208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and I shall do it in a practical way that I hope will meet 

 your approbation. 



I shall have no prescribed order ; and perhaps as good a 

 way as any to begin is to take the first insect that we shall 

 be likely to meet in the spring, one in which most of you are 

 interested, and doubtless have had something to do with, — 

 the Colorado potato-beetle, or the potato-^?^^, so to speak. 

 You undoubtedly all know him. It is not necessary to 

 describe him. If you do not know him, you will. If you 

 will go out next spring pretty early, you will discover him 

 sitthig around upon the fences, &c., waiting for you to plant 

 your potatoes, or, if you have planted them, waiting for them 

 to come up. You will certainly find him, and you will find 

 him very early. He has crawled into the crevices and cracks 

 with the squash-bugs, the wasps, &c. ; and they are all ready 

 for business. 



I shall have very little to say about the habits of this 

 beetle. It is an insect that has brood after brood in the same 

 season. As soon as the young have time to hatch, j'ou Avill 

 find them at all times and stages of development during the 

 whole season. There is, in my view, but one remedy, and 

 that is what some of you are afraid of; but you will have to 

 come to it, — Paris-green, arsenite of copper. I have tried 

 two or three modes of applying Paris-green, and have set- 

 tled upon one. I think the best way is to use a hundred 

 pounds of plaster (the finer ground the better) to one pound 

 of Paris-green. One pound is ample for a hundred pounds 

 of plaster. I am not sure but that proportion of green is too 

 much. Most of you have applied it very much stronger. 

 The great point is to get a single particle of Paris-green upon 

 the potato-leaf. Now, Paris-green is an impalpable powder : 

 it is exceedingly fine. It is necessary to apply but a single 

 atom of it in one spot; but you want to apply it evenly 

 over the whole foliage of the potato ; and to do it, the best 

 diluent, the best thing to dilute it with, is plaster. I apply 

 it by means of a dredging-box, after the form of the ordinary 

 flour dredging-box used in the kitchen. I have one that 

 holds about a quart, with a cover pierced with holes, which 

 is on the end of a handle about three feet long. All that is 

 necessary, when it is filled, is to give a slight turn to the 

 handle, and you can apply it to the potatoes as fast as you 



