The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-07-01
POISONING THEM IMPOSES 4
HEAVY TAX ON FARMERS.
Two Counties in Virginia Which
Spends Nearly q Million Year
i'm Fighting Them.

TWO OUnJlCS IN virginia " lRCi
Spends Nearly q Million Year
in Fighting Them.
Nearly a million dollars is spent
annually on potato bug poison in
two small counties of a single state
Surprising as this may appear, it is
simply statement of fact. The
farmers of Accomac and Northamp-
ton counties, which form what is
known as the Eastern Shore of Vir-
ginia, spend each year something
like 100000 i'll the desperate war
they are forced to wage against the
most feared enemy of the potato
crop, the potato bug.
Annually they buy over six hun
dred and fifty tons of this poison, or
something like 100000 pounds.
and the cost of applying it is nearly
twice as great as the cost OF the poi
son itself
This section Of Virginia is one Of
the greatest potato producing sec
lions OF the United States, and each
year thousands and tens Of thou
sands of barrels are shipped to the
markets of the eastern cOast-NeW
York, Philadelphia, Boston, Balti-
more and Washington, and even to
many western cities. A crop which
can be marketed at a fair price
means a year OF prosperity and
plenty for the farmers of these two
counties. The reverse means often
times debt and want.
The potato bug is an enemy that
would prove fatal to the crop each
year unless it was carefully guard
ed against and energetic war waged
upon it, When the potato plant is
in it's infancy it is attacked by hOrdes
of a yellow and black striped bug
which, when fully grown, is covered
with a hard shell, but before it at
tains its full growth is more like a
small worm than anything else.
Prolific Breeders.
The potato bugs apparently rise
from the earth. and as soon as the
potato plants have begun to grow
leaves attack the foliage y single
day is sufficient for these pests to
strip every leaf from the plants in
a large field, unless their work is
stopped by poison The bug breeds
POLITICALLY. 1t lays its eggs upon
the backs of the leaves of potato
plants, and in a single day these
eggs are Matched 1t is no unusual
sight to see a large plant almost
entirely covered by the bugs.
At the outset of the season, when
the plants are small, the bugs are,
comparatively speaking, few, and the
farmer is able to protect his plants
by having a force of men sprinkle
the plants with a poison solution.
Paris green is the poison general
ly used. 1t comes in pound boxes
and is a powder To use it unmiXed
with water or something else would
prove too expensive, and, besides,
the poison undiluted is so strong
that it withers and often kills the
potato plant itself. The general
practice is to mix the powder with
water or the cheapest, coarsest
grades of -four or meal
The farmhands put the mixture
in watering pots, if IL is liquid. and
walk through the rows Of potato
plants spraying them as they go.
If the poison is mixed with flour or
meal an even more primitive method
is used. An old can is pressed into
service. A number of fine holes are
drilled in the bottom, a stick is
tackled on one side, and armed with
this crude apparatus the farmland
goes down the rows shaking the can
over each plant.
Necessarily the potato bug, in eat
ing the leaves of the plant, must eat
gOodly portion of the poison. 1t
acts within a few minutes, and the
bugs drop from the plants by the
thousand. But as soon as one LOT
is killed another takes its place. and
the spraying has to be repeated.
Sprinkling by hand is effective sc
long as the plants are young and
small and the bugs comparatively
few but it is too costly and at the
same time not so effective when the
plants are larger and the bugs more
numerous. To meet this difficulty
a patented sprinkler which il NOT
unlike street sprinkler in genera
size, shape and mode of operation
Is used on large farms.
one OF these holds from one hun
dTed to two hundred gallons of moi