96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



but fresh broods come along through the season. I have been 

 out and examined my vines when I could not see the beetle, 

 nor a slug, near them. I have been out two days afterwards, 

 and seen them rolling on the ground, and found the leaves 

 perfectly covered with them, and the beetles marching along 

 seeking for new fields to conquer. It is useless to expect, 

 judging from the experience of the past, that anything but 

 Paris green will kill them. Mix it with flour, and put it in a 

 linen bag, tie the bag on the end of a stick, take another stick 

 in your hand and go along and scatter it over the vines. Or 

 take a tin box with some holes in it, — like a pepper-box, — 

 and do the same ; or adopt any way, in fact, that you think 

 will answer the purpose. 



Question. Why not mix it with plaster of Paris? 



Dr. Sturtevant. Plaster of Paris does not stick quite as 

 Avell as flour, and it does not adhere to the plant. Paris 

 green kills by adhering to the plant and being eaten by the 

 slug. 



Question. It occurs to me that the bug may work on the 

 underside of the leaf, and in that case, would the application 

 of Paris green to the top of the leaf be sufficient? 



Dr. Sturtevant. The bug is a Very voracious animal, 

 and will eat through the leaf without much trouble. I think, 

 if you put Paris green anywhere near the bug, he will eat his 

 way to it in a short time. 



Dr. Wakefield. I have had some experience this year 

 with the Colorado beetle, and picking him from potato-vines. 

 I have some three or four hundred bo} r s, and I have kept 

 them at work this year picking the Colorado beetle. The 

 first Colorado beetle that I ever saw was early in May, in 

 Connecticut, before they appeared in Massachusetts in my 

 region. I live about forty miles west of this city, in the town 

 of Monson. I was down to Meriden, at the school there, and 

 I found the boys all picking Colorado beetles. I supposed 

 that when I returned home, I should have a job for myjtoys, 

 and it was not more than two weeks before I found that the 

 Colorado beetles were more numerous than my boys. I put 

 them at work and kept them at work for more than three 

 months, every day, or every other day, in my potato-fields. 

 I had something like five or six acres. I saved my crop of 



