578 State Board of Agriculture, &c. 



until spring, coming out in May or June. Tlie females are 

 very prolific, each one laying about one thousand eggs, 

 which in four or five weeks become perfect beetles, so that 

 in a single season the unchecked increase of a single pair 

 might produce no less than two hundred and fifty million 

 beetles, supposing half of each brood to be females. And 

 where they flourish their nmnbers are beyond computation. 

 I have known fields picked clean every other daj^ all sum- 

 mer, and the number of bugs thus collected did not seem to 

 diminisli as the picking was repeated. The eggs of the beetle, 

 fig. 4, a, a, are orange colored, oval bodies, about as large as 

 the head of a large pin. They are glued in greater or less 

 clusters to the under side of the leaves. The larva, fia;. 4, b, b. 

 is a short, tliick grub of an orange color, with a double row 

 of black spots along each side, and the first ring behind the 

 head is edged behind with black, the rest being pale. There 

 is what is known as tlie false potato bug, which very closely 

 resembles the true, and has often been confounded with it, 

 but it is a Southern species and will not be likely to ever 

 occur in Vermont, so that we need not stop to point out the 

 difference between the true and the false. As to precau- 

 tions to be taken against what may be a great trouble, we 

 may say that the first, most obvious and most efficient tliat 

 can be taken is to destroy it utterly as soon as it makes its 

 appearance, at whatever cost of time and labor may be nec- 

 essary. However great may be the trouble of exterminat- 

 ing the insect at first, it is far less than it will be at any 

 other time. The farmers on the Western and Southern bor- 

 ders of the St ate should be especially vigilant, for they 

 stand as guard over the whole State. It is encouraging to 



