COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 



Bipelas, their faces being so much swollen as almost to close their 

 eyes. There are also several cases on record of severe inflamma- 

 tion of the hand and arm, after handling these insects, when 

 there was an abrasion of the skin. 



But it is not necessary to touch the insects with the hand. The 

 coramoQ practice is to knock them off into a pan or pail. As 

 simple and convenient a plan as I have heard of was adopted by 

 one of my neighbors, Mr. H. C. Hawkins. He took an old meal 

 bag, cut it off in the middle so that it might not bo inconvenient- 

 ly long, and fitted into it a small hoop so as to keep the mouth 

 open, and then, passing along the rows, knocked the bugs into 

 the bag with the flat side of a shingle, occasionally shaking the in- 

 sects down to the bottom of the bag, from which they could not 

 easily escape. 



It is not my intention to enumerate the hundred and one me- 

 chanical contrivances that have been resorted to for the purpose of 

 killing these insects. I only mention a few that seem to me most 

 worthy of imitation. Mr. J. W. Clark, of Twin Hills, Wisconsin, 

 makes use of the following wholesale method, in field culture. A 

 person with a common broom held perpendicularly with one 

 hand and grasped as low down as convenient with the other, 

 passes along close to or astride a row of the vines, and with a 

 quick lateral motion strkes the vines first on one side and then on 

 the other, scattering the bugs into the spaces between the rows. 

 Another hand follows immediately after with a plow and crushes 

 or buries the greater proportion of the insects. If the potatoes 

 have been already plowed and hilled up, he drags along the fur- 

 row a heavy bundle of brush, or a small harrow made for the 

 purpose. A considerable proportion of the insects will of course 

 escape, but the operation is so rapidly performed that it can be 

 repeated as often as necessary. Mr. C. closes by saying : " On the 

 whole, we confidently ofler this system of treatment as one that 

 will be found cheap, rapid and effective. The work can be 

 performed in half the time that it requires to apply Paris-green, 

 which, moreover, is not a fit thing for children to handle. The 

 only cost is labor, and this not ditficult. A smart boy or girl will 

 easily broom over an acre in two hours." 



The second of the methods above enumerated is sun-burning. 



