Connecticut western news., 1875-07-02
 THE POTATO BEETLE.
The Ravages of the Beetle in the United
 States. and the Remedy.


 The New York Herald, in publishing an article on the potato beetle, says, editoriallyi: That formidable scourge of agriculture, the Colorado beetle, whose native habitat is the region at the base of the Rocky mountains, has made it's way eastward to the Atlantic coast and threatens the potato crop of all New Jersey and other extensive districts. It is only ten years since this noxious insect first crossed the Mississippi, and the rapid spread and multiplication of it's devouring progeny makes it 8 national calamity. It has been found that these pests can be ezterminated by poison, and paris green Ca mixture of arsenite and acetate of coPper) is the cheapest md most easily applied poison adapted to this use. But fears have been raised that the poison which kills the grubs of the beetle may enter into the compost tion of the plant, making the remedy worse than the evil. This subject is so important and requires such immediate action if this years potato crop is to be saved, that the Hernld has taken pains to procure such correct and authentic information as may be safely accepted for their guidance by the suffering agri- culturists.
 Its prints most timely and instruc- tive letter from President McMurtrie, of the National Department of Agriculture at Washington. He is reputed to be the most thoroughly and minutely informed scientific man in the country, on the sub- ject which he discusses in it's columns with so much clearness of statement and fitness of detail. Not the least import ant of the information which Professor McMurtrie communicates is the account of his own original researches and ex- periments. Since the east ward pro- gress of the Colorado beetle last year he has been engaged in constant expert ments with view to ascertain the effect of mineral poisons, and particularly those containing arsenic, on the health of plants. ,s'1s.- - r, t.r.s..s
 He has also made himself thoroughly acquainted with the results of the most recent Investigations in Great Britain, France and Germany; but his own di- versifed aud decisive experiments are of more value, as bearing on the imme diate problem, than those of all the other inquirers together. In relation to paris green Professor McMurtrie had found that the intermixture of this poison with the soil in large quantities destroys vegetable growth, but that in the small quantities requisite for destroying insects it does not interfere with or impede 1t at all. But there is @, more important E question than the destruction of the plant. It would only multiply the mis- chief to kill the grubs and at the same time poison the food of man. Upon this great point Professor McMurtrie's de- cisive aud manifold experiments should allay all fears. 5., sIn the plants that were killed, in the plants that were stanted, and in the plants which grew to full perfection, with the varying amounts of paris green mingled with the soil of his pots, the most rigid chemical analysis could detect no trace of arsenic in the composition of the plant itself. Whether little of this poison or much of 1t exists in the soil none of it enters into the structure of the vegetable. The danger of its excessive use is not danger to human life but to the growth or health of the plant But the quantity of paris green necessary for destroying the Colorado beetles is too small to have any perceptible effect on the growth of crops. It is possible that ifpotatoes were planted in the same field for aseries of years with constant necessity for the application of the poison the capacity Eof the soil for cropsmight be destroyed; :; but the system Of rotation, 50 valuable in other respects would obviate this danger. Itiga great satisfaetien to be assured on competent scientific authority that there is no peril to human life in the freest application of this poison to the soil, and nodetrim entto vegetation itself from the quantity needed to, kill the beetles. ~ E sg N nE sE