Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1920-07-20
A Ten.StrlDer.

| Away off in Colorado, there seems tC
be kind of Pandora's box, where abou
all the ills that afflict the country art
born. The weatherwise say nearly al
the storms which visit other parts are
born not far from this section of REQ
earth; and mention of potato bugs to 9
farmer will convince him readily enough
that one of bis greatest griefs, at about
this time of year, originated in thai
| western state.
Before white men took the trouble to
occupy North America and plant fields
Of Irish Cobblers, there was sand bur,
a congener of the cobblers, which grew
wild in the valleys of the Rocky Mount.
aims. As the aborigines did not take the
trouble to use these sand-burs either as
an accompaniment for flesh or as green's,
it seemed necessary, il they were to be
conserved, TO create something to eat
| them; 80 out of red, hump, backed
larva, whose interior was all stomach,
there developed a trim looking beetle,
with cream colored elytra having five
black stripes on each.
Till the Irish Cobblers appeared, this
beetle was content to live on sand-burs
aud remain in Colorado; but being a
creature of good sense, he realized there
had been an Improvement made on the
sand-bur, SO he travelled east-not west
like the humans-to grow up with the
potato.
The first spuds raised in Colorado was
somewhere about the year 1850, and 1t
was at this time that the sand-b bur eating
beetle got his first taste of the improved
member of the family. As this improve
ment came from the east, 30 he travelled
in that direction. His entry into Ne
braska is recorded as in the year 1859.
He crossed the Mississippi in 1885 and
arrived on the Atlantic coast about 1874
Any one who has tried to fight him
knows he is not pacifist, so when
America entered into the World War be
entered too, and went overseas, and now
not only the Huns but the French have
got to fight him.
When he first came he was q problem.
Mr.. and Mrs. Beetle came first, and were
simply curiosities; but strsightway they
industriously began to lay large clusters
of red eggs on the under side of the
leaves, and when their offspring arrived
and brought their stomachs with them,
war began. The larva would begin on q
field Of potatoes In full foliage, and when
they left there would be nothing but a
collection of stalks.
At first thought the only remedy that
appeared was to gather up the pests; 80
men rigged pans with long handles,
which they took in one hand and with a
shingle in the other knocked the bugs
into the pan, and submitted them to the
auto da fe, which always has meant
trial by fire, although that is not the
definition given in the dictionary. This
was a slow, hard job, se- their second
thought, which they have considered
best, was poison. This mode of opera
tion is about on plane with the use Of
gas employed on humans in the late war |;
but 30 far no one has appeared to speak
for the bugs, so 1t may be presumed it's
use will continue.
In fact, the Colorado beetle is consid.
cred Hun, 80 there Is nothing too bad
for him. II you ask farmer about these
bugs, be will tell you they are the mean
est things with which he has anything
to do. As evidence of this fact, a story
is told of an Oxford County farmer who
did not always get along sweetly Win
his wife; and when she exasperated him
beyond endurance, and be wanted to ad-
dress her by the mesnest name he could
think of, be called her Potato Bug"
Potato bug is good enough name for
these pests to farmer. The thing he
wants to see most is the last of them;
but scientists, who are perverse fellows,
and take an interest In things everybody
else despises, have not been satisfied
with this name and have given them
another-Doryphora 10 Lineator. They
say they belong to big family, called
the Chrysomelid@, or leaf-beetles, and
that they have, at least, six hundred
cousins, all living here in North Amer
lea, which is sad news indeed to the
farmer, who hopes these large number
of kin-folk will not take 1t into their
heads to come "cousining."
AOUARIUS.