1875.1 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



99 



done, can only 1"^ doinnnstralcil liy tile l;ii>>e 

 of time and piactical oWsi'ivivlion; lint it is 1k'- 

 lic'ved tlial it lias nut dune so yet, and certainly 

 it is desired that it never should. 



Notes on the " Colorado Potatoe-beetle" and 



the Remedies Employed for 



its Destruction. 



Much has Ih'pi) sjiid and written on this sub- 

 ject since the advent of this in.seel amongst us, 

 " wise and otherwise," and it almost seems 

 as if there was no end to the di.senssians on it, 

 and espeeiiiUy on that eniliraeing the best 

 means to destroy it. 



As we stated "from the very beginniii<;, we 

 have no immediate interest in tlie qiieslion 

 any farther than it relates to the welfare 

 of Our patrons and the eoimtry at larj^e. 

 In order, therefore, to keep them posted 

 in the latest intellifjenee, both 2»'o and am, 

 we submit the followinf? e.xtraits, embrae- 

 iiij; the views of those liiL;h in authority, leav- 

 ing our readers draw their own eonilusions 

 and make their own apiilii ation. We are rea- 

 sonably well aeiiuaiiileil with the parties to the 

 question, have a just aiijireriation <if their in- 

 tegrity and abilities, and therefore entertain 

 the most profound respect for their opinions 

 even where wc feel unable to agree with them. 

 The tirsl e.xtraet we clip has been " going the 

 rounds" of the pa|)ers in general : 



THE USE OK I'AUIS OKEEN. 



J. L. Le Conto writes to tin- I'liiladelpliiii Prtxs nn 

 interesting letter in aiiswer to tlie iKipular i[uery " Can 

 the turiners use I'nris frrecii for the destruction of the 

 Ct)l<»raiio [lotalo-lteetle without dani^er of permanent 

 Injury?" Mr. Le Conte not only takes the position 

 that tlie use of this virulent poison must he aoeoin- 

 panieJ willi great personal eare, liut is of the opin- 

 ion tliatits frequent ajiiilieatiou to vegetation in sui'li 

 manner that it linally enters the soil will he attended 

 with serious evils in tlie future, ami tliat the present 

 advantage of the destruction of injurious insects will 

 be followed by such an aceumulatiou of mineral 

 poison in the soil a.s will eventually destroy (perhaps 

 at a remote period) its fertility, and reduce our pres- 

 ent Helds to a desert waste. He says " the answer to 

 the question thus proiH>sed therdore involves inter- 

 ests amounting to iin-alculalile millions. It is a ques- 

 tion whether our descendants will he able to raise 

 from the soil thus jKilluted sufUcient ftxid to sujiport 

 themselves. I wish, before the nation enters uixui a 

 wholesale slaughter of these and other pernicious 

 bugs, that the intelliL'cnt citizens would wisely and 

 deliberately consider the ixi.s.sihle evils which may 

 ensue in the future ages, when we will be replaced 

 by humau beings wiser and greaterthan ourselves. 



That the moderate use of l*aris green liy persons 

 well instructed as to its qualities, aud in no greater 

 <iuantity than is reiiuired to produce the destruction 

 of the insect pests^ will be attended with immediate 

 'danger I do not believe. But for this intelligent use 

 several precautious are necessary : 



J''irsl. The Paris green, as issued from the manu- 

 factory and dispensed by the trader, must be^Jwce, so 

 that its strengtii is known. 



Sceond. It must be applied at such a time as the 

 insect is most easily allected hy it. 



Third. It must be used in the smallest possible 

 quantity required to produce the desireil etfeet. 



Fourth. It ought to be dispenseil only to responsi- 

 ble persons who will be fully aceountalile for the use 

 made of it, and carefully handled, so that it may be 

 used for no other purpo.se than that of destroying the 

 agricultural pests. 



Further, in order to make the campaign against the 

 jHitatti-hug ctreetive, the renu'dy must be properly and 

 universally and carefully applied. Without a eoin- 

 bined ctlort on the pari of all tanners engaged in 

 raising iiotatoes, the result will be entirely temporary, 

 as colonies of the pest will still remain for subse- 

 quent extension." 



As an offset to Dr. LeConte's apprehensions, 

 but at the same time in effect approving his 

 four precautionary admonitions, Prof. Hiley, 

 in his Seventh lieimrt, sums up with the fol- 

 lowing on pp. 12, i:! : 



" Finally, wc must not forget that both ar- 

 senic and copper are widely distributed 

 throughout the organic world, and are f<innd 

 liatmally in many iilaiits ; and so far from in- 

 juring plants in minute (piantities, arsenic 

 occurs in the Itest superphosiihates, and the 

 volcanic s<iil around Naples, which, like all 

 volcanic .soils, contains an miusnal ammmt of 

 it, has the reputation of being a specilic against 

 fungoid diseases in plants. A certain quantity 

 may therefore be beneficial to plants, as it ap- 



pears to be to animals, since horses fed on a 1 

 grain or two a dtiy are s;iid to thrive and grow 

 fat. ! 



