
New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. DOT 
Especial care was taken to cover the vessel to prevent the 
escape of the millipedes. The vessel was placed in the office 
connected with the green-house, where the temperature was 
usually from 60° to 70° F. The tubers were examined February 
20, and it was found that the millipedes had removed all the 
dirt and decayed substance from the place where the fork had 
penetrated and the wound had begun to callous over. Otherwise 
the tubers gave no evidence of their feeding upon them, although 
they were burrowing underneath the tubers and through the soil. 
A partially decayed tuber was at this time placed in the vessel 
with the others. February 25 the millipedes were busy feeding upon 
the decayed portion of the tuber, but had not fed upon the sound 
ones. Frequent examinations of the tubers were made until April 
- 10, with no indication that the millipedes had fed upon the sound 
tubers. After entirely removing the decayed portion of the tuber 
they left it and burrowed into the soil. 
Later in the season two potato plants upon mihioh tubers were 
beginning to form were transplanted into glass vessels containing 
sand that had been thoroughly washed to remove all organic 
matter. In each vessel were placed 50 millipedes. Nothing 
could be found to indicate that they had fed upon the tubers 
when they were examined thirty days later. 
Insects will often feed upon that which is not their natural food 
when nothing else is accessible and in this instance it would not 
have been surprising had the millipedes fed upon the sound 
tubers. 
Hence, it is but reasonable to draw the following conclusions : 
1. Millipedes do not feed upon the sound tubers of the potato. 
2. Their food consists of decaying vegetable matter. 
3. The presence of millipedes in the hills with the seabby 
tubers was due to the scab, they being attracted by the decayed 
portion which they desired for food, and the scab is not due to their 
presence. 
SmoorH versus Knopsy SEED TUBERS. 
To determine whether by using smooth tubers for seed a larger 
proportion of the yield would be smooth tubers than by using 
knobby seed tubers, three plats of one-twentieth of an acre each 
were planted May 7 with smooth and knobby tubers in alternate 
rows. The tubers were cut lengthwise into two pieces. One 
piece was planted every two feet in rows three and one-half feet 
‘apart. Ordinary cultivation was given the plats. In selecting the 
