THE 



AM Em i^Am 



VOL. 2 



ST. LOUIS, MO., SEPTEMBER, 1870. 



NO. 10. 



^ttlomologiral Jtpartent. 



CIIAKLES V. UILEY, Editor, 



231 N. Main «l., St. Louis, Mo. 



THE ONWARD MARCH OF THE COLORADO POTATO 

 BEETLE. 



f 



A WOUIJ TO OliR CANADIAN NEKillliORS. 



Last July, while speiuling a few days in On- 

 tario, we ascertained that this most destructive 

 insect had just invaded tlic Dominion at two 

 different points, namely, near Point Edward, at 

 the extreme south of Lake Huron, and opposite 

 Detroit, near Windsor, at the southwestern 

 corner of Lake St. Clair. Those are precisely 

 the two points at whicli we should naturally 

 expect to first meet with it on the Canadian 

 border; for all such beetles as fly into either of 

 the lakes from tlie Michigan side would naturally 

 be drifted to these points. As we know from 

 experience, many insects that are either quite 

 rare, or entirely unknown, on the western side 

 of Lake Michigan are frequently washed up 

 along tjie Lake shore at Ciiicago ; and these are 

 so often alive and in good condition, and .so often 

 in great numbers, that the Lake shore is con- 

 sidered excollciit collecting gi-ound by entomolo- 

 gists. Jn like manner grasshoppers are often 

 washed up on the shores of Salt Lake, in Utah, 

 in such countless numbers that the stench from 

 t heir decomi)osing bodies pollutes the atmosphere 

 f(n' miles around. We have not the least doubt, 

 therefore, in view of these facts, that the Colorado 

 Potato Beetle could survive a sutflcicnt length of 

 time to be drifted alive to Point Edward, it 

 driven into Lake Huron anywhere within twenty 

 or thirty miles of that place, or if beaten down 

 anywhere within the same distance while at- 

 tempting to cross the lake. 



How truly is Mr. Walsh's prophecy being ful- 

 filled, that the northern columns of this great 

 army would spread far more rapidly than the 

 lagging southern columns.* 



^Practical Entomologist, I, p. 14. 



Now, wliat will onr Canadian^ brethren do? 

 Will they stand by and listlessly see this per- 

 nicious insect spread over their tcnitory like a 

 devouring flame, as it has done over the Western 

 and Central States ; or will they make some de- 

 termined and united effort to prevent such a 

 catastrophe? Of one thing our friends across the 

 border may rest assured — they have not here a 

 sham and braggart Fenian army to deal with, 

 but an army which knows no retreat, and whose 

 members, though of small and insignificant 

 stature, will fully make up in number what they 

 lack in size. 



When we calculate the immense loss, amount- 

 ing to millions of dollars, which this insect has 

 cost the Western States during the past nine or 

 ten years — when we contrast tlie healthful and 

 tlu'ifty aspect of the potato fields in Ontario and 

 in those States to which this potato plague has 

 not yet spread, with tlie sickly, denuded, or Paris- 

 green-bcsmeared fields at liome — but above all 

 when we reflect that, nothing preventing, it will 

 infest the whole of Ontario within, perhaps, the 

 next two, and at farthest within the next three, 

 years — we feel that it is high time to make st>me 

 effort to prevent its onward march through On- 

 tario, if ever such an effort is to be made. The 

 warnings and instructions given by the agricul- 

 tural press, and through our own columns, will 

 avail but little, as they reach the few only. It 

 may be, and doubtless is, true that successful 

 culture, as our country becomes more thickly 

 settled, will be confined to the intelligent and 

 well-informed ; yet the fact nevertheless remains, 

 that the masses will do nothing to ward ott' an 

 evil until they are forced to it from necessity. 

 The plodding, non-reading farmer will take no 

 notice of the few bugs he first sees in his potato 

 field, because they do him no material injury ; 

 but when the bugs have increa.sed so as to make 

 it a question of " potatoes or no potatoes " with 

 him, then his energies will be aroused. But 

 alas 1 his best eft'orts, at this time, often jirove 

 unavailing, and he has to spend days to accom- 

 plish that which a few minutes would liave 

 accomplished before. We therefore fully expect 

 to see this great army of bugs continue its east- 



