350 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



contrasting prettily with the yellow and black of the elytra. It will frequently work into a 

 sprouting hill of potatoes, as these are raising the soil, and feed upon the tender sprouts and 

 tubers; and as soon as the plant shows itself the female begins to lay her oval orange eggs 

 in clusters of from ten to forty, each attached by one end to the under side of a leaf, or to a 

 stem. &quot;With favorable weather, there hatches in the course of a week from each egg a small, 

 dark, Venetian-red hunch-backed larva, which becomes paler and acquires a double row of 

 lateral black spots as it advances towards full growth. This period arrives in about three 

 weeks from hatching, and the larva finally burrows into the ground, where, within a simple 

 earthen cavity, it becomes a pupa, and finally a beetle in from seven to ten days; the whole 

 cycle of its transformation from the egg to the beetle requiring rarely more than a month.&quot; 

 Mr. J. C. Tache, in his pamphlet entitled &quot; La Mouche, ou la Chrysomele des Patates,&quot; says 

 respecting the number of eggs deposited : 



&quot;The eggs are deposited in rows and by groups, of which the number most frequently 

 ranges from ten to forty; but groups have often been observed of all degrees of numerical 

 value. In the course of numerous experiments which I have made with insects kept separate, 

 I have seen groups of all numbers, from a deposit composed of a single egg, up to one of 122 

 eggs, laid without quitting the spot, by a female kept in close seclusion.&quot; 



From two to four broods are hatched and perfected during the season, according to the 

 locality and length of the season, the last brood going into the ground in a perfect beetle 

 state, to lie dormant during the winter, reappearing as soon as the ground becomes warm 

 enough in the spring to revive them. Each female is said to lay from five to ten hundred 

 eggs during the season; therefore, if in the spring, when they first make their appearance 

 from the ground, some practical method of destroying them could be effected, large numbers 

 prospective could be disposed of in every female bug that should be killed. Destroying by 

 hand the first beetles and eggs that make their appearance on the young plants is often 

 resorted to, but this is a slow and laborious process; it will well repay, however, in the check it 

 may give early in the season. Machines for horse and hand power have been used to a con 

 siderable extent in some sections after the plants have attained considerable growth, but it is 

 better to prevent their depredations upon the crop before this period, if possible, as much 

 injury may be done the tender plants when they first make their appearance from the ground. 



Paris green, (arsenite of copper,) is the most effectual remedy yet known in exterminating 

 these pests, but it must be used with the utmost caution, being a deadly poison. Nothing in 

 which it has been placed should ever be used for any other purpose, and it should be kept 

 from all animals, as when mixed with water and carelessly left where horses or other animals 

 could have access to it, it has often been drank by them, and valuable stock lost in this 

 manner. When used in the powder or in water, animals gaining access to the field would be 

 very liable to be poisoned by cropping the vines or other herbage containing it. 



Paris green may be applied either in a dry or liquid state; each method has its peculiar 

 advantages as well as disadvantages. When used in the powder, it is usually applied when 

 the dew is on the vines, or after a shower. The advantage of this method over the liquid is 

 in its adhering better. to the leaves and stalks; in the absence of heavy rains it retains its 

 power longer than when applied in a liquid form. The advantage of the liquid application 

 consists in the facility with which it is applied, and the less danger attending its use. Like 

 many other substances of general commerce, Paris green is frequently adulterated and its 

 effects proportionately diminished; hence, there are many grades of the poison, the pure 

 article being of course more effective than any of its adulterated forms and requiring a less 

 quantity to accomplish the results intended. When the pure article is used, a tablespoonful 

 of the powder to three gallons of water is the usual quantity. Some also mix a little molasses 

 in the solution to render it sticky and cause it to adhere to the plants. This poison is not 

 readily soluble in water, and will sink to the bottom; therefore it must be frequently stirred 



