90 THE PESTS OF THE FARM. 



" the careful and systematic use of lime will obviate, in a great de- 

 gree, the danger which has been experienced " from this insect. 

 From this and other statements in favor of the use of lime, there is 

 good reason to hope that it will effectually protect plants from the 

 various kinds of flea-beetles, if dusted over them, when wet with 

 dew, in proper season. Watering plants with alkaline solutions, it 

 is said, will kill the insects without injuring the plants. The solu- 

 tion may be made by dissolving one pound of hard soap in twelve 

 gallons of the soap-suds left after washing. This mixture should 

 be applied twice a day with a water-pot. Kollar very highly rec- 

 ommends watering or wetting the leaves of plants with an infusion 

 or tea of wormwood, which prevents the flea-beetles from touching 

 them. Perhaps a decoction of walnut-leaves might be equally ser- 

 viceable. Great numbers of the beetles may be caught by the skil- 

 ful use of a deep bag-net of muslin, which should be swept over the 

 plants infested by the beetles, after which the latter may be easily 

 destroyed. This net cannot be used with safety to catch the in- 

 sects on very young plants, on account of the risk of bruising or 

 breaking their tender leaves. 



POTATO FLY. Occasionally potato-vines are very much infested 

 by two or three kinds of Cantharides, or blistering flies, swarms 

 of which attack and destroy the leaves during midsummer. One 

 of these kinds has thereby obtained the name of the potato-fly. It 

 is the Cantharis vittata, or striped Cantharis. It is of a dull tawny 

 yellow or light yellowish red color above, with two black spots on 

 the head, and two black stripes on the thorax and on each of the 

 wing-covers. The under-side of the body, the legs, and the an- 

 tennae are black, and covered with a grayish down. Its length is 

 from five to six tenths of an inch. The thorax is very much nar- 

 rowed before, and the wing-covers are long and narrow, and cover 

 the whole of the back. The striped Cantharis is comparatively raro 

 in New England ; but in the Middle States it often appears in great 

 numbers, and does much mischief in potato-fields and gardens, eat- 

 ing up not only the leaves of the potato, but those of many other 

 vegetables. 



Another kind of blistering fly is the ash-colored Cantharis. 

 When the insect is rubbed, the ash-colored substance comes off, 

 leaving the surface black. It begins to appear in gardens about 

 the twentieth of June, and is very fond of the leaves of the English 

 bean, which it sometimes entirely destroys. It is also occasionally 

 found in considerable numbers on potato-vines ; and it bas repeat- 



