332 



FLAX CULTUEE IN IRELAi^D. 



The acreage in flax iu the several provinces of Ireland in 1870 and 

 1871, together with the number of scutching-mills, is given by the regis- 

 trar-general as follows : 



1870. 



Ulster 180,412 



Munster 4,192 



Leinster 4, 238 



Connaught G, 068 



194,910 



1871. 



147, 188 

 2,929 

 3,199 



3,448 



De- Scutcb- 

 crease. ing-mills. 



33,224 1,409 



1, 263 39 



1,039 39 



2, 620 31 



156,764 38,146 1,518 



The following table shows the total extent of flax grown in Ireland in 

 each of the years named : 



Acres. 



1851 140,536 



1852 137,008 



1853 174,579 



1854 151,403 



1855 97,075 



1856 106,311 



1857 97,721 



1858 91,646 



1859 136,282 



1860 128,595 



1861 147,957 



Acres. 



1862 150,070 



1863 214,099 



1864 301,693 



1865 251,433 



1866 263,507 



1867 253,257 



1868 206,483 



1869 229,252 



1870 194,910 



1871 156,764 



ENTOMOLOGICAL RECORD. 



The Colorado potato-beetle.^As much anxiety has lately 

 been manifested in the Eastern States, in consequence of the rapid 

 approach of the much-dreaded western Colorado potato-bug, or ten-lined 

 spearman of AValsh, {Borypliora decem-Uneata, Say,) and as several 

 reports have lately been published as to its appearance in Massa- 

 chusetts, Pennsylvania, and other States, and as, iu many of the cases, 

 totally difl'erent insects have been mistaken for it, it may be well to 

 give a short account of the general appearance and habits of this insect, 

 for the benefit of those farmers who have as yet, fortunately, had no 

 opportunity of seeing it, or of learning any thiug about its general natural 

 history. The Boryiyliora clecem-Uneata, Colorado, or western ten-lined 

 potato-bug, was described by Say in the journal of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, in 1823, as occurring iu Missouri aud Arkansas, and 

 was so named from the ten black lines on its wing covers, five on each 

 side. One of the first notices of its appearance, as a destructive insect, 

 was in 1861, when Judge Edgerton described it as being very destruc- 

 tive to the potatoes in Iowa ; and, in 1SG2, it was reported by Thomas 

 Murphy, of Atchison, in Kansas, as doing much damage to the crops 

 and being very numerous. The insect is said to have first fed on a 

 species of wild potato, growing out in the far West, and is stated to 

 have traveled east about three hundred and sixty miles in six years, or 

 at a rate of about sixty miles a year. They are now said to be found as 

 far north as Canada, as far east as Ohio, aud, according to some papers, 

 (but doubtful,) even in New York and Pennsylvania. In 1864= Mr. 



