Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1878-08-08

from the West, haTe ed themselves
have prospered and azea % rapidly
that II II vsfy dsaalI ether se shal
BE- ahie - suppost y 4nlil tie end d
The Summer. - y u ! serious
question wIseElIeE AiA III - abandon
the blace. IN ahNV ne shall have
l;tsle Or nothing II I'D slall have
10 bring our guNNliz eM . distance.
This family emIzsnzs ERE two veara
aqo from TIE neekT lalna. and. II
Apile III all the 6.si q - hare
rNeNiHN - III
confess The truth. ! nEaEs Z nv garden
er to put arsenic lhlo their food. but
with little o. no resuls.) They have
most voracious appelites. and have q
good many mouths among them TO be
fed. They make no noise, but seem to
devote themselves entirely 10 satisfy
ing their appetitss. With this excep-
ton they are entirely inolfensive, at-
tending exclusively to their own busi-
ness; but We cannCt possibly afford TO
keep them any longer, and intend to
contrive some efIectual method TO in
duce them to 90 elsewhere and live.
The way they happened TO migrate TO
our part Of the country was this: Their
home was in the Rocky Mountains.
where the family has resided for many
years; and If il had not been for the
discovery of gold in those regions, and
the rush Of miners to The gold fields.
they would have remained m the noun
tains where their ancestors were born,
and. would never have come East at all.
They were poor out there. The family
was comparatively small, having few re-
lations and no friends. In fact. the food
they lived on in the mountains was
scarce, and only sufficed for q few OF
them. II was uncultivated, and they
had to gather il in its wild state, in
which condition il was not very nour-
ishing. Their principal food was what
is known as soEanuaa-a kind of wild
potato, not very abundant nor nutritious.
Under such circumstances II may read
lily be supposed that The family did not
increase very rapidly in the West.
But after the gold4seekers began to
move in that direction in such numbers,
a stage route was established, and sub
sequently q railroad was built across the
plains, where for five hundred miles
there was little or no vegetation, and
nothing whatever for . traveller to eat
except what be took With bin. AZ
soon as the miners u gah 70 cultivate
The ground in order 10 provide them
selves with food, this poverty-stricken
family found an opportunity to get some
thing more TO eat, and as the land be-
gan 10 be cultivated at the stations along
the route, this family, fortified by the
additional food with which they had
been furnished by the miners, seemed
to have made up their minds to come TO
the East, taking passage in the railway
trains. where, on account Of their utter
ly Insignificant appearance, no one
seems to have noticed them as they
were taking their free ride toward the
Atlantic. Some of them, since coming
here, have actually taken the steamer
for Europe. where their arrival has
caused the utmost consternation, giving
occasion TO special edicts TO be issued
for their instant arrest and execution.
In short, the Colorado beetle (DOrv-
Phora), or potato-bug, has become the
scourge of one continent and terror of
another. The Goths and Vandals in
their fierce onslaughts on The Southern
nations were not more greatly feared.
The great power for evil which IL pos
sesses is due to its enormous capacity
for propagation. As we descend the
scale of animal life, their capacity ra-
pidly increases, and III the minute mi
croscopic iorms il reaches incredible
proportions. The female of the Colo
RADIO beetle viii lay over a hundred eggs
al one sitting, have counted 121 in
one nest. Under magnifier they bear
the form and appearance of hens eggs,
being translucent and OF deep saffron
color. Invariably deposited on the un-
der side of leaE, the eggs are hatched
out in forty-eight hours, ii the weather
is favorable, The voracious little crea-
lures beginning their attack ct once
upon the green chlorophyll of the Leaf,
gorging themselves h<iacessant eating
until they can scarcely maintain their
hold on the plant. When they first
emerge from tbe shell they are totally
black. but gradually bright saffron spots
appear as they increase in size, which
they do very rapidly. They soon drop
to the ground, into which they burrow,
and in Ten or fifteen days emerge there
from with striped wings. in full beetle
form. If the season il favorable, two
broods are developed into active force
during the Summer, and . thlrd brood
goes into the ground to hibernate, CON-
ing out in the Spring IN time TO attack
the shoots oil the young potato. Some
idea may be formed Of The potentiality
Of this little insect from the fact that
one thousand OF them can produce .
hundred thousand, and these in turn
can produce ten milIi0ns. The Euro
pean governments have become Justly
alarmed al the appearance On the Con-
tinent Of this great destroyer Of human
food, and stringent measures have been
taken to stamp il out, with what sue
cess remains 10 be seen. The natural
food OF this insect j. the plant known TO
botanists rs sOianum. which includes
the tobacco-plant. eggplant. tomato.
potato aud . number Of ether species.
The potato IL native ofthe Cordllleras,
where these insects also originated: 80
that in cultirating the potato for food,
we have in turn come also 10 cultivate
the potafo-teetls.-HayPv's