368 
The Colorado Potato-Beetle. 
rot, and more especially the Colorado potato-beetle, not to men- 
tion other enemies, have made it one of the most precarious of 
crops, as well as one of the most expensive to raise. It is no 
longer fed to stock ; and many a family was this winter deprived 
of its use, as a luxury that could not be afforded. Under the 
attacks of its numerous enemies it has also degenerated ; and 
instead of the delicious mealiness of former years it presents too 
often a soggy, watery, and unwholesome appearance at the table. 
This state of things may doubtless, in a great measure, be 
remedied by cultivating the newer and more vigorous seedlings, 
and by more care in mastering our coleopterous immigrant from 
Colorado." 
Many remedies have been tried to check the ravages of the 
pest, including the mechanical process of sweeping the insects 
off the plants by various simple contrivances that were invented, 
which the slight hold the bulky insects had on the foliage ren- 
dered to some degree effectual. The different kinds of vermin 
poisons,, such as powdered hellebore sprinkled on the leaves, car- 
bolate of lime, slacked lime, bichromate of potash, and other drugs, 
found useful in most cases of insect depredations, were tried with 
very little effect, and cultivators appear at length to have settled 
down to the use of Paris or Scheele's green (arsenite of copper), 
the cost of applying which is about five dollars to the acre. To 
produce the fullest effect it appears necessary to use the best quality 
of the poison (that containing as much as fifty-nine per cent, of 
arsenious acid), and to mix it as a powder, one part of the 
" green " to twelve or fifteen parts of flour, ashes, plaster, or 
slacked lime (flour being the best, though the most expensive) ; 
the mixed powder is placed in a short cylindrical box with a 
perforated bottom, attached to a stick three or four feet long, 
and thus shaken over the plants in succession. Mixed in this 
way it kills the insects, but does not injure the leaves, although 
the fields treated with the poison have a disagreeable, besmeared 
appearance. If used pure and too abundantly the " green " will 
kill the plants as effectually as the beetles would, bi^t applied 
judiciously we are assured it is efficient and harmless. The 
poison is allowed, however, to be a dangerous article to have 
lying about farm-houses, and the most scrupulous precautions 
are required to be taken. There is even danger of poisoning to 
the labourers who apply it, through the dust being absorbed by 
the skin, especially when j)erspiring, and on this account it is 
recommended to be applied only in the cool of the morning, at 
which time it has the further advantage of being more efficacious 
on account of the dew causing the dust to adhere better to the 
leaves. Farmers, however, are enjoined to keep a supj)ly of the 
antidote at hand, in the shape of hydrated sesquioxide of iron, " a 
