"We'll have to retrace our steps and find a way to accomplish progress without so important a loss. No one has ever given a thought what to do in case of a potato famine, for the homely vegetable has always been so abundant. But its very value is depreciating slowly, for very few potatoes will keep long, and almost all potatoes have great black spots in the centre, while many of them have 'dry rot.' This is due to the manner in which they are grown to-day. Each crop depletes the nourishing qualities of the new one, and finally they will no longer flourish."
"Add to this the pest of potato bugs and it looks as if potatoes were doomed, doesn't it?" added Zan.
"Bugs? Why, Zan, do potatoes have bugs?" cried the girls.
"The vines do! Potato bugs look a great deal like a lady-bug only I think they are prettier," replied Zan.
"But they are not as harmless as the lady-bug," added Miss Miller. "A potato bug will soon destroy a vine if it is left to feed unmolested."
"What can one do to them?" asked Jane, curiously.
"Dad pays the boys and me a cent a dozen to carry a small tin can under each vine and, with a stick, push them off of the potato vine into the can with some kerosene in it," said Zan.
"Ugh! How can you! I think that is horrid!" exclaimed Elena, her artistic soul in arms against such a method.
"This summer Bill will have to spray hellebore on the vines, or use Paris Green to kill the bugs, for I don't want to spend time that way any more," said Zan, laughing at Elena's expression.