l88 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



long in passing over them once; and as illustrating the abundance of 

 the beetle, — three bushels of them had been gathered in a day by one 

 person from his fields by the aid of the " bug-catcher " which had been 

 devised to serve in the present emergency. 



Remedies. 



The efforts made to arrest the increase and ravages of this pest have 

 been these : hand-picking the beetle, or shaking them into vessels with 

 water floated with kerosene, collecting the egg-clusters, spraying with 

 Paris green or London purple in water, dusting by hand with Paris green 

 and hme, and collecting the beetle with the " bug-catcher." 



The hand-picking and jarring have proved quite effective, where small 

 fields have been treated in this manner — say of an acre or less ; with 

 larger ones it would be virtually impracticable. Perhaps the best — the 

 tallest and most uniform and less injured — field that I saw was a half- 

 acre to which the owner and his son had given time each day to this 

 method of protection. Although not so informed, I suspect from the 

 good condition of the leafage, that lime had been applied to kill the 

 larvae. The next most productive fields that came under my observation 

 were those of Mr. Black, where the ground had been well enriched and 

 carefully cultivated, sprayed at different times with a sprayer that would 

 cover six rows at once, and the " bug-catcher " faithfully used. It is 

 hardly necessary to state that this gentleman is not one of the " dis- 

 couraged willow-growers." Although his pay-roll runs into thousands 

 of dollars, there yet remain thousands on the profit side of the balance- 

 sheet. 



Machine for Collecting the Beetles. 



It remains only to speak of the ''bug-catcher" — so-called. It was 

 devised by one of the willow-growers, and, if without knowledge, as it 

 is believed, of our western "hopper-dozer," it is certainly an ingenious 

 contrivance, and the originator is entitled to considerable credit, for it is 

 producing, even in its present crude form, excellent results. 



The bottom of the machine (described from recollection merely) is of 

 a single piece of two-inch plank, twenty inches broad and four feet long. 

 The sides and ends are about eight inches high. At the back are fast- 

 ened two diverging arms extending forward nearly twice the length of the 

 frame, and their ends sufficiently far apart to receive two rows of willows 

 as the horse drawing the machine passes between them. To these arms 

 are fastened two cross-pieces, and also a longitudinal arm which may be 

 adjusted in a slot so as to depress or elevate the arms according to the 



