HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1893-11-10, Page 7NOVEMBER .10, 189a
TBE BBt S:ELS PO$T.
•AGRIOULTU'RAL,
Fall Plowing aa an Inoeotioide•
Tho method of fighting inseub posts
Oath year becoming an important focto
the art of good Writing. To ftgghb th
pests is easy enough, but bo do so i
practical, eftioleut manner, is not Ho em
a matter. To find an inoeotioide that is
the same time a fertilizer the oust of wh
and that of application will bo covered
the Woman! in yield, or to someone ord
ary farm work that it may affect noxio
insects without adding to the web there
are matters of oon0dorablo interest
agriculturists throughout the country,
sections where commercial fertilizer's
applied largely, if rho combination of
fertilizer with aninoeotioido can be novo
plighted outside of the advertiaemento a
circulars of the manufacturers, and witho
adding too much to the cost, it will in ma
cases solve the problem of destroying into
in advance on their ravages. There is, ho
ever, so largo a portion of the country th
has no need of auoh ferbilizers,far better on
being found in the growing of clover and
barnyard manure, that even if succeed
the aid would not roach the larger porta
of the country.
Risme have their habits so thorough
established bylong adherence thereto, th
a sudden, radical change must of neoessi
prove fatal to a greater or less numbs
Nature is very slow -going, and most •
moots can not flourish under frequent, rad
cal changes. This is why a rotation
orops is of so much value in holding d
abruotive insects in chock, and oxplai
why it is that orops following after paotu
or meadow are more apt to suffer 'ajar
A grass or alover orop would be no more
a nursery for destructive insects than an
other, if it was grown bub for a single se
son on the same ground. This is, Imweve
not the ease, and how to overcome the e
tent of a continuous grass crop is ono ot 11
problems that is just now puzzling o
farmers, as many of our moob destruotf
insects are almost sure to got in their wor
immediately following the breaking up
mod lauds.
One feature of these pests is that the m
jority of them winter over in the ground,'
either one or the other of three stages o
developmenb. That ie, they are either i
the grub, pupal or adult state,and in eithe
of these more or less auseeptible to th
changes of the weather, especially durin
the winter months. In autumn, all insect
that remain inactive through the wrote
months, make some provision against in
-element weather and usually this is don
jute prior to their becoming stupefied o
dormant, in which state they are not of
fected by cold, no matter how severe i
continuous. It is the sudden changes, th
freezing and thawing, the wetting and dry
ing that is unhealthy.
With the coming of fall, white grubs
wireworms and cutworms, that through th
preceding months have been feeding nea
the surface of tho ground, delve downwar
and by working their bodies aboub, eon
street a rude cell of earth, after which the
practically go to sleep and remain in tha
condition until mem weather. Whitten
the farmer can do, after this sleepy, stupid
condition Domes on, to wreak these winte
quarters, will be to throw the occupant
out of their homes to the mercy of the of
meets, while the makers are in an unfi
condition to construct others. Whatever
the farmer eon do to disturb or break up
the surface of the ground late in the fall
has this effect, and therefore, fall plowing
•oan'not fail of being more or less effective
in destroying any or all of the pests above
mentioned,
-There are many theories that look well
on paper but do not come out right in prae-
tioe. I do not wish to be understood as
saying that fall•plowed ground will escape
all insect attack. I have seen fall -plowed
fields ruined the following year by insects,
but they were not such as are affected in
the way mentioned, and in fact, came into
the field from outside ;