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more thorough and careful spraying' of the arsenites necessary, in order 

 to reach the under surface of tlie leaf and kill the larv^a^ in tlieir first 

 stage. Jjater they separate and eat through the leaf. 



So familiar are the growers with the aspect of the larva^ in tlieir 

 several moltings that the only name by wliich they are spoken of is 

 ''hangers." The beetles are known as "hard shells." 



I was disappointed upon finding at my visit made on August L^2 that 

 the beetles had already gone into their winter (juarters, for ^Ir. Bruner, 

 entomologist of the Nebraska Agricultnral Experiment Station, in his 

 notice of the insects in Station Bulletin Xo. 14, has stated that "the per- 

 fect insects in fall, after tbe first heavy frosts, leave the cotton woods, 

 poplars, and willows, where they had been feeding, and seek some 

 shelter." Only about a half dozen could be found by careful search to 

 show me. A few weeks before the air had been at times filled with 

 them in the streets of the village, ''gathered," it was said, "in swarnis, 

 like companies of gnats and midges." They had commenced to retire 

 for hibernation during the first half of July, and by the 1st of August 

 nearly all had disappeared. They are now to be found in old stone 

 walls, under rubbish of all kinds, in the crevices of rocks and stones, 

 and occasionally in houses. 



Should it be desirable to attempt the destruction of the eggs of this 

 beetle, it is of importance to know that the first deposit is by no means 

 confined to the willows, but that they are i)laced on various plants and 

 weeds, and even on other than vegetable growths, but presumably in 

 close vicinity to the willows. As showing the abundance of egg clusters, 

 it was stated that 700 clusters had been picked from a row of willows 20 

 rods long in passing over them once; and, as illustrating the abundance 

 of the beetle, 3 bushels of them had been gathered in a day by one 

 person from his fields by the aid of the "bug catcher" which has been 

 devised to serve in the present emergencj^ 



Remedies. — The eftbrts made to arrest the increase and ravages of 

 this pest have been these: Hand-picking the beetles, or shaking them 

 into vessels with water floated with kerosene; collecting the egg clus- 

 ters; spraying with Paris green or London ])ur])le in water; dusting 

 by hand with Paris green and lime; collecting the beetles with the 

 " bug catcher." 



The hand-picking and jarring has proved quite effective where small 

 fields, say of an acre or less, have been treated in this manner. With 

 larger ones it would be virtually impracticable. Perhaps the best — the 

 tallest and most uniform and less injured — field that I saw was a 

 half acre to which the owner and his son had given time each day by 

 this method of protection. Although not so informed, I susiv.H't from 

 the good conditi(m of the leattige that lime had been applied to kill the 

 larva?. The next most productive fields that came under my observa- 

 tion were those of Mr. P>lack, where the ground had been well enriched, 

 carefully cultivated, sprayevl at difi'erent times with a S[)rayer that 



