250 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
August. 
Insects on the Potato Vines. 
Friend Tucker —Thee will very much oblige, if 
thee can’st afford me any information in regard to the 
history of certain insects, that have badly infested my 
potato vines, the past two or three seasons. This year 
they are more numerous than in any previous year, 
and I fear they will very much lessen my potato crop. 
Nearly every hill in a large field has more or less of 
the insects among the leaves, and generally they are 
found in pairs. The bugs or flies, are about one-quar¬ 
ter of an inch in length, of a brownish-buff color, with 
three black stripes on the back ; they are larger, but 
much resemble the yellow striped cucumber bug. I 
find numerous clusters of dark yellow, oval shaped eggs 
upon the leaves, a dozen or so in a group, some upon 
the upper, and others on the under side of the leaf 
And within a few days, I find upon the vines numer¬ 
ous filthy looking slugs, and they are rapidly devour¬ 
ing the leaves, leaving the ribs and leaf-stalks entirely 
stripped of the foliage. Are the eggs and the slugs the 
produce of the striped fly ? Do they injure or lessen the 
crop ? Have they any connection with the potato dis¬ 
ease or rot? Is there any feasible method of destroy¬ 
ing them ? Any information in reference to the fore¬ 
going questions, will be thankfully received by thy 
friend. Oeed Buffum. 
The striped insect about which friend B writes, is 
the “ three-tined leaf-beetle” of the entomologists. 
It is about one-fourth of an inch long, of a rusty buff 
or nankin-yellow color, with two black dots on the back 
of the neck, and three black stripes on the back, viz : 
one on each wing-cover, and one in the middle on the 
inner edges of the same. They appear early in June 
on the leaves of the potato vines, having at that time 
recently come out of the ground, where they pass the 
winter in the pupa state. They (the winged insect) 
eat the leaves of the potato, gnawing irregular holes 
through them ; and in the course of a few days, begin 
to lay their oval golden yellow eggs, which are glued 
to the leaves, in parcels of six or eight together. The 
grubs, which are hatched in about a fortnight after¬ 
wards, are of a dirty yellowish or ashen white 
color, with a darker colored head. After making 
a hearty meal upon the leaves of the potato, they 
cover themselves with their own filth. In eating, the 
grubs move backwards, never devouring the portion of 
the leaf immediately before the head, but that which 
lies under it. Their numbers are sometimes very great, 
and the leaves are then covered and nearly consumed 
by these filthy insects. In about fifteen days, they 
leave the plant and bury themselves in the ground— 
there they form the necessary cell for passing through 
the change from the grub to the perfect insect, which 
occupies about fifteen days. The beetles come out of 
the ground towards the end of J uly, or early in Au¬ 
gust, and lay their eggs for a second brood of grubs ; 
these come to their growth and go into the ground in 
the autumn, and remain there in the pupa form dur¬ 
ing winter. 
We are indebted to the late Prof. Harris’ work on 
insects for much of the foregoing history of the potato 
beetle—and he says “the only method that occurs to 
me, by which we may get rid of these insects, when 
they are so numerous as to be injurious to plants, is to 
brush them from the leaves into shallow vessels con¬ 
taining a little salt and water or vinegar.” 
No doubt large numbers of the beetles and the grubs 
might be destroyed as suggested by Dr. H., but it would 
do rather a slow way of ridding a large field of them. 
Dry ashes, or lime, sifted upon the vines in the morn¬ 
ing, while the dew was upon the leaves, might perhaps 
prove useful in ridding the plants of the insects, both 
in the winged and grub state. A flock of turkeys in a 
field of potatoes might prove very useful in destroying 
these pests ; children might be employed in examining 
the leaves and removing those having deposits of eggs 
upon them. In this way, their ravages and increase 
might be very much curtailed. 
The second brood of grubs (as already said) come to 
their growth in the autumn, and go into the ground 
and remain there in the pupa form during winter, and 
about the first of June appear in the winged form. If 
potatoes are planted on the same ground, or near it, 
for several years in succession, as is frequently the case 
in kitchen gardens, the insects become so numerous in 
course of three or four years, as to ruin the crop, as we 
know by actual experience. Therefore, it would seem 
advisable to plant the potatoes at some distance from 
where they were grown the previous year. 
There can be no doubt but what the crop of potatoes 
is much lessened by the destruction of the leaves of 
the plants—and the loss will be in proportion to the de¬ 
struction of the leaves. We do not think that the 
“ bugs or their progeny ” have any connection with the 
potato rot. Two years ago our early potatoes were 
nearly ruined by the ravages “of these filthy insects,” 
but there was no rot in the tubers of the scanty crop. 
These insects, like the grasshopper and some others, 
may soon disappear from localities where they are now 
so numerous, or they may, like the wheat midge, be¬ 
come a “ permanent fixture,” to blast the hopes of the 
farmer in growing profitable crops of potatoes. 
Wheat Growing in Delaware. 
[“ I feel somewnat in high dudgeon,” writes our corres¬ 
pondent in a private note, “ that you should have called 
on so many of our friends and neighbors in Maryland, 
without giving us in Delaware a call.” From this week’s 
paper, however, he will learn that we did see something of 
Delaware ; we regret that owing to the stormy week, we 
could not have gon9 as far as Middletown, and shall hope 
to complete the visit at some future day. Meantime, he 
will accept thanks for his contributions, and excuse us for 
the omission of a part, on which there are too many views 
too widely differing from each other, to hope for any 
available result from the discussion of the subject in our 
columns, already crowded as they are, and devoted more 
especially to practical than to political Agriculture. Eds.] 
Messrs. Editors —We are in the height of the 
wheat harvest hereabouts; and although we have 
heard as usual, a good deal said about the ravages of 
the locust, the grasshopper, the chinch bug, the joint 
worm, the army and the grub worm, the weevil, the 
Hessian fly, the scab, smut and the fungii, with some¬ 
thing about the winter kill and overflow—all of these 
reports mostly from the sunny south and the much 
boasted west—the crop I am pleased to say, is still 
about a full average with us. The fancy wheats—all 
the varieties of the white and beardless particularly— 
the Velvet and the Gale’s wheat, have suffered from 
some cause or other, mostly the scab and rust—we have 
no smut. There was, however, not much of any other 
variety than the old Mediterranean of the impor- 'a) 
1 tation of 1819, sowed in this section of the state, nor vj. 
