The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato.: Prize offered by W. T. Wylie and awarded to D. H. Compton.; How to Cook the Potato, Furnished by Prof. Blot.Compton, D. A.
Science
The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato.: Prize offered by W. T. Wylie and awarded to D. H. Compton.; How to Cook the Potato, Furnished by Prof. Blot.
Compton, D. A.
Agriculture; Plants, Cultivated; Potatoes
In Figure 15, _d_, on the contrary, it is the second and third
stripes--not the third and fourth--counting from the outside, that are
united behind, and the leg is entirely pale, except a black spot on the
middle of the front of the thigh. The eggs (Fig. 14, _a_, _a_, and Fig.
15, _d_, _d_) are yellow, and are always laid on the under side of the
leaf in patches of from twenty to thirty; those of the bogus are of a
lighter color. Each female of the true Colorado potato-bug lays,
according to Dr. Schirmer, about seven hundred eggs. In about six days
the eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on the foliage of the potato plant
about seventeen days; they then descend to the ground, where they change
into pupae at the surface of the earth. The perfect beetle appears about
ten to fourteen days after the pupa is formed, begins to pair in about
seven days, and on the fourteenth day begins to deposit her eggs. There
are three broods of this insect every year. Neither geese, ducks,
turkeys, nor barn-yard fowl will touch the larva of the Colorado
potato-bug when it is offered to them, and there are numerous authentic
cases on record where persons who have scalded to death quantities of
these larvae, and inhaled the fumes of their bodies, have been taken
seriously ill, and even been confined to their beds for many days in
consequence. It is also reported to have produced poisonous effects on
several persons who handled them incautiously with naked hands. Various
plans have been tried to destroy this persistent enemy of the potato
plant. Powdered hellebore is said to have been used with effect as a
means of destroying the pest. It should be dusted on and under the
foliage when the plant is wet with dew. Hellebore, however, is a
dangerous remedy on account of its poisonous qualities. A mixture of one
part salt, ten parts soap, and twenty parts water, applied to every part
of the plants with a syringe, is quite effectual. Several cannibal and
one parasitic insect are known to prey upon the larva of the Colorado
potato-bug, and the eggs in vast numbers are eaten by several species of
lady-birds and their larva.
GENERAL REMARKS ON INSECTS.
The time is not far distant when the American farmer will be obliged to
put forth greater efforts to destroy noxious insects than he has
hitherto. It is a well-known fact that noxious insects are increasing in
a rapid rate throughout every part of our land. The country is becoming
so "buggy" that eternal vigilance is the price of every thing produced
from the soil.
Close observers calculate that more fruits of various kinds and
varieties are annually destroyed or rendered worthless by insects than
are gathered and used by man. The cotton-worm, the wheat-midge, the
canker-worms, the potato-bugs, are each every year increasing in numbers
and destructiveness.
The "curculio" alone destroys millions of dollars' worth of fruit
annually.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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