FIELD CROPS. 



47 



and I had to pay fifty dollars per ton for phosphate. My neighbors have 

 tried it with a like result. It is a very cheap fertilizer; on good ground 1 

 only use about two bags per acre (400 lbs.), which is a good manuring on 

 ordinary soil. I have raised four hundred bushels to the acre with nothing 

 but phosphate, appUed in the row." 



A Handy " Biig-Cat<'her."_Although it is now the custom of most of 

 our farmers to rid their crops of that terrible pest, the potato bug, by Paris 

 green poisoning, stiU we think the following illustrated sketch of a bug- 

 catcher, sent by a gentleman who has used the contrivance with great suc- 

 cess, will prove interesting and profitable to our readers. He says: " With 

 the pan I use for catching Colorado beetles, any one can do as much work as 

 threw or four people collecting the pests, according to the ordinary methoa 



CONTRIVANCE FOB CATCHIXO THE POTATO BEETLE. 



of hand picking. The pan is made of tin, and any tinman can fashion it. It 

 is a box or pan, tAvo feet long, one foot wide, and six inches deep. The bot- 

 tom should be round, or cylindrical, so that the rim of the pan can be got 

 close to the ground when the vines are small. Stiflen the edge with wire. 

 On the inside, at the top, solder a rim or flange about three-quarters of an 

 inch wide. This should slant downward somewhat, as its object is to pre- 

 vent the ' bugs ' fi-om crawling out when once they have gone in. On one 

 side of the pan solder or rivet a handle, such as those on common tin milk- 

 pails. On the same side as the handle solder a shield of tin eighteen inches 

 high, and of the same length as the pan, slanting backward a httle. The 

 edges should be stiffened with wire. About four inches from the top of the 

 shield, and in the center, solder a loop or ring large enough to ainit the 

 arm to the shoulder. In using, insert the left arm through the loop, and 



