Agriculture for Beginners by Daniel Harvey Hill (ebook reader 7 inch .TXT) π
The joint action of air, moisture, and frost was still another agent of soil-making. This action is called weathering. Whenever you have noticed the outside stones of a spring-house, you have noticed that tiny bits are crumbling from the face of the stones, and adding little by little to the soil. This is a slow way of making additions to the soil. It is estimated that it would take 728,000 years to wear away limestone rock to a depth of thirty-nine inches. But when you recall the countless years through which the weather has striven against the rocks, you can readily understand that its never-wearying activity has added immensely to the soil.
In the rock soil formed in these various ways, and indeed on the rocks themselves, tiny plants that live on food taken from the air began to grow. They grew just as you now see mosses and lichens grow on the surface of rocks. The decay of these plants added some fertility to the newly formed soil. The life and death of
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Treatment. About the only practicable remedy is to pick these insects by hand. We can, however, protect our young plants by small nettings and thus tide them over the most dangerous period of their lives. These bugs greatly prefer the squash as food. You can therefore diminish their attack on your melons, cucumbers, etc. by planting among the melons an occasional squash plant as a "trap plant." Hand picking will be easier on a few trap plants than over the whole field. A small board or large leaf laid beside the young plant often furnishes night shelter for the bugs. The bugs collected under the board may easily be killed every morning.
Fig. 168. Flea-Beetle and Larva
a, larva; b, adult.
Lines on sides show
real length of insects
The Flea-Beetle. The flea-beetle inflicts much damage on the potato, tomato, eggplant, and other garden plants. The accompanying figure shows the common striped flea-beetle which lives on the tomato. The larva of this beetle lives inside of the leaves, mining its way through the leaf in a real tunnel. Any substance disagreeable to the beetle, such as plaster, soot, ashes, or tobacco, will repel its attacks on the garden crops.
The Weevil. The weevil is commonly found among seeds. Its attacks are serious, but the insect may easily be destroyed.
Treatment. Put the infected seeds in an air-tight box or bin, placing on the top of the pile a dish containing carbon disulphide, a tablespoonful to a bushel of seeds. The fumes of this substance are heavy and will pass through the mass of seeds below and kill all the weevils and other animals there. The bin should be closely covered with canvas or heavy cloth to prevent the fumes from being carried away by the air. Let the seeds remain thus from two to five days. Repeat the treatment if any weevils are found alive. Fumigate when the temperature is 70Β° Fahrenheit or above. In cold weather or in a loose bin the treatment is not successful. Caution: Do not approach the bin with a light, since the fumes of the chemical used are highly inflammable.
Fig. 169. The Hessian Fly
The Hessian Fly. The Hessian fly does more damage to the wheat crop than all other insects combined, and probably ranks next to the chinch bug as the second worst insect enemy of the farmer. It was probably introduced into this country by the Hessian troops in the War of the Revolution.
In autumn the insect lays its eggs in the leaves of the wheat. These hatch into the larvæ, which move down into the crown of the plant, where they pass the winter. There they cause on the plant a slight gall formation, which injures or kills the plant. In the spring adult flies emerge and lay eggs. The larvæ that hatch feed in the lower joints of the growing wheat and prevent its proper growth. These larvæ pupate and remain as pupæ in the wheat stubble during the summer. The fall brood of flies appears shortly before the first heavy frost.
Treatment. Burn all stubble and trash during July and August. If the fly is very bad, it is well to leave the stubble unusually high to insure a rapid spread of the fire. Burn refuse from the threshing-machine, since this often harbors many larvæ or pupæ. Follow the burning by deep plowing, because the burning cannot reach the insects that are in the base of the plants. Delay the fall planting until time for heavy frosts.
The Potato Beetle; Tobacco Worm. The potato beetle, tobacco worm, etc., are too well known to need description. Suffice it to say that no good farmer will neglect to protect his crop from any pest that threatens it.
The increase, owing to various causes, of insects, of fungi, of bacterial diseases, makes a study of these pests, of their origin, and of their prevention a necessary part of a successful farmer's training. Tillage alone will no longer render orchard, vineyard, and garden fruitful. Protection from every form of plant enemies must be added to tillage.
Fig. 170. Spraying the Orchard
One way of increasing the yield of fruit
In dealing with plants, as with human beings, the great object should be not the cure but the prevention of disease. If disease can be prevented, it is far too costly to wait for it to develop and then to attempt its cure. Men of science are studying the new forms of diseases and new insects as fast as they appear. These men are finding ways of fighting old and new enemies. Young people who expect to farm should early learn to follow their advice.
EXERCISE
How does the squash bug resemble the plant louse? Is this a true bug? Gather some eggs and watch the development of the insects in a breeding-cage. Estimate the damage done to some crops by the flea-beetle. What is the best method of prevention?
Fig. 171. An Apple Tree showing Proper Care
One way of increasing the yield of fruit
Do you know the large moth that is the mother of the tobacco worm? You may often see her visiting the blossoms of the Jimson weed. Some tobacco-growers cultivate a few of these weeds in a tobacco field. In the blossom they place a little cobalt or "fly-stone" and sirup. When the tobacco-worm moth visits this flower and sips the poisoned nectar, she will of course lay no more troublesome eggs.
