Clarksville Weekly Chronicle

EDITOR CHRONICLE:-

A Week or ten days ago the bug was discovered on the tobacco plants in this section, and fears were entertained by many planters, that the little pests would make a clean sweep of all the beds not canvassed. I have been on the alert ever since our plants came up, visited and examined the beds every day or two, and on the 22d of April I discovered the little devils at work on the beds, but not in sufficient numbers to insure the immediate destruction of the plants. But by the 25th. they received large reinforcements from some quarter, and were doing considerable damage to the margin of beds and we became alarmed- thought we would have to canvass or they would eat up the plants "immediately if not sooner;" but fortunately the weather turned warm and the intense heat of the sun drove his bugship off the beds. or kept him from eating except during cool, cloudy days. Plants have grown so rapidly within the past week, that the bug cannot inflict serious damage upon them. They have outgrown Mr. Bug. We scattered dry, pulverized stable manure over our beds, which hastened and stimulated the growth of the plants wonderfully-just made 'em "get up and git." I know there never was a better prospect for plants in the Clarksville district before. The damage these little insect pests yearly inflict upon tobacco growing districts, shows conclusively what humbugs agricultural bureaus are-both State and National. Farmers know nothing about entomology, no more than the average plantation negro knows of physiology. I always thought it within the province of agricultural commissioners to investigate and study the habits of insects that destroy the farmers crops--learn when. how and where they propagate, and suggest some means whereby their ravages may be checked. Mr. LeDuc hold up on tea a while and help us out down here, please. But when these erudite professors and commissioners write anything treating on entomology what they say is couched in the most pompous and pedantic language-use technical terms and scientific talk that is Greek to farmers. Evidently their object is to mystify rather than to instruct. And some of these learned gents draw enormously, besides having a hankering for high-sounding titles -L. L. D. W. X. Y. Z.-hitched to their names. like the tail to a comet. To canvass plant beds is the only way to save them now, and the plan is original with some ingenious farmer. Last spring I caught a number of the bugs and sent them to an entomologist in Cincinnati. The vial containing them was broken in its transmission through the mails, and of course the bugs were lost. I have been thinking I would try again, and send some of the little pests to Commissioner Hawkins. I would send them if I knew he would submit them to every member of the Hawkins family holding office.

W. L. P.
Port Royal, May 6. 1881.