DISCOVERY IN THE CLOUDS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19840, 14 May 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

DISCOVERY IN THE CLOUDS

DISEASE A MILE HIGH THE TRAVELS OF THE ENEMIES OF OUR LIVES AND FIELDS The day of the sword has practically passed; that weapon is scarcely used now in war, so that the beating of swords into ploughshares would count for little on our farms. But it is encouraging to find another fighting arm, the Royal Canadian Air Force, directed to the purpose of peace and waging benetficent war, not on man but on man’s enemies. The Canadian airmrn are flying over cultivated areas to sea’* 1 mt and remedy insect pests. Of nature and success of- the airm< ork in this direction we have v. .y had some account, but we have to record a new and alarming discovery. The flying-men have found the spores of wheat rust 5000 feet up in the air, 300 miles from the nearest wheat-grow-ing area. The Only Precaution. That is indeed a serious revelation. The spores, as fine as dust, travel where the wind wills, and who can protect his wheat crop from a visitation by such agents? Clearly the only precaution possible is to grow wheat that defy rust, that deadly enemy of the source of our breadstuffs. This new picture of the destroyer of the cultivated field riding the breeze is as sadly dramatic as our vision of disease germs borne by the air, but the travel of our minute enemies by less extraordinary means is sufficiently alarming. The plague of white mites in Bristol, which was noted the other day is an example of the kind. These mites are so tiny as to be barely visible to the eye, yet they have crossed the wide sea and driven families from their homes.

The Insect Army. Mites are tiny but terrible, and a single mite may lay as many as twenty thousand eggs. Some are harmless others devour the feathers of birds; some ruin vines and strawberries; another species is responsible for cattle fever; another kills our bees; and it is a mite that is ruining our black -currant plantations. The mites include the ticks, and the whole order is -so destructive as to occupy the fore front of the terrible insect army which is quietly waging war with science for the ultimate conquest of the world. If science wins the world will be mankind’s kingdom; if science fails insects will rule as the reptiles once did, and the mites and ticks will be among the enemy’s victorious shock troops. Plagues from Abroad. How came the white mites to Bristol? Like the terrific Argentine ant, by ship. They harboured in fibre sent from Algeria to Bristol for use in stuffing furniture. So came the deadly brown rat and the loathsome cockroach, and so comes the plague-bearing rat, to die at the hands of the watchful guardians of our ports. 11l news travels fast, our ancestors used to say when news was carried on horseback; to-day ills travel by steam»r, train, and aeroplane, and. as the Canadian airmen show us. on the wings of the wind as well. There is much yet to be done by men of skill, daring and goodwill in making the world really safe. —E.A.B. in The Children’s Magazine. Did you know that one in every five man*beings on the earth is in China?