98 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF 



embers, though of small and insignificant stature, will fully make 

 up in number what they lack in size. 



When we calculate the immense loss, amounting to millions of 

 dollars, which this insect has cost the Western States during the past 

 nine or ten years — when we contrast (he healthful and thrifty aspect 

 of the potato fields in Ontario and in those States to which this potato 

 plague has not yet spread, with the sickly, denuded, or Paris-green- 

 besmeared fields at home — but above all when we reflect that, noth- 

 ing preventing, it will infest the whole of Ontario within, perhaps, the 

 next two, and at farthest within the next three years — we feel that it 

 is high time to make some effort to prevent its onward march through 

 Ontario, if ever such an effort is to be made. The warnings and in- 

 structions given by the Agricultural press, and through our own col- 

 umns, will avail but little, as they reach the few only. It may be, and 

 doubtless is, true that successful culture, as our country becomes 

 more thickly settled, will be confined to the intelligent and well-in- 

 formed ; yet the fact nevertheless remains, that the masses will do 

 nothing to ward off an evil until they are forced to it from necessity. 

 The plodding, non-reading farmer will take no notice of the few bugs 

 he first sees in his potato field, because they do him no material in- 

 jury ; but when the bugs have increased so as to make it a question of 

 "potatoes or no potatoes ; ' with him, then his energies will be aroused. 

 But alas! his best efforts, at this time, often prove unavailing, and he 

 has to spend days to accomplish that which a few minutes would have 

 accomplished before. We therefore fully expect to see this great 

 army of bugs continue its eastward march without hindrance, unless 

 other preventive measures are taken than those already employed. 

 A standing premium offered by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. 

 Carding, for a given number of beetles, or for the greatest number 

 collected and killed in one season, or for the cleanest and best field 

 of potatoes, of a given number of acres, within the infested districts 

 along the eastern shores of the lakes mentioned and those of the St. 

 Clair river; might, and undoubtedly would, be the best means of 

 stamping it out, and of keeping it out of the Dominion.* 



No doubt that, in suggesting any expenditure of money for such 

 purposes, our Canadian brethren will deem us over-enthusiastic about 

 "small things," and over-anxious for their welfare. Well, be that as 

 it may, we don't forget that there is considerable of Uncle Sam's ter- 

 ritory beyond Niagara. It is a mere matter of dollars and cents, and 

 we venture to say that, when once this insect shall have spread over 

 Ontario, a million dollars would be freely spent to accomplish that 

 which will then be almost impossible, and which a very few thou- 

 sands would effectually accomplish now — namely, its extermination 

 from the Dominion. 



An excellent chance is now afforded in Ontario — almost sur- 

 rounded as it is by lakes — to keep this destructive enemy at bay. In 

 the summer of 1869, reports of this insect's ravages, and of its prog- 



