turner A POTATO BEETLE CHRONICLE 363 



10:45 P. M. 



A microscope ! A microscope ! My kingdom for a microscope ! 

 11:00 p. m. 



I feel sure they are hatching. I wonder if they want to eat as 

 soon as they are hatched. The potato field is a good mile away, 

 besides the potatoes were to be sprayed with poison, so I wouldn't 

 dare go there. I have heard a great deal of talk about "Mellin's 

 Food and Eagle Brand." Perhaps these would do. 



CHAPTER II 



The Larva 

 8:20, -July 12. 



The black specks were larvae. Professor Detwiler's fine three- 

 hundred dollar microscope showed them plainly. The little 

 fellows were so enlarged that they looked as large as the adult 

 larvae appear to the naked eye. 



They are certainly fine specimens, too. Without doubt they 

 would be 100% perfect at any "Better Baby" show. 



I called the one that was most nearly hatched Columbus be- 

 cause he landed first. The next two to emerge I shall call Ferdi- 

 nand and Isabella, because in history, Columbus couldn't have 

 landed without them. 

 9:00 a. m. 



The question of food arose and Professor Detwiler solved it by 

 leading the way on a foraging expedition to a deserted garden 

 where we found a potato plant left blooming alone among the 

 weeds like the "Last Rose of Summer." If the world were in the 

 hands of men like Professor Detwiler there would be no starving 

 babies in the near East. 



Well to ccme back to the potato, we got a top from the stalk 

 and I put the dried leaf with the hatching eggs in the center, and 

 went home, 

 10:10 a. m. 



When I reached home, I looked for Columbus in the nest, but 

 behold he was not there, I was alarmed thinking I had lost him, 

 when I spied him like the "Great Admiral" out upon an exploring 

 expedition. 



In the short time I had spent getting the food, he had grown 

 from an almost invisible speck to a regular larva, and could walk 

 and eat. He had increased his size many times. It is said that 



