THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



85 



ern columns." Last summer (1808), to my own 

 knowledge, it had reached the south shore of 

 Luke Superior, northwest corner of Michigan, 

 wlicre it abundantly manifested its presence in 

 its usual destructive attacks on the potato. I 

 have since learned that between the Potato Bug 

 and the drouth of the early part of the season, 

 tlie crop was well nigh ruined in that region. I 

 shall not easily forget the appearance of one 

 potato field I witnessed, on the lake shore, in 

 Mortlieastcrn Wisconsin, which was nearly cov- 

 ered with those pests in both the larva and per- 

 fect states. The lazy Indians, to whom it 

 belonged, idly lounging in the sun, and proba- 

 bly ignorant of the noxious character of the 

 insect, made not the slightest eftort to stay the 

 work of destruction. 



Its march this summer (ISG'J) through Mich- 

 igan has been duly recorded, though, owing to 

 various :auses, not attended with the dire con- 

 sequences anticipated, as the price of potatoes 

 in Detroit would go to show, they selling here, 

 last fall, at from thirty-five to forty cents per 

 bushel. Henuv Gii.lman. 



Detuoit, aiichigim. 



.V SO-CALLED '• VULGAR ERROR" NO ERROR AT ALL. 



It is the common belief among farmers that 

 barberry bushes sometimes cause rust in wheat; 

 and not long ago there was a very serious riot 

 in a certain county in Iowa, because one of tiie 

 cJtizens persisted in growing barberries, to the 

 great detriment, as was insisted on, of his 

 neighbors' wheat crops. The above belief is 

 referred to in the following extract from the 

 Proceedinys of the N. Y. Farmers' Club, Sept. 

 14th, 1869: 



Influence of Certain Trees on Crops.— E. 

 B. Seelye, Hudson, Mich., says, in his opinion, 

 rust in "wheat is produced by the barberry bush. 



Dr. Trimble— This is an old tradition that I 

 have heard from a boy, but there is no founda- 

 tion for the belief. Kust is produced by another 

 class of causes. 



S. Edwards Todd— I am of the same opinion, 

 but I know there are hundreds of farmers who 

 have a prejudice against the barberry on this 

 account. But I have seen the fluest crops of 

 wheat growing close beside the bush spoken of. 



It would seem, however, although the belief 

 that barberry often causes a particular kind of 

 rust on wheat has been for the last century very 

 generally ridiculed by naturalists as a popular 

 superstition, that for this once the naturalists 

 are in the wrong and the poor despised and 

 vilified farmers are in the right. Here is what 

 Dr. Liitken of Copenhagen, Sweden, says npon 

 this vexed question in the American Naturalist 

 for December, 1808, (page 557) : 



Professor CErstcd continues his curious ex- 

 periments, demonstrating that certain fungi, 

 parasitic on different species of plants, and 

 described as distinct genera and species, are in 

 reality only tin? (iHcnuiti iji m rutioun ofoncspe- 

 cies. '* * * Yiiu will icn'i.-iiilici-lliiit Ibespccific 

 identity o{ Fucci niii iii'miii nls and Oidium her- 

 beridis was in the like iiianm r drmoiistrated 

 some years ago through the almost cdnlonipo- 

 rary experiments of De Bary and iKivtcil; thus 

 confirming the opinion for a Imii;- tinic Instcicd 

 by farmers, but rejected as superslitioiis by 

 most naturalists (Sir Joseph Banks excepted), 

 on the obnoxious influence of ihe Barberry on 

 the grain-fields. 



" Bully for the farmers," we say I Scientific 

 men are sometimes a little too apt to despise 

 the observations of plain practical men as "un- 

 reliable and worthless." See for example Dr. 

 Sliimer's fling at the dift'orent State Entomol- 

 ogists for relying on the statements of mere 

 " correspondents."* Now here, as it turns out, 

 we have a clear case where the farmers are in 

 the right and almost every naturalist has been 

 in the wrong. Let us then humbly and meekly 

 " confess the corn.'' Probablj , if the fai iiieis 

 would use the pen as often as they use the 

 plough, we should have plenty more such cases. 



But we fear that we are " stealing the thun- 

 der" of the Illinois State Ilorlicultuiist by 

 talking so long on the great mysterious Fungus 

 Question. "We shall, therefore, leave this mat- 

 ter for his final decision, in the hope that he will 

 take care to give the farmers " a fair shake." 



*Tram. N. Ill Hart. Soc. 1867-8, ii. 101. 



POISONOUS QUALITIES OF THE COLORADO PO- 

 TATO BUG. 



As corroborative testimony of the poisonous 

 character of the Colorado Potato Bug (Z>. 10- 

 lineata. Say), we quote the following from the 

 Spring Valley (Minn.) correspondence of the 

 Winona Republican : 



A number of ca.ses of jioisonliig from the 

 loathsome potato bug have recently occurred in 

 this vicinity, which I think are deserving of at- 

 tention. As many persons are in the habit of 

 killing these bugs by mashing them with sticks, 

 and sometimes even between their fingers, I 

 will cite one particularly severe case, which, it is 

 hoped, will serve as a warning to those who 

 take either of the above " mashing" methods to 

 rid themselves of these disgusting potato des- 

 troyers. 



Mr. Calvin Huntley, residing about three 

 miles south of the village, has spent consider- 

 able time during the past two wc^eks in his po- 

 tato patch, killing the bugs that infest the vines, 

 by masMng them between two llat slick--. One 

 evening about a week since, he arcidtiiially got 

 some of the blood or juice u|hiii hi^ wrist. 

 Thinking no harm would result tlicrcfnun, he 

 paid no attention to it. On rising the next 

 morning he experienced an itching sensation on 



