THE 



raittkal ®ttt0m0l00fet 



A MONTHLY BULLETIN, 



Published by the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, for gratuitous distribution 

 among Farmers and Agriculturists. 



Vol. I. 



OCTOBER 30, 1865. 



No. 1. 



THE POTATO. 



The Kew Fotato-bng, and its Katnral History. 

 BY BENJ. D. WALSH, M. A. 



There ia a new and very destructive enemy of 

 the Potato, which within the last five years has 

 spread from Colorado and Nebraska into Iowa, and 

 within the last year and a half has crossed the 

 Mississippi into Illinois, aod as it seems into Wis- 

 consin also; whence in course of time it will pro- 

 bably travel onwards to the Atlantic, establishing 

 a permanent colony wherever it goes, and pushing- 

 eastward at the rate of about fifty miles a year. 

 The following extracts will give some idea of the 

 way in which this insect operates, where it has once 

 made itself a home, and of the dates of its first 

 appearance in diiferent localities. 



Thos. Murphy of Atchison, Kansas, says that in 

 August, 18G1, they were so numerous in his ten-acre 

 garden, " that they would almost cover the whole 

 potato-vine, eating up everything green on it," and 

 that he has "often in a very short time gathered 

 as many as two bushels of them." — ( Valley Farmer, 

 July, 1802, p. 209.) 



In August, 1861, J. Edgerton of Gravity, Iowa, 

 says that " they made their appearance upon the 

 vines as soon as the potatoes were out of the ground, 

 and there being a cold, wet spell of weather about 

 that time, they devoured them as fast as they were 

 up." — {Prairie Farmer, August 29, 1861, p. 116.) 

 And from New Sharon, Iowa, Dr. Fitch was in- 

 formed in 1863 " that some have been discouraged 

 from planting potatoes, the ravages of this potato- 

 bug have been so great." — {Trans. N. Y. State Agr. 

 Sue. 1863, p. 798.) 



D. Kilpatrick of Linton, Iowa, nnder date of 

 June 30, 1865, says " I took more than a gallon of 

 bugs this morning fjom eleven rows of potatoes 

 eight rods long. Eternal vigilance is the price of 

 potatoes in this section." — {N. Y. Sent. Tribune, 

 July 18, 1865.) 



Norman Matteson, of Iowa, June 1865, says that 



" the only way they can grow potatoes there is to 

 go over the field every day, and destroy the eggs 

 of the potato-bug which are laid upon the leaves." 

 {Ibid. July 7, 1865.) 



Later in the year " Dr. Trimble placed upon the 

 table of the New York Farmers' Club a large hand- 

 ful of letters, boxes, bottles and packages from 

 Iowa, all of them containing a repetition of the 

 same sad story, touching the terrible pest now af- 

 flicting potato-growers at the West." — {Ibid. Aug. 

 1, 1865.) 



In August, 1864, 1 received from Prof. Worthen, 

 the State Geologist of Illinois, specimens of this 

 insect, with a statement that "it is committing the 

 most destructive ravages on the potato crop in the 

 vicinity of Warsaw, [a town on the M ississippi river 

 in Central Illinois,] so as to threaten the loss of the 

 entire crop on many farms." I find that the same 

 insect in the same year appeared on the potato in 

 considerable numbers near New Boston, Illinois, 

 another town on the Mississippi river a little above 

 Warsaw. In the autumn of the same year I cap- 

 tured myself two specimens in Rock Island, an- 

 other town still higher up on the same river ; and 

 in 1865 it has been quite abundant there, completely 

 destroying some pieces of potatoes and utterly ru- 

 ining the egg-plants in my garden; but uptothis 

 date it has not reached a point lying thirty miles 

 to the east of us in such numbers as to be noticed 

 by farmers. I hear from reliable sources that it 

 has also swarmed on the potato this year near Mt. 

 Carroll — a point situated about ten miles from the 

 Mississippi near the northern border of the State — 

 and in the neighborhood of Alton, which lies on 

 the east bank of the Mississippi not many miles 

 above St. Louis. It does not appear to have ad- 

 vanced as yet any considerable distance into the 

 interior of the State; but .from the above facts it 

 results, that it must have crossed the river into 

 Illinois in 186-1 and 1865 at no less than five difie- 

 rent points, the northernmost of which lies over 

 two hundred miles in a straight line from the south- 

 ernmost. Hitherto noxious insects in the United 

 States have been found to travel from the east to- 

 wards the west. We have here the first instance 