SECTION XXXIV. THE COTTON-BOLL WEEVILFig. 172. Adult Cotton-Boll
Weevil Enlarged
So far as known, the cotton-boll weevil, an insect which is a native of the tropics, crossed the Rio Grande River into Texas in 1891 and 1892. It settled in the cotton fields around Brownsville. Since then it has widened its destructive area until now it has invaded the whole territory shown by the map on page 177.
This weevil is a small gray or reddish-brown snout-beetle hardly over a quarter of an inch in length. In proportion to its length it has a long beak. It belongs to a family of beetles which breed in pods, in seeds, and in stalks of plants. It is a greedy eater, but feeds only on the cotton plant.
Fig. 173. Eggs among the Anthers of a Square at the Point Indicated by the Arrow Fig. 174.
Fig. 174. Cross Section showing Anthers of a Square with Egg of Weevil, and showing the Hole where the Egg was deposited
Greatly enlarged
Fig. 175. The Larva
of the Cotton-Boll Weevil
injuring a Square
Fig. 176. Pupa of Cotton-Boll
Weevil from above
and below
Greatly enlarged
The grown weevils try to outlive the cold of winter by hiding snugly away under grass clumps, cotton-stalks, rubbish, or under the bark of trees. Sometimes they go down into holes in the ground. A comfortable shelter is often found in the forests near the cotton fields, especially in the moss on the trees. The weevils can stand a good deal of cold, but fortunately many are killed by winter weather. Moreover birds destroy many; hence by spring the last year's crop is very greatly diminished.
Fig. 177. The Pupa of the
Cotton-Boll Weevil
in a Square
In the spring, generally about the time cotton begins to form "squares," the weevils shake off their long winter sleep and enter the cotton fields with appetites as sharp as razors. Then shortly the females begin to lay eggs. At first these eggs are laid only in the squares, and generally only one to the square. The young grub hatches from these eggs in two or three days. The newly hatched grub eats the inside of the square, and the square soon falls to the ground. Entire fields may at times be seen without a single square on the plants. Of course no fruit can be formed without squares.
In from one to two weeks the grub or larva becomes fully grown and, without changing its home, is transformed into the pupa state. Then in about a week more the pupæ come out as adult weevils and attack the bolls. They puncture them with their snouts and lay their eggs in the bolls. The young grubs, this time hatching out in the boll, remain there until grown, when they emerge through holes that they make. These holes allow dampness to enter and destroy the bolls. This life-round continues until cold weather drives the insects to their winter quarters. By that time they have increased so rapidly that there is often one for every boll in the field.
This weevil is proving very hard to destroy. At present there seem but few ways to fight it. One is to grow cotton that will mature too early for the weevils to do it much harm. A second is to kill as many weevils as possible by burning the homes that shelter them in winter.
Fig. 178. A Cotton Boll with Feeding-Holes
of Weevil, and Bearing Three Specimens
of the Insect Fig. 179.
Fig. 179. The Mexican
Cotton-Boll Weevil, showing Structure
The places best adapted for a winter home for the weevil are trash piles, rubbish, driftwood, rotten wood, weeds, moss on trees, etc. A further help, therefore, in destroying the weevil is to cut down and burn all cotton-stalks as soon as the cotton is harvested.
This destroys countless numbers of larvæ and pupæ in the bolls and greatly reduces the number of weevils. In addition, all cornstalks, all trash, all large clumps of grass in neighboring fields, should be burned, so as to destroy these winter homes of the weevil. Also avoid planting cotton near trees. The bark, moss, and fallen leaves of the tree furnish a winter shelter for the weevils.
Fig. 180. A Series of Full Grown Weevils,
showing Variations in Size
A third help in destroying the weevil is to rotate crops. If cotton does not follow cotton, the weevil has nothing on which to feed the second year.
In adopting the first method mentioned the cotton growers have found that by the careful selection of seed, by early planting, by a free use of fertilizers containing phosphoric acid, and by frequent plowing, they can mature a crop about thirty days earlier than they usually do. In this way a good crop can be harvested before the weevils are ready to be most destructive.
CHAPTER VIII FARM CROPSEvery crop of the farm has been changed and improved in many ways since its forefathers were wild plants. Those plants that best serve the needs of the farmer and of farm animals have undergone the most changes and have received also the greatest care and attention in their production and improvement.
While we have many different kinds of farm crops, the cultivated soil of the world is occupied by a very few. In our country the crop that is most valuable and that occupies the greatest land area is generally known as the grass crop. Included in the general term "grass crop" are the grasses and clovers that are used for pasturage as well as for hay. Next to grass in value come the great cereal, corn, and the most important fiber crop, cotton, closely followed by the great bread crop, wheat. Oats rank fifth in value, potatoes sixth, and tobacco seventh. (These figures are for 1913.)
Success in growing any crop is largely due to the suitableness of soil and climate to that crop. When the planter selects both the most suitable soil and the most suitable climate for each crop, he gets not only the most bountiful yield from the crop but, in addition, he gets the most
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