THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 101 



and as an experiment he tried the Elder. The larvae were just ready 

 to disappear of their own accord, and as the great bulk of them did 

 really disappear in two or three days after the application, the appar- 

 ently logical inference was made that they had been driven away by 

 the smell of the Elder. 



How many of the published remedies that flood the country owe 

 their origin to just such defective proof ! The sun-scorching remedy, 

 which consists of knocking the bugs off the vines on to the heated 

 ground between the rows, and which has been so often recommended 

 the present year, partakes a good deal of this character; for it can 

 only be of benefit in a very dry season, and at a time of year when 

 the bugs have done most of their damage. A goodly proportion of 

 the larvas that are thus knocked off will always manage to burrow 

 into the ground and transform, or to get back upon the vines ; and 



THE TRUE REMEDY 



consists in preventing them from becoming numerous so late in the 

 season. Watch for the beetles in early spring, when the vines are 

 just peeping out of the ground. Ensnare as many of them as you can 

 before they get a chance to pair, by making a few small heaps of po- 

 tatoes in the field planted : to these the beetles will be attracted for 

 food, and you can easily kill them in the morning. Keep an eagle 

 eye for the eggs which are first deposited. Cultivate well, by fre- 

 quently stirring the soil. Plant early varieties in preference to late 

 ones because the bugs are always more numerous late in the season 

 than they are during the spring and early summer. Give the prefer- 

 ence to the Peach Blow, Early Rose and such other varieties as have 

 been found most exempt from attack,* and surround your fields on 

 the outside by rows of such tender-leaved varieties as the Mercer, 

 Shaker, Russet, Pink-eye and Early Goodrich ; but, above all, isolate 

 your potato field as much as possible, either by using land surrounded 

 with timber, or by planting in the centre of a cornfield. Carry out 

 these suggestions thoroughly and you will not have much use for 

 Paris green and still less for the scorching remedy. 



THE CODLING MOTH AGAIN.— Carpocapsa pomonella, Linn. 



HAY-BANDS VS. RAGS— ALWAYS TWO-BROODED IN MISSOURI. 



After a series of experiments, instituted the past summer, I have 

 proved that, after all, the hay-band around the trunk of the tree is a 



* After experimenting last summer with eighty-one varieties of potatoes, the Superintendent 

 of the garden of the Iowa Agricultural College reports the varieties of the Peach Blow, the 

 Peerless and Chili No. 2, as most exempt from the ravages of this insect, the last named variety 

 not being worked upon at suL). 



