310 Transactions of the American Institute. 



potatoes. I planted about the middle of April, in rows two and a 

 half feet apart, putting them about one foot apart in the row, using 

 hog-pen manure. A portion I put manure under the potato, and a 

 portion the manure was put on the top of the potato. The former 

 yielded 350 bushels per acre, and the latter 200 bushels per acre. 

 The kind planted, the Peerless. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — The potato crop in Salem county, and in 

 most parts of New Jersey, was never so fine as this fall. 



Colorado Bug. 

 Mr. J. W. Hawkins, Plymouth, Mich., writes that the farmers in 

 his neighborhood have enjoyed the society of the Colorado bug for 

 three years, and the prospect is "that they will tarry for another 

 season, as the ground is full of them." As the pest is sure to turn 

 up at the east, Mr. Hawkins gave the following hints regarding the 

 reception it would be proper to extend : There is but one thing I have 

 tried which is sure death to these bugs. This is no guesswork, but 

 obtained by experience. I would not send to my native State that 

 which I could not recommend. It is said the bugs feed on nothing 

 but potatoes, but I have learned they are very fond of flour. Take 

 one pound of Paris green ; mix with ten pounds of wheat flour ; 

 take a tin dish, oyster can, or any dish with a cover ; punch the bot- 

 tom full of holes like a pepperbox, and sift it over the vines while 

 the dew is on. This forms a paste, and it adheres to the vine. If the 

 vines are small this will go over half an acre ; if large it will require 

 more, and the bugs will leave the leaf on which they are feeding and 

 go to eating the flour, and in about two hours you will find them on 

 their backs on the ground. Care should be taken to put it on all the 

 leaves that have got bugs on, and what is left go over with a tin pail, 

 and hold the pail one side of the hill, and with the hand give the tops 

 a quick slap over into the pail ; this will knock them all off into the 

 pail ; if they crawl out of the pail, scour it bright and smooth around 

 the top of the pail, and a good plan is to put about half a teacupful 

 of kerosene in the pail, and, when through, touch a match to it, and 

 they will trouble you no more. If this receipt should fail, you may 

 know your Paris green is not good ; there is a bogus article in market, 

 I planted one-fourth of an acre of potatoes last spring, from which I 

 dug eighty bushels of potatoes (early rose). • Adjoining farm there 

 was a patch they ate up entirely ; not a stalk to be seen. Last spring 

 they were crawling over the ground searching for a potato to poke 

 his nose out, and they would pounce on it and devour it. They were 



