THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



15 



many of the farmers on the frontier districts, but, as far as wc could see or 

 learn, without any perceptible results. 



I last year showed how futile it is to use elder leaves as a remedyj but it 

 is so easy for persons who are not thoroughly- posted as to the habits of this 

 insect to form wrong copclusions about the efficacy of whatsoever application 

 they may make to the vines, that we this year find the sprinkling of a decoc- 

 tion made from Dog fennel, or from the root of the May apple or Mandrake 

 {Podophyllum pelt atum) strongly recommended for the same purpose. Mr.. 

 John Oliver, of Glencoe, — determined to fully test the latter — went to consid- 

 erable trouble and expense to procure a sufficient quantity of the May apple 

 decoction ; and after thoroughly trying it, he informs me that it had no effect 

 in killing the bugs. Even were these methods successful, they could not be 

 everywhere emjjloyed, and must always prove more expensive than the 

 Paris green. 



We learn from the Prairie Farmer of Chicago, that an intelligent Eussian 

 gentleman of that city employs the following method : 



He takes finely pulverized, air slacked lime, commences at one end of 

 the field and scatters it over the vines for the distance of about ten rods. In 

 the course of the day, if the lime is aj)plied in the morning, the bugs nearly 

 all betake themselves further down the rows where no lime was scattered. 

 The next day he scatters lime on the vines for a like distance, and thus 

 continues day bj- day, till the bugs are driven on to a small area, when they 

 are destroyed b}^ Paris green or by other means. 



Mechanical Means. — 'Various contrivances have been devised for 

 knocking the bugs off the vines. Mr. Geo. Squires, of Montgomery, 111., as 

 I am informed by Dr. LeBaron, built a machine to be drawn by horses, 

 which worked very effectually the past summer. It is a modification of that 

 of Mr. Benson, of Iowa, described in my first Eeport, being a simple box six 

 inches high, with wheels to which brooms are attached to sweep the vines — 

 the brooms circling towards the box. 



[Fig. ■.'.] 



Mr. Samuel Creighton, of Lithopolis, Ohio, has 

 been kind enough to furnish me with an "Improved 

 Patent Insect Destroyer," which is especially in- 

 tended for the potato bugs. It is a hand machine of 

 a very simple nature, and the accompanying outline, 

 (Fig. 2.) will give a very good idea of it. In using, it 

 is held in the right hand by the handle a, and placed 

 at one side of the potato hill, with the 

 upper end more or less inclined, according 

 to the size of the plants. In this position 

 the lower branches of the plants will 

 overhang the forward edge of the plate 

 d; and the flanges of the sides, cc, which 

 are slightly bent outwards, will embrace 

 the second and third sides of the vines, 

 leaving the fourth exposed. The opera- 

 tor then strikes this exjiosed side, with a 



