122, 
and other plants, puncturing them with its beak, and drawing off 
the sap. The parts attacked withered shortly afterward, turned black, 
and in a few days dried up, or curled, and remained permanently 
stunted in their growth. 
Concerning the injuries of this species to the potato, Prof. Riley 
remarks: ‘I have passed through potato fields along the Iron. 
Mountain Railroad in May, and found almost every stalk blighted 
and black from the thrusts of its poisonous beak, and it is not at 
all surprising that this bug was some years ago actually accused of 
being the cause of the dreaded potato-rot.” He also reports that a 
gentleman living near Chicago was almost baffled by its injurious. 
punctures, in his efforts to raise late-planted cucumbers. It is not 
at all likely that this account exhausts the species of garden vege- 
tables liable to its attacks, but doubtless almost anything affording 
it attractive food in the season of its necessities would suffer 
similarly. 
In the Orchard. 
The best account extant of its work in the orchard and nursery 
is that given by Mr. Wier, in the “Prairie Farmer” article already 
cited. He writes from a full heart, having, in one year, suffered a. 
loss from this insect of about a thousand. dollars worth of young 
trees. He says: ‘‘What the chinch-bug is to the spring wheat 
grower, this bug is to the nurseryman and fruit grower, in regions. 
adapted to its multiplication; and, like the chinch-bug, there seems 
to be no means of combating it with much chance of success. IL 
have lost, within the last three years, by its ravages in our nursery 
and orchard, enough to pay the salary of our State Entomologist ; 
I have closely studied it during that time, and to-day I feel that L 
shall have to stand by next spring utterly impotent to combat it 
successfully, and see it blast my winter’s work of grafting, in a 
great measure, and destroy every germ of plum and pear on my 
grounds, making my rows of young pear and plum trees look as if 
they had been singed with fire during four long weeks. 
As soon in the spring as the first buds on our pear, mountain ash 
and quince begin to burst, and the days are bright and warm, these 
bugs commence to feed on them, and every bud that they pierce 
with their poisonous beaks is utterly destroyed. As the terminal 
bud is the first to push, it goes first, and then each successive bud 
down the branch; so if the tree is small and there are bugs enough, 
every free bud on the tree is killed, and it has to push its dormant 
buds.. These are destroyed in the same way, and the tree stands 
for a long time after this rough treatment, apparently considering 
whether life is worth the immense effort of arranging cells for new 
points of growth, to be destroyed in their incipiency. It goes to 
work, and doubtingly, timidly and weakly sends out its best, though 
spindling, effort. If the Capsus captures this last effort, and the 
tree is weak in its store of food, it throws up the sponge; if not, it 
makes a weak, unsightly growth, for the reason that the new shoots 
do not start from*proper axes. 
The buds of root grafts cannot stand many stoppings; so where 
these bugs are plenty, the rows show this, indeed. After feeding 
and destroying in this way for about a month, the female lays her 
