers Shockers 
Threshers 
Tillage Implements 
Disk Harrows Cultivators 
Tractor Harrows 
Spring-Tooth Harrows 
Peg-Tooth Harrows 
Orchard Harrows 
Planting & Seeding Machines 
Corn Planters Corn Drills 
Grain Drills 
Broadcast Seeders 
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Mowers Tedders 
Side Delivery Rakes 
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Bunchers 
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Hay Presses 
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Feed Grinders 
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Kerosene Engines 
Gasoline Engines 
Kerosene Tractors 
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Cora Machines 
Planters Drills 
Cultivators 
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Binders Pickers 
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Shelters 
Huskers and Shredders 
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(Hand) 
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(Belted) 
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Other Farm Equipment 
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Farm Wagons, 
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Stalk Cutters 
Knife Grinders 
Tractor Hitches 
Binder Twine 
International Harvester Company of America 
(Incorporated) 
CHICAGO V USA 
‘V 
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Brush Manufacturers for Over 108 Years and the Largest in the World 
liiSSt 
NEIGHBORS CLUB 
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Dept, 
©27 
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I 
T2 
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