Excerpt from Bacterial Wilt of Cucurbits Collections of striped cucumber beetles and 12-spotted cucumber beetles taken at random in the fields have given widely varying results as to wilt transmission according to time of year, prevalence of wilt, amount of territory devoted to cucurbits, and length of time the beetles had fed since attaining the adult stage. In eastern Long Island from the first collections of early spring only an occasional striped beetle has proved to be a wilt carrier. Later in the season some collections have shown a large percentage capable of spreading the disease. For example, on September 1, 1916, striped beetles were collected, at random in a cucurbit field and several put into each of four beetle-proof cages containing healthy cucumber plants. Many of the vines in each of the cages contracted bacterial wilt, so that at least one of the beetles introduced into each cage must have been a wilt carrier. About two weeks previously six beetles collected in the same locality failed to give infection. In this locality late cucumbers constitute one of the main crops. However, in the trucking sections around the District of Columbia late cucurbits are rather the exception, most of these crops being planted there in early spring. In that locality random collections from the field have given a much smaller percentage of infection. During the summer of 1917, at Tuxedo, Md., from five to seven large insect cages were kept constantly as storage cages for both species of cucumber beetles. Healthy plants grown in the cages and healthy potted cucumber plants brought frequently from the greenhouses at Washington, D. C., were kept in the cages as food for the beetles. Collections of beetles made at frequent intervals from fields where wilt was present were placed in these cages, but throughout the season only two cases of wilt occurred in these cages. In many instances the beetles were taken directly from wilting vines. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.