﻿SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



from several parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.* 



INJURIES DURING THE YEAR. 



While the insect has been quite injurious in some of the Eastern 

 States more recently invaded, it has attracted less attention than 

 usual during the year in Missouri; for our farmers have come to con- 

 sider it a necessary evil, and its destruction a part of potato culture. 

 One rather curious circumstance in this connection relates to its in- 

 creased injuries in its native home in the Rocky Mountains. It is a 

 fact observed by many western travelers that the potatoes in the 

 mountain regions of Colorado were less affected by the insect than 

 were those of the Mississippi Valley. This was natural enough, since 

 the wild food plants are common there, and the potato fields fewer 

 and more scattered than further east ; and, moreover, the stream which 

 first branched off from the wild Solanum feeders, and took to feeding 

 upon the cultivated potato and spreading eastward, doubtless took no 

 backward course. During the past summer, however, the insect did 

 great damage to the crops in the mountain region: yet a fact which is 

 suggestive to the people in the Alleghanies is worthy of mention, and 

 that is that while the injury reached three or four miles into the moun- 

 tains, or to about the middle elevations (say 8,000 feet above the sea 

 level,) the crop was entirely free from the insects above that altitude 

 and yielded abundantly. This fact was communicated to me by sev- 

 eral independent observers, and among others by Prof. J. H. Tice, who 

 spent the summer at Left Hand Canon. Some observations of Mr.G. 

 H. French, of Irvington, Ills., who also spent the summer in the moun- 

 tains, to the effect that while he often found the bodies and eggs 



* The following reports are the most trustworthy (the species having been identified in each 

 instance) from among many others that might be given : The American Farmer, Baltimore, for July, 

 1874, says: " Not only in the vicinity of Baltimore, but all over the western shore of Maryland, in 

 Delaware and in Virginia, these insects have appeared in gjeat numbers, voraciously attacking the 

 crops." H. P. reports it in Connecticut (.V. i'. Weekhj Tribune, July2-2, 1S74) ; E. B. M. in Cape May 

 county, N. J., [ibid, August 2G, 1874) . lu June it was at AVilmiugton, Del., {Daily Commercial of that 

 place, Jimel, 1874J. E. T. reports it during the same month in Oneida county, N. Y., {Country Gentle- 

 man, June 25, 1874) ; C. F. at Olney, Md., {ibid, July 30, 1S74) . The monthly reports of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture record it in Alleghany, Cattaraugus, Delaware, Erie, Madison, Tioga, AVayne and 

 Wyoming counties, N. Y'. ; Burlington, Gloucester and Salem counties in N. J. ; Kent county in Del. ; 

 Alleghany, Baltimore, Caroline, Cecil, Carroll, Dorchester, Frederick, Hartford, Montgomerj', Prince 

 George and Queen Anne comities, inMd.; and Culpepper, Fauquier, Greenville, Highland, Page and 

 Prince AVilliam counties, iu Va. 



Finally, the following parties have reported its aiJjiearance to me by letter : Kev. John G. Mor- 

 ris, Baltimore, Md., from around that city ; T. L. Harison, Secy. N. Y. State Agr. Soc. , from aroiuid 

 Syracuse, N. Y'. ; W. K. Shelmire, Toughkennamon, from Chester county. Pa.; S. Lockwood, Free- 

 hold, N. J., from that vicinity; S. S. Ralhvon, Lancaster, Pa., spoke of its increase in Lancaster 

 county ; Thos. Mcehan reported it swarming in June around Germantown, Pa. 



