Other Points in Potato Culture. igg 



As we are beginning to learn about the scab, so we are about 

 the blight and rot, perhaps. It looks as though soon we might 

 ward off these troubles by spraying with poisons that prevent the 

 growth of this disease on the tops. I have not tried this because 

 we have little trouble this way on account of growing early 

 potatoes and planting rather early, so they get too far along 

 before the time for blight to do injury, for us to suffer much. I 

 certainly should try it on late potatoes in a section where they are 

 in the habit of blighting. Prof. Weed says we shall soon be able 

 to spray with a mixture that will kill the larvae of the Colorado 

 beetle and prevent blight all at once. It looks a little as though 

 we ought to have a dose put in for the flea beetle at the same 

 time. They are on the increase lately here and do much damage ; 

 but as yet there seems to be no remedy. Last year and this, it 

 seemed as though they would totally destroy our young plants 

 before they got started. The leaves were eaten to a mere network. 



By the way, I suppose I must tell how we manage the 

 Colorado beetle and its larvae. Really this little so-called pest 

 has been a great friend of ours. Now do not be surprised ! Yes, 

 he has put money in our pockets. This is the way : Don't you 

 know that for years and years after they came around many 

 farmers let their potatoes go to the bugs? Yes, they did, and some 

 do yet. But we soon found that the very worst years it cost but 

 three or four dollars per acre to fight them successfully, and then 

 we got at least ten times this amount more for our crop than we 

 would if there were no beetles. Do you not see? Say three 

 dollars an acre more expense, and forty dollars more price for 

 years, because the beetles were allowed to destroy .many acres of 

 potatoes. We do not always look on our troubles in the right 

 light. It made one extra labor to get a crop, but the resulting 

 net profit was vastly increased. When the beetles first came we 

 were obliged to use poison, there were so many of them, as no 

 one kept their potatoes clean at that time, and the air was fairly 

 alive with beetles. We have picked a half bushel of solid beetles 

 in a olay, and seemed to make little impression on the multitude. 

 In haste I sent for an atomizer, and sprayed with Paris green. 

 But soon I began to consider the injury to vines, even where not 

 killed, and that some vines must be eaten to get the poison, and 

 the risk of having poison washed off by a shower, soon after it 

 was put on, and the fact that I must do it myself if I wanted to 

 be certain no vines were killed by careless spraying, and that 

 living in the midst of a dozen acres of poisoned tops, with the 

 wind blowing, might not give us the purest air possible, and that 

 sooner or later, some accident might happen from having poison 

 about the place, and that the beetles were not nearly as numerous 

 as at first, and that I believed we could manage so as to pick them 

 by hand successfully. And we have for a dozen years. When 

 we went at it rightly, it was not a very large job. We have kept 