" The green as now used could not well col- i 

 lect in sutlicient quantities to lie directly dele- ■ 

 terious to man in the held in any imaginable 

 way, while its injury lliningh the plant is, I 

 think, out of llie (|nestion ; for the plantcould 

 not absorb eiiougli without being killed. Tlu^ 

 idea that the earth is being sown with death 

 by those who light the Colorado jiotato beetle 

 w'ith this mineral, may therefore be dismissd 

 as a purt^ phantasmagoria. 



" In conclusion, while no one denies the 

 danger attending the careless use of Paris 

 green, and all who have re<'ommeii(led its use 

 have not liesitaTed to caution against such 

 carelessness, a careful ini|niry into the facts 

 from the e.xperimelital side bears out the re- 

 sults of a long and extensive experience among 

 (he farmers of the eoinitry, viz.: Iljat there is 

 no present or future dangi'r from its judicious 

 use in till' diluted form, whether as a liquid or 

 powder, in which it is now universally reeom- 

 inended. Nor is the wholesale eliaige made 

 by Dr. Le Conte, that the remedy has been re- 

 commended by persons who have observed 

 only the effects of the poison on the insects to 

 which their attention has been directed, war- 

 ranteil by the facts. It is in this as in .so many 

 other things, a proper use of the poison has 

 proved, and will prove in future, a great bless- 

 ing to the country, where its abuse <inly can 

 be followed by evil conseciuences. Poison is 

 only a relative term, aud that which is most 

 virulent in large quantities is oftentimes 

 harmless or beneficial to animal economy in 

 .smaller amounts." 



Finally, the Professor thinks the farm- 

 ers will regard with interest the work of the 

 committee apiiointed by the National Acade- 

 my, but until a better and less dangerous rem- 

 edy than Paris green is discovered, they will 

 coutimie to use that which has lieretoforc 

 saved them so much lalior, and given them so 

 much satisfaction. lie therefore admonishes 

 eastern farmers not to be alarmed at what has 

 been written on the subject of Paris green, but 

 to profit by the experience of their wi'stern 

 brethren, and not to allow the Doryphora to 

 destroy tlieir potsitoes when so simple a rem- 

 edy is at hand. 



The following from the proceedings of the 

 Academy we clip from the columns of the 

 Public Ledijer: 



TuE Potato Beetle. — At the last meeting of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, Dr. I.eConte s]M)ke of 

 the desirability of botanists experimenting to ascer- 

 tain what jiower leaves have of absorbing mineral 

 poisons, and thus to determine the value of certain 

 plans for destroying noxious insects. It was stated 

 that, although Paris green was believed to be insolu- 

 ble, still, when applied in qininlity to growing plants, 

 these plants died, as also the larva' of insects. 



Dr. K(enig said the death of the plant was owing 

 to the I'aet that the Paris green underwent certain 

 chemical changes in respect to its arsenic when in 

 connection with the leaves, which destroyed the water 

 cells of the growing iilant, causing it to wither. He 

 thought the sulistancc ought not to be used on plants. 



Colonel Bryan refcrreil to the poisonous character 

 of the beetles which infested the [Kitato vines, and 

 that the Instances in which this character was no- 

 ticed wcie of beetles taken from fields in which Paris 

 green had been used. 



Dr. be Conte expressed his belief that bund laljor 

 would be the most appropriate way of dealing with 

 the potato beetle. 



.Mr. Speakman counselled the examination of the 

 plants as soon as they appear alK)ve ground, and 

 dwelt upon the inqiortance of erushiiiL'thc clustersof 

 orange-colored eggs on the under side of the leaves. 



"When doctors disagree, who shall decide V" 

