POTATO CULTURE. 195 



scab. Of late we have had less scabby potatoes with the 

 late varieties ; and we have just harvested a crop of Rural 

 New-Yorkers where one-third of an acre gave us 116 bushels. 

 These were planted some time in June, where we turned 

 under a piece of rye. The rye was so heavy that we found 

 difficulty in getting it all under the soil. It was on creek- 

 bottom land, somewhat sandy and gravelly, but had been 

 quite heavily manured before the rye was turned under. 

 There were almost no scabby potatoes in this lot, and yet 

 the seed was not treated at all ; neither were there any bugs 

 to bother us, of any account, except the old-fashioned ones 

 that friend Terry has already mentioned. 



OLD-FASHIONED POTATO-BUGS. 



These have been so bad in our locality that, in several 

 places, the farmers have turned sheep into the field and 

 driven them back and forth to scare off the bugs. While 

 this plan might be better than to let the bugs destroy them 

 entirely, I don't believe I should want sheep running through 

 my potatoes. We kept the bugs off from our Rural New- 

 Yorkers by scaring them off on to the ground between the 

 rows, and then stamping them and killing them with our 

 hoes. This might seem slow work ; but if you undertake it 

 you will find in a very little time not a bug will be found in 

 the patch. Keep careful watch ; and if you find . them on 

 the vines again next morning, route them out in the same 

 way. Simply driving them off with whips or bushes does not 

 seem to answer as well. When they begin to discover that 

 you mean death to the bitter end, they conclude it is time to 

 be going elsewhere. Sometimes where these bugs are quite 

 plentiful, if you drive them off from your potatoes they will 

 collect on the fence or on bushes, like a swarm of bees. If 

 you can get them to do this you are lucky. With a bundle 

 of shavings, burning straw, or something of the sort, on the 

 end of a pole, just burn up the whole swarm before they can 

 have time to disband. 



