Potato Culture. 



commonly burrows in the large stalks 

 of the potato. It occurs also in the 

 stalks of the tomato, in those of the 

 dahlia and aster, and other garden 

 flowers. It is sometimes found bor- 

 ing through the cob of growing In- 

 dian corn. It is particularly partial 

 to the stem of the common cockle- 

 bur, (Zanthium strumarium;} and if it 

 would only confine itself to such 

 noxious weeds, it might be considered 

 more of a friend than an enemy. It 

 is yearly becoming more numerous 

 an4 more destructive. It is found 

 over a great extent of country; and 

 is particularly numerous in the valley 

 of the Mississippi north of the Ohio 

 River. The larva of the stalk-borer 

 moth leaves the stalk in which it bur- 

 rowed about the latter part of July, 

 and descends a little below the surface 

 of the earth, where in about three 

 days it changes into the pupa, or 

 chrysalis state. 



The winged insect (Fig. i,) which 

 belongs to the same extensive group 

 of moths {Noctua family, or owlet 

 moths) to which, all the cut-worm 

 moths appertain, emerges from un- 

 der ground from the end of August 

 to the middle of September. Hence 

 it is evident that some few, at all 

 events, of the female moths must live 

 through the winter, in obscure places, 

 to lay eggs upon the plants they infest 

 the following spring ; for otherwise, 

 as there is no young potato, or other 

 plants, for them to lay eggs upon in 

 the autumn, the whole breed would 

 die out in a single year. This insect, 

 in sections where it is numerous, does 

 more injury to the potato crop than 

 is generally supposed. 



The Potato-Stalk Weevil, 



(Baridius trinotatus, Say.) This insect 

 is more particularly a southern species, 

 occurring abundantly in the Middle 

 States, and .in the southern parts of 

 Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. It 



appears to be totally unknown in 

 New-England. 



The female of this beetle depo- 

 sits a single egg in an oblong slit, 

 about one eighth of an inch long, 

 which it has previously formed with 

 its beak in the stalk of the potato. 

 The larva subsequently hatches out, 

 and bores into the heart of the stalk, 

 alway proceeding downward toward 

 the root. When full grown, it is a lit- 

 tle more than one fourth of an inch 

 in length, and is a soft, whitish, leg- 

 less grub, with a scaly head. Hence 

 it can always be readily distinguished 

 from the larva of the stalk-borer, 

 which has invariably sixteen legs, no 

 matter how small it may be. Unlike 

 this last insect, it becomes a pupa in 

 the interior of the potato-stalk which 

 it inhabits : and it comes out in the 

 beetle state about the last of August 

 or beginning of September. 



The stalk inhabited by the larva 

 wilts and dies. The perfect beetle, 

 like many other snout-beetles, must 

 of course live through the winter, to 

 reproduce its species the following 

 spring. In Southern Pennsylvania, 

 some years, nearly every stalk of ex- 

 tensive fields is infested by this in- 

 sect, causing the premature decay of 

 the vines, and giving them the ap- 

 pearance of having been scalded. In 

 some districts of Illinois, the potato 

 crop has, in some seasons, been ut- 

 terly ruined by this snout-beetle, many 

 vines having a dozen larvae in them. 

 This insect attacks no plant but the 

 potato. 



The Potato- Worm, (Sphinx 

 ^-maculata, Haworth.) This well- 

 known insect, the larva of which 

 (Fig. 3,) is usually called the potato- 

 worm, is more common on the closely 

 allied tomato, the leaves of which it 

 often clears off very completely in 

 particular spots in a single night. 

 When full-fed, which is usually about 



