THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



15 



rectioQ this summer, without seeing one or more 

 of them, either flying across my path, with their 

 beautiful striped wing-cases and rose-colored wings 

 glittering in the sun, or crawling on the ground, 

 or lit upon fences, weeds, &c. It really seems a 

 pity, that like a certain portion of the fairest part 

 of the creation, they should be at one and the same 

 time 80 beautiful and so mischievous. I may add 

 here that the Peach-blow variety of potatoes is less 

 liked by these little pests than any other, and that 

 so long as there are other kinds to feed on they 

 will not feed on the Peach-blows. Of course I am 

 speaking here of the Bugs and not of the Ladies. 



But although hand-picking will probably still 

 continue the only effective remedy, for those who 

 grow potatoes on a small scale, yet, for extensive 

 growers, machinery can be called into play to de- 

 stroy the Bug. A horse-machine for this purpose 

 has already been invented in Iowa; and even if 

 this particular machine does not prove effectual, 

 there can be no doubt that it may be finally im- 

 proved, so as to answer completely the purpose for 

 which it is intended ; just as the old original Reap- 

 ing and Mowing Machines have, of late years, been 

 so greatly improved upon, that no farmer now 

 would take one of the old-fashioned Machines at a 

 gift. Having heard of the above Machine at the 

 State Fair, and been referred to Dr. James Weed, 

 of Muscatine, Iowa, for further information, I wrote 

 to that gentleman on the subject; and having seen 

 the operation of the Machine with his own eyes. 

 he has obligingly furnished me with the following 

 account of it. It is, I believe, the first that has 

 hitherto appeared in print : — 



The machine was invented by Mr. Benson, cf Musca- 

 tine, Iowa, and he intends manufacturing it for next sea- 

 son's use. The cost will be about thirty dollars. It con- 

 sists of a frarao-work, which moves astride the row of po- 

 tatoes, on which is mounted longitudinally a reel some- 

 what like the one on McCormick's old Reaper, which 

 knocks the bugs oif the plants into a box on one side. 

 This box is of course open on the side next the row near- 

 ly down to the ground, but is some two feet high on the 

 outside and at the ends. The reel works over the inner 

 edge of the box, and the bugs are whipped off the vines 

 pretty clean; and the most of them are thrown against 

 the higher side of the box, which converges like a hop- 

 per over two four-inch longitudinal rollers at the bottom, 

 between which the bugs are passed and crushed. These 

 rollers are some three or four feet long. 



Those insects which are perched low down on the 

 plants are frequently knocked on to the ground; but I 

 think they would soon crawl up again ; and repeating the 

 operation at intervals would very greatly reduce their 

 numbers, and lesson very much the labor of hand-pick- 

 ing, which I think would be advisable in conjunction 

 with the use of the machine, in order to destroy the eggs 

 and diminish the young brood, which is most destructive 

 to the foliage of the plant. 



We give Mr. Benson the benefit of the above 

 notice of his Machine gratuitously. Of course, 

 when his terms and prices are finally fixed, he will 

 know enough to advertise what he has got for sale. 

 The world certainly does move. Who would have 

 believed fifty years ago, that in the year 1867 we 

 should be slaying Bugs by Horse-power ? 



It may be as well to warn the people of Michi- 

 gan, that the new Potato-bug will probably invade 

 their State sooner than it does Indiana. I know 

 from personal observations — and the Chicago ento- 



mologists are well aware of the same fact — that 

 many insects not usually found in Illinois, but com- 

 mon in Michigan, are washed up on the Lake 

 shore near Chicago in very large numbers by east- 

 erly gales, and come to life again in spite of their 

 apparently drowned condition. Hence, as the new 

 Potato-bug is now quite abundant in that part of 

 Illinois, which abuts on the western borders of Lake 

 Michigan, it is reasonable to infer that westerly 

 gales have already carried a few specimens into the 

 State of Michigan ; and that it will not be long be- 

 fore these few specimens " increase and multiply . 

 and replenish the earth." 



Let us now endeavor to calculate the pecuniary 

 damage so far inflicted by this insect upon the 

 country. Upon inquiry I find that the average 

 wholesale price of potatoes, in the infested district, 

 has been in the year 1866 about 70 or 75 cents a 

 bushel, and at Indianapolis, in Indiana, about 45 

 or 50 cents, being a difference of 25 cents a bushel. 

 Manifestly the difference in price could not be 

 much greater than this; for if potatoes fetched say 

 only 20 or 25 cents in Indianapolis, they would be 

 shipped from that point into North-western Illinois, 

 until the difference in price did not materially ex- 

 ceed the cost of shipment from one point to the 

 other. Hence, it follows that the above difference 

 in price, but for the modern facilities of shipment 

 from one part of the country to the other, might 

 possibly have exceeded 25 cents a bushel; and that 

 this estimate must be rather below than above what 

 it would have been, if we had no great Rail-road 

 system in the West. Now, the season having been 

 about the same, so far as I am aware, in the infest- 

 ed district and in Indiana, and the soil and climate 

 being about the same, the above enhanced price 

 can only have been caused by an artificial scarcity 

 produced by the ravages of this insect. Let us as- 

 sume that the whole of Kansas and Iowa, one-half 

 of Illinois, a fourth part of Wisconsin, and a tenth 

 part of Missouri, form the infested district for the 

 year 1866. If, from the U. S. Census Report for 

 the year 1860, we take the entire potato crop of 

 Kansas and Iowa (283.968 and 2,700,515 bushels), 

 one-half of that of Illinois (2,899,982 bushels), one- 

 fourth of that of Wisconsin (962,126 bushels), and 

 one-tenth of that of Missouri (199,085 bushels), 

 we shall find the sum total to be 7,045,976 bushels, 

 which represents the total potato crop of the pre- 

 sent infested district for A. D. 1860. Suppose 

 that this amount, instead of largely increasing from 

 1860 to 1866, as in the ordinary state of things it 

 would do, has, in consequence of the ravages of the 

 new Potato Bug, remained nearly stationary. Then 

 it results that in the infested district the consumer 

 has had to pay in 1866, on about seven million 

 bu.shels of potatoes, an enhanced price of 25 cents 

 a bushel, in consequence of the presence of the new 

 Potato Bug — making a total loss to the consumer 

 of If millions of dollars, in one single year, and in 

 one small corner of the United States; which loss 

 has been inflicted by one single insect, out of the 

 scores or rather hundreds that attack the Farm, 

 the Garden, and the Orchard. Of course, it must 



