Nc. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 743 



quaintance. There are four or five species of these beetles, and I 

 know of no more disastrous enemy when they come in great num- 

 bers, because they are not easily vanquished. When Paris green is 

 applied, it seems to have little effect. The only redeeming feature 

 possessed by these beetles is that they do not raise their families on 

 the plants, and we do not have the larvae, as well as the beetles, to 

 fight, as in the caee of the Colorado beetle. Many remedies have 

 been tried. When the field is small and one does not have the fear 

 of his neighbor before his eyes, it is entirely feasible to drive the 

 beetles out of the patch, threshing the ground behind them with 

 bushes, au'^ letting them go in the general direction they were tak- 

 ing whe.i •'■ . y entered the patch. When found entering the side of 

 a field, it has been recommended that straw be scattered along the 

 edge, and the beetles be driven into it and then burned. This is a 

 remedy that works at times, and fails utterly at other times. The 

 only fairly satisfactory way of fighting this pest is by thorough coat- 

 ing of the vines with Bordeaux mixture and Paris green. The ar- 

 senite is put in on the principle that nothing should be left undone 

 in the fight, but the effectiveness of the remedy lies chiefly in the re- 

 pellant power of the mixture. 



Potato Stalk-Borer [Trichoharis trinotata). — As potato sections 

 grow older, there is increase of the stalk-borer which causes a pre- 

 mature wilting and drying of the vines. Dr. T. W. Harris records its 

 presence at Germantown, Pa., in 1849, and says: ''In many fields in 

 the neighborhood of Germantown every stem was found to be in- 

 fested by these insects, causing the premature decay of the vines 

 and giving them the appearance of having been scalded.'' Dr. Hal- 

 stead, of the New Jersey Station, gives, in Bulletin No. 109, the fol- 

 lowing life history: ''The beetles appear in the fields early in spring, 

 and they live well into June. They are ashen-gray, oval, with a 

 black beak or snout, and about one-quarter inch in length. At the 

 base of the elytra or wing-covers are three small, shining black dots, 

 which give the insect its specific name. This beetle punctures the 

 stem of the potato near the ground with its slender beak, and in the 

 hole so made deposits an oval, soft, white egg. From this there 

 hatches in a short time thereafter a small white larva with a brown 

 head. This grows apace, eating in the center of the vine, either in 

 the trunk or in one of the large branches, and attains its growth at 

 any time between August first and September first. It is then from 

 one-third to one-half of an inch in length, dirty white or a little yel- 

 lowish with a yellowish-brown, horny head, and without perceptible 

 legs. It lies in the stalk in a slightly curved or curled position and 

 at some time about the middle of August constructs a cocoon of chips 

 and fibres in which it changes to a white pupa, in which all the organs 

 of the future beetle are distinctly visible. These cocoons may be in 



