38 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. [No. 17. 



Entomologists now count up about a dozen quite important insects 

 engaged in this good work of exterminating the potato beetle, so that 

 we may with considerable certainty predict that we have passed the 

 worst, and that the future, with of course some fluctuations, will 

 show an annual decrease in the amount of injury done the potato 

 crop by this pest. 



Aside from these natural checks, hand picking and the application 

 of Paris green, are the most universally adopted means for their 

 eradication. Of the two, the former is perhaps the best, all things 

 considered. 



A judicious selection of such varieties of potatoes as suffer least 

 from their attacks, will also do much to shorten the stay of the beetle 

 among us. 



PREPARATIONS FOR NEXT YEAR. 



At the close of the season the debris of crops was cleared off, 

 such vegetables as were designed for use next spring were buried, 

 and the ground plowed in part. The early setting in of cold weather 

 prevented the completion of this work. 



A quantity of peat was dug from the bed on the farm, and piled 

 up for use in making compost during the winter and spring. By 

 utilizing the material on hand, I do not see why we cannot manufac- 

 ture from five hundred to a thousand loads of first-class fertilizer 

 each year, which would be fully enough to meet all the demands of 

 the garden. 



NEEDS. 



The most pressing want just now is for a Garden-house. This 

 should contain an office, seed-room, tool-room, and vegetable-room, 

 and under the whole their should be a good sized frost-proof cellar. 

 As the fruit department also needs a cellar, and grafting room, a 

 considerable expense might be saved by combining all into one 

 larger building. 



The supply of tools is not sufficient for all purposes. We should 

 have a greater variety as well as a greater number, so that our stu- 

 dents can become acquainted with the use of all kinds of garden 

 implements. 



