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THE POTATO BEETLE. 



A LITTLE OIL ON THE WATERS. 



By W. V. ANDREWS. 



Corresponding Secretary of Long Island Entomologists' Society, U.S.A. 



PHE occasion of the ap- 

 pearance of this little 

 article is a paper which 

 appeared in the Sep- 

 tember number of 

 Science-Gossip, writ- 

 ten by Mr. E. C. Rye. 

 No one will dispute 

 the assertion that any- 

 thing from the pen of 

 that gentleman, particu- 

 larly on entomology, is worthy of our serious atten- 

 tion, and therefore it is that I regret to see him in 

 the ranks of the alarmists, — already, as I should 

 judge, too well recruited. 



I will assure your readers that to us, who have now 

 for some years been familiar with D. decemlineata, 

 the alarm seriously felt in the Old World lest this 

 insect should visit your shores seems verging on the 

 ridiculous. I do not, of course, mean that reasonable 

 precautions should not be taken ; but the idea of 

 stopping the transmission of dead specimens through 

 the mails, as I know has been done, and thus pre- 

 venting your people from making a personal acquaint- 

 ance with the insect, appears to me to have a ten- 

 dency to defeat the object in view. 



Certainly I should adv.se no Englishman to import 

 Jive specimens, and I shjuld advise all farmers and 

 gardeners to rid themselves of the presence of the 

 beetle, as I should advise them to rid themselves of 

 a crop of thistles. But if they imagine that its 

 existence in their fields is likely seriously to injure 

 ■their crops, then I assure them that they are very 

 much mistaken. We have had this beetle on Long 

 Island in immense numbers for some years, and I 

 do not believe that any one has suffered any 

 appreciable loss through its depredations. Farmers 

 .all say this. 

 No. 157. 



If any loss have been sustained, it has rather been 

 through the i - emedy used than through the disease. 

 And here let me earnestly advise my countrymen — for 

 I am an Englishman — if the 'ieetle should make its 

 appearance in the tight little island, to use no Paris 

 green, or other poisons, with a view to its extermi- 

 nation. There are two or three sufficient reasons why 

 such remedies should not be used : — 



1. Its application, in any form, is not without 

 danger. If it be dangerous to wear green silks or to 

 use green paper for walls, it surely must be injurious 

 to apply this poison in any way by which its entrance 

 into the human system is rendered possible, and 

 probable. 



2. The first shower of rain or gale of wind will 

 remove every particle of the powder from the foliage 

 of the potato, and either disseminate it through the 

 atmosphere or imbed it in the soil, to be stirred up 

 by the hoers or diggers. 



3. Its use is entirely unnecessary. For small plots 

 of land hand-picking by boys or girls is efficacious 

 and without danger (for I do hope that your readers 

 are not believers in the foolish stories told of the 

 beetle being poisonous). For larger lots an ordinary 

 butterfly bag-net, swept gently along the potato- 

 tops, will capture more beetles in an hour than Paris 

 green will kill in a week ; and, by the way, recollect 

 that Paris green will kill other things besides potato 

 beetles. An American farmer applied a pretty good 

 dose of this poison to the potatoes in his garden " one 

 dewy eve," and on the next morning found four dead 

 milch-cows in his pasture. The cows had broken 

 into the garden, and — increased the quantity of beef 

 in that vicinity. 



Mi". Rye tells you that Paris green is a favourite 

 remedy here, but he does not understand the American 

 mode of doing things. Some State entomologist or 

 other probably had ~ friend in the oil and colour 



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