THE 



ST. LOUIS, MO., NOVEMBER, 1868. 



VOL. 1. 



NO. 3. 



•pUBLISnED MONTHLY BY 

 R. I>. STXJIDLE~X- <Sc CO., 



104 OLIVE STREET, ST, LOUIS. 



TEKMS One dollar per annum in advance. 



EDITORS : 



BEN.J. D. WALSH Rock Island, 111. 



CHAS. V. KILEY, 2130 Clark Ave St. Louis, Mo. 



POT.\TO BUGS. 



S'TINUEO FROM ] 



VnNTV-SEVKN.] 



The Colorado Potato-bng — Its past history anil 

 future progress. 

 (Dori/2>ho7-a W-Uneata, Say). — Up to the au- 

 tumn of 18G5, it was generally supposed by 

 Economic Entomologists, that tliis destructive 

 insect had existed for time immemorial in the 

 Nortliwesteru States, feeding upon some worth- 

 less weed or otli- crif 

 cr; and that of 

 late years, from 

 some unexplain- 

 ed cause, it had 

 all of a sudden 

 taken to attack- 

 ing the Potato- 

 plant. In Octo- 

 ber, 1805, the se- 

 nior editor of tills 

 journal publish- 

 ed apaper,show- 

 ing that origin- 

 ally its exclusive 

 home was iu the 

 Rocky Moun- „ , , , , 



■' Colors— (a) deep oranc 



tains, where it 

 had been known to exist for at least forty-five 

 years feeding upon a wild species of potato 

 peculiar to that region (Sohmum rostratum, 

 Dunal) ; that when civilization marched up to 

 the Rocky Mountains and potatoes began to be 

 grown in that region, it gradually acquired the 

 habit of feeding upon the cuUivatcd potato; 

 that in 1859, spreading eastward from potato 

 patch to potato patch, it had reached a point 



one hundred miles to the west of Omaha city, 

 in Nebraska; that in ISGl, it invaded Iowa, 

 gradually in the next three or four years spread- 

 ing eastward over that State ; that in 1864 and 

 1805, it crossed the Mississippi, invading Illi- 

 nois on the western borders of that State, from 

 the eastern borders of North Missouri and Iowa, 

 upon at least iive diflerent points on a line of two 

 hundred miles ; and that iu all probability it 

 would iu future years " travel onwards to the 

 Atlantic, establisliing a permanent colony wher- 

 ever it goes, and pushing eastward at the rate 

 of about fifty miles a year." (Practical Unto- 

 moloyist, Vol. I, No. 1.) A remarkable pecu- 

 liarity in the eastern progress of this insect was 

 subsequently pointed out by the same writer in 

 18CG, namely, that " in marcliing through Illi- 

 nois iu many separate columns, just as Sherman 

 marched to the sea, the southern columns of the 

 grand army Lagged far behind the northern col- 

 umns." (Ibid, II. p, 14.) 

 3. : Now, let us see 



how far the pre- 

 dictions above, 

 have been veri- 

 fied. By the au- 

 (nmnof 18CC,the 

 Colorado Potato 

 bug, which ap- 

 pears to have in- 

 vaded the south- 

 west corner of 

 "Wisconsin at as 

 early a date as 

 1802 (Ibid, II, 

 p. 101), had al- 

 ready occupied 

 and iiossessed a 

 large part of the 

 cultivated or southern parts of that State ; and 

 in Illinois, if we draw a straight line to connect 

 Chicago with St. Louis, nearly all the region 

 that lies to the north-west of that line was over- 

 run by it. It subsequently invaded parts of 

 South Illinois, occurring in Union, Marion, and 

 Effingham counties, in 18G8; and already in 

 1S07 it had passed through the eastern border's of 

 north and central Illinois into western Indiana, 



m color; (dand e) ] 



