314 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



planted my asparagus, and found what a mistake I bad made 

 (I did not know anything about this beetle) , " What shall I 

 do ? You have got me into it, and I want you to get me 

 out." " Kill them," said he. "How?" " I don't care how, 

 but kill them." That put me upon my own resources, and I 

 went to work to kill them. I put some kerosene into a 

 wash-pan, large at the top, and shook the beetles into it. 

 They did not like it, and I kept them off pretty well with 

 that. The next year, they came on again, and I kept them 

 off until we got into our strawberry business, and then I gave 

 it up. I could not possibly attend to it. I had to give up 

 one or the other. Just as soon as I got through with the 

 strawberries, I set my man at work with a sickle, and he cut 

 the asparagus down close to the ground. It looked like mur- 

 der, but I had determined to kill them, and after it got nicely 

 dried, I just set fire to it, and I burned the whole thing over. 

 But I discovered while the asparagus was lying in those win- 

 rows, and very soon after it was cut, that there were any 

 number of white-breasted swallows sailing over that piece, 

 and they remained there. Two or three days after it was 

 burned, the asparagus came right up, and they staid there 

 during the fall, quite a number of them, evidently showing 

 that they got their living there, and I was very glad to have 

 them stay. Last winter, I made a bird-house, and the tene- 

 ments were taken right up, and they staid all summer. I 

 did not see a slug on my asparagus all summer. So much 

 for the birds. I am going to build them some more tene- 

 ments, and rent them free. 



Mr. Hyde. Mr. Slade's treatment of those beetles is just 

 the one we adopt for the rose-bugs. We take some kerosene 

 in a dish, and go round and shake them off into that. They do 

 not live long in that kerosene ; they do not seem to enjoy it. 



One gentleman has spoken about the Early Rose potato. I 

 think they are a very admirable potato, but there is another 

 seedling, which many of you may know, called the " Early 

 Vermont." I have tried that a little, and I will give my ex- 

 perience, for the benefit of those who have not tried it. In 

 the first place, I was quite sure it was the Early Rose, and 

 nothing more. It is impossible for the best judge to detect 

 the dilfereuce. I did not have my tubers until the twenty- 



