The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-06-29
NEW YORK HERALD TUESDAY JUNE 30 l875-TRPIE SHEET

II hard to keep on peaceable terms under the
most favorable circumstances, that Heaven
only knows what aud how far-reaching the
consequences may be if the worm wins. The
lnwardness of mankind shudders at the pros
pect The song of the doomed agriculturist
is fading ay-fading away as he marks the
victorious and resistless march Of his enemy
and ours. Henceiorth the plebeian potato
viii be an aristocrat in the market, no longer
the sole necessity Of the poor, but the luxury
OF the rich Instead Of being regarded as q
common vegetable and used only as the priv
LEGGED companion Of roast beef and spring
lamb, it will be dignifed as a fruit, christened
with new name, and constitute whole
course Of the fashionable dinner.
We should DO glad to give detailed history
Of the arch enemy Of mankind known as the
potato bug, but farmers have at present little
leisure to study its habits, and possibly as
little inclination. As class they are not in
particularly equable frame of mind just
now They are smarting under the conscious
ness that they are raising crop not for
remunerative trade with city markets. but for
the unsatisfactory purpose Of satisfying the
voraclous appetites Of an army Of beetles. 1t
may be urged by sceptics that the farmer is
always in a state Of chronic discomfort, and it
is true that he has larger capacity of finding
faul. with Old Prob than any other class of
men. really happy farmer has never ex-
listed, and probably never will until some
shrewd Yankee gets a weather contract and
runs the season on commission. But in the
present emergency there is real sorrow in
which we all have an interest The extent Of
this sorrow will be better appreciated, per-
haps, whom we state the enormous capacity
for reproduction which this cunning foe, whose
name is do7Nphor0 decemlineGta, possesses.
1t is q curious fact by the way, that the
more pestiferous the insect the larger seems to
be its capacity in this direction. A curious
scientist, whose mathematical development is
astounding, tells US that IN ordinarily active
pair Of these ten-lined spearmen can produce
IN single season something like sixty million
lively duplicates Of themselves. What a
pity that some prophetic fingers had not
caught the first pair, the original cause OF the
devastation Of these many years and saved the
potato. But this was not to be, and now poor
little children get penny pint for eggs and
beetles, and drive a thriving trade on the
misery of the farmers
Well tempord mutdnt,,r, and SO have pota-
toes. Life is hardly worth having without
them. We can give up our summer vacation
and the delights Of the rural brook. the fly
rod and the cloud Of mosquitoes we can
part with our country cousins and bid
tender farewell to the indispensable mother-in-
law with heroic fortitude, but when it comes
to giving up potatoes we weaken, we suffer
spasms abdominal and shrink back with in
ward horror II is, however necessary that
every generation should have some disciple
nary affection, and ours seems to have as
sumed the shape Of the CHEEKY grasshopper
and the silent potato bug