The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1877-08-25

The London Times, of July %, says:
The Farmer calls attention to the I'M
trustworthy nature of the process adopt
ed at Mulheim, near Cologne, for extir-
pating the insects lately found there.
This process consisted in strewing the
fields with layer of sawdust and tan to
q depth of some inches, saturating this
with petroleum, and setting fire to the
whole. The potato haulm and the in
sects' Larvae and eggs upon it were Of
course utterly consumed, but the extir-
patton, of the plague was as far off as
ever, since fresh generation lay snug
and unhurt beneath the surface, await
ing its liberation in due course of time.
Prof. Gerstaecker, who was specially
dispatched to the scene at the instance
of the Pnlssian Ministry of Agriculture,
suspected that this might be, and recon-
mended that the soil of the infected
field should be turned up spadeful by
spadeful by dozen laborers. The re-
suit was that in the places where the
larvae had been most busily at work, one
living pupa after another was discover
ed, and occasionally larvae that had not
reached the pupa stage, till altogether
we had found GO specimens in the
course of the morning. These were gen.
orally situated about 10 centimeters be-
low the surface, but in some instances,
when the image was about to emerge,
they were by no means so deep. Thus
the conclusions drawn from an inspec-
ton of the living larvae originally pre-
served were fully justified, and the dan
ger to the surrounding crops, or, per-
haps, even to every potato crop in Ger
many, which would have arisen if fur
Their examination of the soil had been
neglected, was abundantly demonstrate
ed. A writer in the Cologne Gazette
says:
"How little heat really penetrates the
substance of the earth from a, fire built
on its fiat surface is shown by the fact
that grass often springs up on the very
site where weeds have been burned the
day before. After the recent petroleum
fire on the Mulheim fields, I found
small potatoes quite untouched by it
only four centimeters below the surface.
Ground infested with larvae of the Col
-orado beetle should be plowed in fur
rows from 40 to SO ccntimeters deep,
VultC clOSC W cstCu OtucT. Az Iuc DOt-
tom of these, sawdust, tar, asphalte, tan,
peat, and the like should be laid, satur-
ated with petroleum, and fired. The
flames, as they spring up, heat the
small intermediate ridges so fiercely
that no living thing can endure their
action. 1 have found by experiment
that Il comparatively small quantity of
petroleum thus applied in the burrows
makes the intermediate earth burning
hot, while the same quantity simply
burned with sawdust on the surface Of
the ground had no action whatever on
shavings of wood at a depth of four CEN
timetcrs. Of course, before the blowing
is begun the potato haulm and the in
sects upon it should be treated with pc
troleum in the ordinary way
Messrs. James Gibbs & Co., of No. 16
Marklane, E. c., informs US that, with
a view to make the British agriculturist
thorouly acquainted with the Colorado
beetle, so that it may be easily recOg-
nized should it reach our shores, they
have purchased 10000 cabinets, con-
tanning eggs, chrysalis and Larvae,
modelled as we described last Monday,
from nature, as ordered by the German
Government. These Messrs. Gibbs
are distributing free of all cost to the
principal landowners and leading ag-
riculturists throughout the United King
dom. r" -I.-