THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



85 



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

 knowledge, it had reached the south shore of 

 Lake Superior, northwest corner of Michigan, 

 where it abundaiitlj' manifested its presence in 

 its usual destructive attacks on the potato. I 

 have since learned that between tlie Potato IJug 

 and the drouth of the early part of the season, 

 the 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 

 nortlieastern AVisconsin, which was nearly cov- 

 ered with tliose 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 (he noxious character of the 

 insect, made not tlie slightest cfVort to stay the 

 work of destruction. 



Its march this summer (ISfl'.i) through Mich- 

 igan has been duly recorded, though, owing to 

 various jauses, not attended with the dive con- 

 sequences anticipated, as the price of potatoes 

 in Detroit would go to show, they selling here, 

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

 bushel. IIenuv Gm.lman. 



DeTUOIT, Jlil'llig:!!!. 



.V SO-CALLED " VULGAR ERROR " XO ERROR AT ALh/ 



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 the 

 citizens 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 

 Proceedings of the iV. T. Fanners' Club, Sept. 

 11th, 1869: 



Influence oe 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. Knst is produced by another 

 class of causes. 



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

 but I know there are hundreds of farmers wlio 

 have a prejudice against the barberry on this 

 account. But I have seen the finest 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 upon 

 tliis vexed question in the American Natiiralist 

 for December, 18(J8, (page 557) : 



Professor CErstcd continues his curious ex- 

 periments, demonstrating that certain fungi, 

 ))arasitio on different species of plants, and 

 described as distinct genera and species, are in 

 reiility only the alternate i/ciicrations of one spe- 

 cies. * * * Yon will icmember that the specific 

 identity of Puccinia r/raminis and Oidiutn ber- 

 beridis was in the like manner demonstrated 

 some years ago through the almost contempo- 

 rary experiments of De Bary and (Ersted ; thus 

 confirming the opinion for a long time fostered 

 by farmers, but rejected as superstitious by 

 most naturalists (Sir Joscpli Hanks excepted), 

 on the obnoxious influence ot the Barberry on 

 the grain-fields. 



"Bully for the farmers," we say! Scientific 

 men are sometimes a little too apt to despise 

 the observations of plain i)ractical men as "un- 

 reliable and worthless."' See for example Dr. 

 Siiimer's fling at the diflercnt State Entomol- 

 ogists for relying on tlie statements of mere 

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

 we have a clear case where the farmers are in 

 the riglit and almost every naturalist has been 

 in the wrong. Let us then humbly and meekly 

 " confess the corn.' Probablx , if the farmers 

 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 Horticulturist by 

 talking so long on the great mysterious Fungus 

 Question. We shall, thei'cforc, leave this nnil- 

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

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



*Trans. N. Ill Hart. Soc. 1807-8, |). 101. 



POISONOUS QUALITIES 'Tiri-HE COLORADO I'O- 

 TATO BUG. 



As corroborative testimony of the poisonous 

 character of the Colorado Potato Bug (D. 10- 

 lineata, Say), we quote tlie following from the 

 Spring Valley (Minn.) correspondence of the 

 Winona Republican : 



A number of cases of jioisoning from the 

 loathsome potato bug have recently occurred in 

 this vicinity, which I think are deserving of at- 

 tention. As mail)' 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 abnnt thrie 

 miles south of the village, has spent consider- 

 ,able time during the past two weeks in his po- 

 tato patch, killing the bugs that infest the vinos, 

 by masliing tliem between two fiat sticks. One 

 evening about a week since, he accidentally got 

 some of the blood or juice upon his wrist. 

 Thinking no harm would result tlierefroni, he 

 paid no attention to it. On rising the next 

 morning he experienced an itching sensation on 



