justs itself in its various parts. Before man enters a region, the balance is perfect. Plants crowd each other out of the way, the weaker giving place to the stronger; then insects co

his law of balance; nothing incr

they hinder the growth of his grain, he drives them out entirely. The insects that feed on these plants, finding no food, soon disappear, while the ones which feed on the farmers' crops, finding food so plentif

he plant enemies, the weeds, and the insects are always trying to bring about nature's balance again by

to plants, both growing and stored, resulting from insects are greater than all the expenses of t

this loss will amount to not less than the enormous sum of $1,100,000,000 annually and probably far more. The loss is usually estimated at ten per cent.

; (3) the chrysalis, cocoon, or pupa; (4) the full-grown insect or imago.

ie perfectly inactive and are harmless, but many of them are very destructive

ey attach themselves to the stems and leaves of plants and suck their juices, leaving them to wilt and die. They ar

ruit. They are usually covered with a hard crust-like covering and are found on

t bristly hair. They spend nearly all their time in eating, and do immense damage to the foliage of trees and ve

causing the foliage to wilt and die. We are all familiar with what we call "worm-eaten" wood, with canals that have been eaten by these borers runni

. Many of the borers are beetles, and there are other varieties which do grea

beetles. Flies, gnats, and other similar insects do not usually injure vegetation so much as do some other classes of insects, the principal

nsects into classes according to the products injured, and i

he next most important is the boll-worm or ear-worm. Most persons have seen this worm in the ears of sweet corn; ninety ears out of every hundred contain a worm which destroys from one-tenth to one-half the corn. Some

ought by the chinch-bug, which is also on

-worms, cutworms, cornstalk borers, locusts, grasshoppers, corn

mber of insects that attack wheat, the three important species are th

ops and only the cost of seed and labor is to be counted as a loss. But more often the field is only partly destroyed by the fly; it is not necessary to replant, but the yield is small, often not more than one-third. Some years the l

t., or one bushel out of every twenty. It attacks the stra

creatures attaching themselves in great numbers to the heads of the wheat. Other insect

than it is. Instead of 725,000,000 bushels, it would be 870,000,000; which, with wheat at a dollar a b

ct ravages but they are all attacked by the same insects,

worms and cutworms are the best known, but the tiny leaf-hoppers, which spring up at every step as we walk across the path or lawn,

gricultural men of the country. In the first years after its introduction, it reduced the cotton crop fully fifty per cent., and was the cause, not only of serious loss to the farmers, but of the closing of the cotton mills in

0,000,000 a year, but the loss has been greatly reduced by the war which farmer

ive in the Southwest and does dam

by insect ravages than cotton, on account of its necessity,

uffers heavily from insect damage. The large, showy tobacco-worm

average one stalk out of every ten raised in this c

ed by an insect known as the cranberry fruit worm, but by spraying, growers hav

orado beetle, the eggs of which are laid on the under side of the leaves, and develop into adults in a short time. Two broods of this beetle develop in a single season. Thus it may be seen that the two are entirely different, though they are often supposed to be the same. The Colorado beetle, by the immense

bage-bug, the cabbage hairworm, the asparagus-beetle, the squash-bug, the squash-vine borer, the stri

lants, all vegetables are preyed on by the grub-wo

une-bugs or cock-chafers which fly about our lights in the spring and early summer

e direct loss and on account of the expensive treatment. There are several hundre

California, was its starting place in America. It is the only one of the scales which, if not checked, will, in two or three years, completely destroy the tr

le, plum scale, hickory scale, locust scale, frosted black scale, red o

sail the life of the entire tree. The various leaf worms attack the life of the tree also. The grape-leaf skeletonizer eats every particle of

loss than any other enemy of fruits. Various estimates of the loss have been made, and in general it is be

to be its favorite food, consequently this fruit suffers most from the attacks of the insect. In years of short crops very little

elm leaf beetles and the numerous borers, both beetles and grubs, which from eggs laid in or just beneath the bark, hatch into larv? which burrow into the wood, destroying its usefulness for lumber. Among the borers whic

s seemingly no less danger of attack by a different class of insects. These include grain weevil

es a loss of from $10,000,000 to $35,000,000 in various years. The ox warble also preys on cattle and causes a loss of p

more fully treated under the subject of health, so for the present we need only say that flies, mosquitos and other insects are supposed to cau

possible drive out the most harmful species entirely. Unfortunately, that seems almost impossible; so far a

f destruction. Chief among these means are birds,-of w

ty dollars a year in a field or garden. English gardeners are said to pay high prices for them and to keep as many as poss

other larv? which injure the roots of plants. Lady-bird beetles destroy large numbers of plant-lice, and the Asiatic lady-bird has been found to be the natural destroyer of the S

rm and various species of grasshoppers are killed by tiny parasitic insects whose eggs a

a particular kind, and starve when that food is taken away from them, so rotation of crops proves to be one of the best means of getting rid of those insects which

d several weeks before the main crop is to be sowed. The flies will gather in this strip and lay all their eggs in the early wheat

. This should be done by plowing and harrowing all roadsides, ditch banks,

gs and beetles which spend the larval state in the ground from hat

est method to pursue is the simple one of planting the crop very early, so that the cotton

and by destroying the decayed fruit as it falls. The farmer who lets his decayed fruit lie

lap band or a band of "sticky" fly-paper placed ar

s now the one most generally and successf

water, and for large plants and trees is put on with a spray o

oison may be applied to their food; but others, such as plant-lice, scale insects and all bugs suck the jui

f the insect poi

quantities in gardens by mixing one-half teaspoonful to a gallon of water, or in lar

destroy currant worms and

y cabbage-worms and many other garden insects. If the dry pyrethrum powder is blo

made by mixing four pounds of lime with water. This is then mixed with fifty gallons of water. Paris green is sometimes added. Th

ases and scale insects is a home-made lime-and-sulphur solutio

ore of hot water. Allow this to boil about twenty minutes in its own heat, then add enough water to make fifty g

ade by using a fractio

and used as a spray is an effect

half-pound of hard soap with one gallon of hot water and stirring into it, so as to mix thoroughly, two gallon

should be done as soon as the blossoms drop, and many orchards are sprayed three times in a season, but the work

on them, with the natural enemies of insects encouraged and protected, would go far to prevent the w

ERE

omology. Dept. of Agriculture.

d by Destructive Inse

itism to the American

pt. of Agricult

per Problem.

vil Problem.

in the Control of the

e Scale. Ye

urculio. B

ng-Moth. Bullet

d How to Control

h and How to Contr

Aphis or Green-

-Worm. B

an Fly. B

h-Bug. Bu

ehold Insects of t

ng Domestic Ani