GOLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 166 



80 as to enter the holes in the posts. Through this bar, a few inches 

 from each end, an oblong square hole, or mortise, is cut, through which 

 the arms pass, to the ends of which the flapper is attached, as seen in 

 the figure. The flapper is a piece of thin board, a piece of sidiog for 

 example, which is nailed to the ends of the arras. The arms are so 

 arranged as to slide by each other in the mortise, and in this way the 

 flapper can be raised or lowered according to the hight of the vines. 

 The bars, with their flappers, are made to revolve by a crank attached 

 to the, forward end of the near, or left hand bar, and is turned by the 

 driver. The forward end of each revolving bar passes through a pulley 

 wheel, about seven inches in diameter, a band passing from one to 

 the other, and crossed so as to make both bars revolve inwards. 



In cultivating a few acres, the machine may be simply dragged along 

 upon the ground. But as Mr. Squires raises from twenty to thirty 

 acr of potatoes yearly, he attached the machine to the forward wheels 

 of a light wagon, suspended by a chain to the axle-tree, so that the for- 

 ward end of the drag barely touched the ground, and thus greatly facil- 

 itated the draft. The driver sits upon the axle-tree, with his back to 

 the horse and his feet upon the platform, and turns the crank, sitting a 

 little sideways so as to direct the horse at the same time. 



In answer to questions put to Mr. Squires, the following additional 

 information was obtained : 



The machine was made in less than half a day, and did not cost over 

 four dollars. Those who used it were the only ones in that neighbor- 

 hood, with one exception, who harvested any potatoes. Mr. Squires 

 had sold a thousand bushels of potatoes at a dollar a bushel, and had 

 half as many more left. The machine operates most successfully upon 

 vines from four to twelve inches high. It knocks off nine-tenths of the 

 beetles and larger grubs, but does not remove many of the very small 

 ones. A man can easily go over fifteen acres a day, and he had once 

 bugged ten acres in half a day. The potatoes being on ridges, the 

 machine drops a little below them, and this explains how bugs can be 

 knocked from vines only four inches high into a box of the same hight. 

 In answer to the question whether it would not be a good plan to line 

 the box with zinc, to prevent the bugs from crawling out, Mr. Squires 

 replied that the bugs do not attempt much to crawl out of the box. 

 The blow which knocks them in, partially stupifies them for a time, 

 and the continual whipping in of the vines by the flappers tends to 

 knock them back. If many of them are attempting to crawl out at any 

 time, they can be jarred down by a sharp rap on the sides or ends of 

 the box. 



