Letters, Jun. 25, 1934

(3 of 4)
time at home between his Bacharach Real Estate Co. ("Brigantine Beach'' development) and his Atlantic City Lumber Co. Brother Benjamin is now retired. Brother Harry was drafted back into the mayor's office in 1930 after the scandals of the Ruffu regime. Until a few years ago, each of the Brothers Bacharach was president of an Atlantic City bank. All are still financially well-off. Chief among their civic interests is the children's hospital built in memory of their mother. Unambitious at 64, Isaac Bacharach is rated by impartial observers thus: an Old Guardsman of the best school, a born behind-the-scenes fixer, "one of the dozen men who really count in the House." His term expires Jan. 3, 1935.—ED. Bit of a Titter Sirs:

Until 4 p.m. June 16 I credited TIME with almost paper infallibility but at that hour I read your story about Lord Lonsdale (p. 19, TIME, June 18). You could have knocked me over with debrett when I saw that you referred to Lonsdale as His Grace! My word but won't there be a bit of a titter in ducal circles when that reaches the Old Country, what!

PERCY. WAXMAN

New York City

Bug Business

Sirs:

Under Science (TIME, June 11) you have given publicity to a type of business which from a scientific point of view is quite unwarranted. The "bug v. bug" method of control has a very strong appeal to the grower who must forever spray, fumigate and in other ways protect his source of income from the ravages of his insect guests.

. . . Under the present capable leadership, biological control workers "play down" the ''bug v. bug" idea lest a legitimate scientific activity acquire a ''cure-all" reputation and subsequently suffer the disrepute that such remedies are heir to.

The desperate grower usually is sold quantities of the "beneficial" insect by the safe line that it "won't do any harm, may do some good and is comparatively cheap." Hippodamia convergens (ladybird beetle) is a case in point. For years, by the hundreds and thousands, they have been scooped up from their hibernating quarters in the shrubs at high altitudes and sold to vegetable growers in the hot lowlands. Scientific investigations have failed to show that the release of this ladybird beetle in any aphis-infested field ever resulted in an effective reduction of the aphis population in that field. Often the liberation, if made at a propitious time, is followed by a marked reduction in the abundance of the pest. This reduction is in all probability due to the operation of natural factors already present. To the superficial observer, however, Hippodamia gets the credit. Thus quackery enters the picture as in the case of the "bogus bug business."

Incidentally, Hippodamia may be fond of eating the eggs of the vegetable aphis but it is not likely to find them on any vegetables during the spring and summer, for aphis usually at that time give birth to living young. . . .

Only once in a while do we stage a play that clicks. Nature furnishes the villain and directs the action. We can only set the stage and place thereon the heroine, provided of course one exists and can be found.