A NEW ENEMY TO THE POTATO.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 177, 16 May 1874, Page 3

A NEW ENEMY TO THE POTATO.

From letters received from our American correspondents, it appears that the potato is threatened enom ? more terrible than the disease which has occupied such a large share of public attention during the last thirty years. This enemy is an insect, which is too well known to cultivators in America as the Colorado potato beetle. Dory pit or a decempunctata. Since its first appearance m the cultivated districts a few yearn since, it has done an immense amount of mischief mid spread with such amazing rapidity throughout Worth America as to give cause for fearing that it will find its way across the Atlantic to our shores. The original home of this pest was in the Rocky Mountains, where it feeds on a species of wild potato ; but as soon as crops of the edible potato were planted at the foot of ;the mountains they were attacked by the beetle, which from that time commenced to travel towards the east, - ng lt3elf ”g ht a «d left as it did so. In 1859 it was 100 miles westward of Omaha, in Nebraska: in two years afterwards it made its appearance in lowa • and in 1865 it had begun to devastate Missouri and bad crossed over the Mississippi, and commenced its ravages in HUonis. It then proceeded on its way at such a rapid rate that by 1870 it was located in Indiana. Ohio. Pennsylvania, the State of Few York, and MasBimhascette. having thus accomplished a journey of about 1700 miles in II years. In 1871 a large number of these beetles crossed Lake Erie on floating leaves and other convenient rafts, and In a very short time commenced their depredations in the country between the St Clair and Niagara ri J an instance of the rapidity with which the Colorado beetle is increased, it may be mentioned that three broods are usually produced each year. The first batch appears in April or May, according to the mildness or severity of the weatuer, and m a short time the female insects begin to deposit their eggs on the under side of the leaf, at the rate of about 1000 each. In little less than a week the larves escapes from the eggs, H ? d ’. ,« e l feed j D g.«l*>a the potato leaves for about 17 days, the insects bury themselves in the soil, from which they emerge in a fortnight fullgrown and the females commence depositing eggs as before. The last brood remains below the surface during the winter. Fields of potatoes, when attacked, are quickly of eveiy particle of green foliage and the crop totally destroyed. It was at one tune hoped that the beetles would, like an invading army, devastate the country and pass on ; but it has been found that colonies are left behind and the pest established permanently. They are uninjured by extreme heat and cold, and as yet no means have been discovered for destroying them excepting by band picking, which is not only tedious but attended with a considerable amount of danger; for the blood of the crushed insect or its larvee produces blisters upon the skin whenever it comes in contact with it, and if it touches a wound upon the hand or elsewhere it causes severe inflamation, followed in many cases by most painful ulcers. We would suggest that in the importation of the seed of American potatoes which is now carried on to a very large extent—the utmost caution should be exercised to prevent the introduction of the beetle to this country.— Gardener’s Magazine.