The Colorado Potato-Beetle. 
375 
case supply ground for confidently believing that there is ex- 
ceedingly little probability of their propagating and spreading 
in this country. The climate of Southern and Central Europe 
is more akin to that of the native country of the beetle, and in 
those regions the risks are somewhat greater. 
The chances of the insect arriving concealed in bags or casks 
of potatoes are very slight. American potatoes are imported 
into Britain only for seed purposes, and in remarkably clean 
condition. Newly-arrived casks which I saw opened at Messrs. 
Carter's, High Holborn, contained not a particle of refuse, and 
no pellet of soil large enough to conceal a hybernating beetle ; 
and I was assured that this was their usual state. ^lany of these 
seed-potatoes are very costly, some (" Eurekas ") being worth as 
much as twelve shillings a-pound. The total imports from 
America for several years past have been very moderate, the 
high freight preventing their importation for food purposes. 
According to a Customs Return, with which I have been favoured 
by the Board of Trade, on the application of Mr. Jenkins, 
Secretary to the Societ}-, the quantities for the past five years were 
as follows : — 
Year. Cwts. 
1870 490 
1871 1166 
1872 2716 
1873 2832 
1874 1056 
I 
Nearly the whole of these amounts were shipped at New York, 
a very small proportion being from Philadelphia, Boston, Port- 
land, and Norfolk ; and the ports of arrival were in the following 
order : — Liverpool (about two-thirds of the whole) ; London 
(about one-third) ; while Cardiff, Glasgow, Portsmouth, Bristol, 
and Londonderry received only very small quantities. The 
shipments have always arrived in the winter and early spring 
months, the returns being nearly blank for the months between 
May and September inclusive. The exported tubers, in fact, are 
not taken from the ground in America until all the eggs and larvae 
have disappeared, and the last brood of beetles has commenced 
hybernating beneath the surface. There is a chance, of course, of 
some of the late and sluggish beetles finding their way into the 
casks or sacks with the potatoes ; but it is the only risk, and is 
not nearly so great as that of the conveyance of the insect by 
the other means already mentioned. To prohibit the importation 
of potatoes with the view to excluding the pest, as has been done 
by the countries previously mentioned, is, therefore, a most 
childish policy. 
