The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
it from livinff. That’s the baffling thing about this 
squash, melon and pumpkin pest. Moreover, that’s 
just the kind of thing that keeps us eternally seek¬ 
ing after knowledge, that keeps us still fighting; in 
short, that keeps us progressing instead of stag¬ 
nating. 
Briefly, this is what we know about the squash 
stinkbug, and it took a good many long hours of 
patient observation to find it out. The full-grown 
bugs, in the Fall after hard frosts come, seek out 
snug crannies and crevices under sticks, stones, 
leaves and other trash, and there spend the Winter 
in a dormant condition like a woodchuck in his hole. 
No Winter is apparently too cold or too changeable 
for them, because they survive through everything, 
and waken with the warm days of late Spring to 
find they way to gardens, where they sit around 
beneath pieces of boards or other objects waiting 
for the squashes to come up. As everything comes 
to him who waits, the bugs eventually find the plants 
ready for them. As soon as the plants are out of 
the ground the bugs attack them, and often kill them 
outright. Each bug, apparently, when it punctures 
a leaf, injects some injurious poison that destroys 
the tissues. In addition, the bugs are said to dis¬ 
seminate the bacterial wilt disease of squashes and 
cucumbers. After feeding for a time each mother 
bug begins to lay her handsome, shining, brown eggs 
in clusters, usually on the undersides of the leaves. 
Sometimes she puts the eggs in quite regular rows 
in the angles of the larger veins, as shown in the 
illustration. Fig. 213. This touch of orderly instinct 
on the part of the mother bug is usually lost on the 
man who is trying to grow a Hubbard squash for 
his Thanksgiving dinner. The brown eggs hatch in 
from one to two weeks into young bugs that have 
no wings, and that soon become grayish-green in 
color. Each one of these young bugs has a long, 
slender and business-like beak with which it punc¬ 
tures the tender leaves and sucks out the juices. 
When a number of the old bugs, together with a 
batch of the young ones, are puncturing the leaves 
they soon suck the foliage dry and the plant often 
withers and dies in a few days. It takes the young 
bugs four or five weeks to reach their full growth 
and acquire fully developed wings. Often they are 
not mature by frost, and in such instances they 
congregate on the unripe fruits, from which they 
can obtain enough nourishment to complete their 
growth. Fortunately there is but one generation a 
year, the mature bugs hiding away in the Fall in 
fence corners and under trash about the edges of 
gardens, where they pass the Winter dreaming of 
squashes to come. Thus we know the life history 
and habits of this insect in detail. Now what about 
its control? 
In the first place, the full-grown individuals are 
among the toughest bugs we know, with hides like 
a rhinoceros. We know of no insecticide that can 
be applied to the bugs in strong enough solution to 
kill them and at the same time not injure the plants. 
Therefore we must resort to other methods of de¬ 
stroying the adult bugs. 
In the first place, clean culture after the crop is 
harvested, with the destruction of all vines in the 
field, and of the weeds and trash in the fence corners 
and about the edges of the garden to eliminate all 
the places possible in which the bugs might safely 
hide away during the Winter, will accomplish much 
good in the fight against this pest. Destruction of 
the vines and lmlf-ripened fruits will also prevent 
the partly-grown bugs from completing their growth. 
In the Spring, after the garden is plowed, many 
of the old bugs can be caught and killed by trapping 
them under pieces of boards placed about at con¬ 
venient intervals. The bugs will hide under the 
The Five-row Marker. Fir/. 211). (See Page 816) 
boards, and may be easily picked up in the morning 
when they are sluggish. If these overwintering bugs 
are killed there will be none to lay eggs and start a 
new crop of bugs. In addition, watch should be 
kept for the eggs as they are laid. By turning up 
the leaves the eggs can easily be found, pinched off 
and crushed. 
Finally, when the eggs hatch the young bugs, 
while they are without wings and more or less soft, 
may be killed with a tobacco extract know as 
“Black Leaf 40,” used at the rate of a teaspoonful 
to one gallon of water, to which a piece of laundry 
soap as large as a hen’s egg lias been added. The 
bugs must be hit to be killed, and a nozzle which 
turns upward will be most convenient, because 
the stream should be directed upward from near the 
ground to hit the bugs on the undersides of the 
leaves. 
The squash bug is a hard insect to fight and a 
hard one to kill. One has to take off one’s coat and 
get his fighting blood up and keep at it in a per¬ 
sistent. thorough manner and with a determination 
to Win. GLEXN W. HERRICK. 