 But suppose, for the sake of the argument, 

 that Dr. I.eCimte's apprehensions are correct : 

 the area under potato (ailture, compared with 

 the area of the whole coimtry, is .so small, and 

 the evil effects involved are so remote, as well 

 as the salvation of the iiotato crop being so 

 immediate, that farmers whose ('rops are badly 

 infested would be apt to heed such warnings 

 aliont as much as they would the astronomical 

 doi-trine that the earth is every year approach- 

 ing nearer to the smi, and after some millions 

 of years may be drawn into the vortex of that 

 tiery orb and be consumed. We would not 



knowingly counsel any course tliat would ulti- 

 mately end in such a fatal di.sasler to the hu- 

 man family as the destrnetion of the fertility 

 of the soil (if our country, even at a ri'inolo 

 lieriod, but it si'ems to us that all the artilicial 

 compounds that the world contains would Ixi 

 resolved into their native elements iM'lure it 

 could occtn-, through the slow but snri' course 

 of chemical mutation. We do not think there 

 is a particle more now of any comiHising ele- 

 mi'iit of the earth, than there was "in the 

 begimiiiig, '' atid till the i'nri.s (/rem or other 

 jHiison that is now compounded and used, niil.st 

 lie, or have been, .somewhere ill the earth 1m'- 

 fore it lieeaine an article of mamifaelnre and 

 tnillic, ami (hat it will linally return to its first 

 esttite. liidd tlti fiiHiiirinij : 



How MCI II I'Aiiis (iiiEEN IS IIiKTKii.f The fear 

 that the too free use of Paris green In the destriniioii 

 of the potato hug might cause it to he absorlM-d and 

 assimilated Im the economy of plant growth, <tr by Its 

 presence in tin' soil exert an injurloiiK lnlluen<-c ii[m»ii 

 vegetation, has led t<i an investigation tiy high Hcieii- 

 tlllc authority, and the idea is considered alisunl, 

 since actual experiments show that plants have no 

 [lOwcr to alisorti and assimilate Paris green or arsenic 

 in chemical comliination. 



Prol. William .M'Murlrie, of the department of ag- 

 riculture, says that while their presence in the soil 

 may cxi'rt an Injurious inllui'iiec on vegetation, yet 

 they arc practically witliout ellect until the (|uaiitlty 

 present rcac lies — lor Paris green iMKI |Kiunds per ain-, 

 for arsenite of |Hitassa 4(M) |uiunds [ler acre, and for 

 arseniate of jMitassa about l.'id jiountls per a*Te. 



He eoncludes an exceedingly interesting letter on 

 the subject thus : The fears of many of our agricul- 

 turists need, therctbre, be no longer entertained ; yet, 

 though Ihey will sutler no injury from [lolsoning by 

 arsenic in cliemieal comliination wilh vegetable pro- 

 duets, great care should be exercised in the matter of 

 removing any particles adhering meebanically to 

 them. 



We must also offer the warning, which cannot be 

 too frequently repeated, that every one using such 

 compounds should be particularly careful aluiul stor- 

 ing them, since ni-arly all the accidents that have 

 occurred from ])oisoning by Paris green and other 

 tilings of like character have resulted from careless- 

 ness in this particular. 



THE FACTS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 

 No. 3. 



In this paiier we propose to present a few 

 of the marvellous notions, Ixith ancient and 

 modern, that at tiiucs, and by some iieoplc, 

 have been accepted and defended as the veri- 

 table /'((/(.s- as they existed, and still exist, in 

 the domain of nature. We can hardly tlignify 

 them by the name of opinions — becaust? they 

 do not seem to be supported by reiison — and 

 therefore we are compelled to place them in 

 the category of notions, if they are not "down- 

 right" iiiqicrstition.t. We admit that siipi r/ici- 

 (lUy viewed— 17 ri/ snperlicially indeed — there 

 may be the appenranct that these notions are 

 facts, but investigation aud the most eonuuon 

 experience have proved the ancient ones en- 

 tirely erroni'ous. and time and experience will, 

 no doubt, demonstrate that the modern ones 

 have no higher claims to credence. I?ut then, 

 be it rememlM'ied, these notions must lie dis- 

 siliated by praclii'al experiment, and not by 

 mere denial or groundless ridicule. Where er- 

 roneous notionsare entertained on any subject 

 with honesty and sincerity, and by those whose 

 opinions ondther subjects are e«ititled to re- 

 spect, a dtie allowance nuist l>e made for the 

 apiiearances which seem to su.stain those 

 notions. With tliese preliminary remarks, we 

 will proceed to illustrate our subject by adduc- 

 ing a few examples, as we llnd them recorded 

 on the jiages of the past and the present. 



In volume 2, iiage'2, of aserieson the "His- 

 tory of Insects," entitled the Librarij of Kn- 

 IcrUuninij Knorrhdyr, we find the fullowing 

 notion enteitained by the celebnited Kliiciiuu, 

 one of the moat learned men of the seven- 

 teenth century. "Take some snakes, of what- 

 ever kind you want, roa.sttheiu, and cut them 

 in small jiieces, and sow these iiieces in an 

 oleaginoussoil ; then, from day to day, sprinkle 

 them lightly with water from a watering pot, 

 taking care that the piece of ground be ex- 

 posed to to the spring sun. and in eight day^ 

 you will see the earth strewn with little 

 worms, which, being nourished with milk di- 



