Insects injurious to staple crops / by E. Dwight Sanderson.

  • Sanderson, Dwight, 1878-1944.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Insects injurious to staple crops / by E. Dwight Sanderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    aiice for any variation of these dates on account of the peculiarities of the individual season. Looking Ahead.—Few farmers, in planning the manage- ment of their land and crops for the coming season, con- sider the effect which any given procedure will have upon the injurious insects with which they may have to contend. A field which has for several years been in wheat, corn, or tobacco may be sown with some other crop for the sake of soil improvement, or may even be favored with a green- manuring of rye, crimson clover, or cow-peas; but how often is it considered necessary to rotate crops in order to lessen insect pests? In most cases the answer would doubtless be, “Not until some noticeable loss has been suffered from their injuries.” That this is a mistake may be seen from a brief survey of the best‘methods for com- bating our worst insect pests. For this purpose let us take the list of sixty-three insects given in the Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1898 as a basis, it being carefully com- piled by experienced entomologists. But in passing, though foreign to our theme, it may be interesting to note that of these sixty-three insects twenty- seven have been imported from foreign climes, thirty-one are native, and four are of doubtful origin, so that we can correctly say that fully one-half of our worst insect pests are imported. Among those native to the United States are the Chinch-bug, Corn Root-worm, Cutworms, Locusts, and Colorado Potato-beetle; while among those imported are the Angumois Grain-moth, Gypsy Moth, Codling- moth, Cotton-worm. Sugar-cane Borer, Grain 'Weevils, Hessian Fly, and San Jose Scale. Of tliese sixty-three pests eight infest stored grains and