﻿FIELD AND FOREST. 1 1 5 



into the ocean, must have been by flight, where they dropped in, and 

 were carried back to the beach, by the returning waves. 



In July many of the potato vines are yet green and succulent, 

 therefore what could have induced these creatures to leave their feed- 

 ing grounds, and cross these arid plains, but an instinctive impulse to 

 extend their domain eastward ? Just how far they flew out into the 

 ocean, or how many of them were appropriated by the fishes that in- 

 habit those waters, it would be perhaps, difficult to estimate, but we 

 may infer from these circumstances that no ordinary river would pre- 

 sent a barrier'to their onward progress, nor have climatic vicissitudes 

 much effect upon them. 



But this is not the worst aspect of the case, in reference to the so- 

 licitude of European governments, although the non-importation of 

 potatoes from America might be regarded as entirely futile. The 

 "Junction and Breakwater Raii-road," runs from the interior of the 

 State of Delaware, down to the shores of the Bay, and extends about 

 a quarter of a mile out into the Bay on a trestle work called the "Pier," 

 at the terminus of which, cars from the interior are unloaded half-daily 

 and the freight of whatsoever kind is transferred to steam and sailing 

 vessels, and from thence carried to other ports in the country, and 

 perhaps also to those of Europe, or to places having commercial com- 

 munication with Europe. Now, all along this pier out to the very 

 end of it, I found the Colorado Potato-beetles, doubtless brought 

 down upon the rolling stock of the Rail-road. 



It has been clearly demonstrated that this is the manner in which 

 this insect was first introduced into Pennsylvania, at least'two years be- 

 fore its normal period. Potato-beetles do not necessarily all hibernate 

 under ground. Those that pupate late in the season will remain un- 

 der ground until the Spring. But the mature beetles, when the au- 

 tumn sets in will hibernate under almost^any cover, and for two suc- 

 cessive years I have observed a great number of them crawling into the 

 cellars and under door steps of negligent people in this county, and 

 also issuing from such places early in spring. They have also been 

 found in lumber yards, and under heaps of rubbish, in February and 

 March, in this city. Even those that go into the ground, I have seen 

 revived, after having been cut out of solid blocks of frozen earth. 

 This illustrates that it is not the importation of potatos that the peo- 

 ple of Europe need fear, so much, as the hidden insects taken to their 