Sweet Potatoes and Peanuts on Long 
Island 
1. IIow can I grow sweet potatoes on Long Island? 
Shall I have to have plants, or can I plant the potatoes 
for seed? 2. How can I raise peanuts? This is very 
sandy soil. c. L. 
Long Island. 
ROP REQUIREMENTS.—Sweet potatoes may 
be grown to good advantage on Long Island, 
particularly in the land which is too warm and sandy 
for the best growth of ordinary potatoes. Sweet po- 
Setting Tomato Plants. Fig. 215. (S<e Pag< S/6) 
807 
tatoes need more heat and grow best during the hot 
part of the Summer, while the white potatoes do best 
while the ground is cool and moist. I would not ad¬ 
vise the use of much fresh manure for sweet po¬ 
tatoes. but if the land is in fair condition you will 
get excellent results using commercial fertilizers of 
about the same grade as for ordinary potatoes. The 
practice is not to use as much fertilizer as the best 
potato growers use. but 1.200 lbs. applied in the row 
would be a great plenty. In order to have the land 
warm enough to grow good quality of potatoes, it 
should be put up in ridges at least eight or 10 
inches high. These ridges also aid in the harvesting 
of the crop. The best variety for you to use will be 
Jersey Yellow or Big Stem Jersey, which can be se¬ 
cured by the barrel from seedsmen. The sweet po- 
ato does not produce seed in the United States, and 
is raised entirely from plants which sprout from the 
potatoes, or from vine cuttings in the region south of 
Washington. 
STARTING THE PLANTS.—Usually we begin to 
raise the crop about April 20 by starting a hotbed 
with eight inches of fresh horse manure tramped in. 
This should not have much bedding and should be of 
good quality. For a few days this will get very hot, 
but as soon as it is down to 95 degrees it should be 
covered with a layer of clear sand two inches deep 
and on this the sweet potatoes placed closely side by 
side. Be careful to reject any decayed or bruised 
potatoes, as they will spread disease on the bed. 
When the potatoes are placed, cover them with at 
least two inches of clear sand and water the bed 
% i •. 
thoroughly. Glass should be placed over it an. mat¬ 
ting or old carpet laid over the glass at night and on 
cold days. The plants will come up through the sand 
and may be pulled up with the thumb and finger, as 
Mature Squash Bug and Xymph. Fig. 216 
they readily break loose from the potato, and another 
sprout will take its place. A barrel of good potatoes 
should give you from 6.000 to 9.i>00 strong plants. 
SOIL PREPARATION.—The land where the po¬ 
tatoes are to be grown should be plowed early and 
kept thoroughly cultivated until you are ready to 
transplant the crop. I would apply the fertilizer 
with an ordinary potato planter, adjusting it so as 
to make as much ridge as possible. This ridge can be 
increased in size by means of a ridger such as potato 
growers use. A good time to transplant the young 
plants is a rainy day or after four o’clock in the 
afternoon. The young plants will stand more rough 
treatment than any other plants with which I am 
acquainted and will grow if given any kind of an 
opportunity. 
TRANSIT,AN TING.—If the ground js very mel¬ 
low and soft they are often transplanted in this way: 
One person drops the plants on top of the ridge 15 
inches apart and the other one pushes the root of 
the plant into the ground with a blunt stick. In 
this way two people can transplant an am-e a day. 
Large growers use a plant setting machine. After 
pulling the plants from the bed it is a general cus¬ 
tom to dip the routs in a thin mud made of clay and 
manure, which will cover the roots and keep them 
from danger of wilting. The after cultivation is 
very much the same as that given potatoes. They 
must be kept dean of weeds and cultivated as often as 
there seems need. Sweet potatoes are generally dug 
earlier titan white potatoes, and must be dug before 
a severe frost has killed the vines, a^ freezing the 
vines will cause decay to start and injure the keeping 
quality of the roots. 
HARVESTING.—Sweet potatoes are very little 
affected by insects and dieases. They may be dug 
by plowing out the side of the ridge and raking 
them out. or by the use of one of the potato diggers in 
general use in your neighborhood. More care should 
be taken in handling them than is given to the hand¬ 
ling of potatoes, as bruising will cause them to rot in 
storage. You have not indicated whether you intend 
to raise a large or small quantity, but it is probable 
that you will be able to sell any surplus in nearby 
