138 Stearns — Diabrotica 12-Punctata and Lima/ Maximus. 



row, so as to make the cucumber stands, or hills, eight feet apart 

 each way, or 6X0 to the acre. 



By the time the peas had made a growth of from eight to ten 

 inches and the cucumber plants were showing their second or 

 third pair of leaves, the spotted cucumber beetle Diabrotica 

 12-punctata made its appearance and commenced foraging. On 

 the plot protected by frames, the beetles, to use a common 

 expression, soon "struck the lead," and in many instances 

 having worked their way under the edges of the frames, attacked 

 the plants, doing considerable harm. 



On the other plot the beetles were rarely seen, though as 

 before stated, these plots were only ten feet apart. Here the 

 pea odor not only neutralized the odor of the cucumber vines, 

 but practically overwhelmed it. In volume of foliage, that 

 of the pea vines or bushes compared with the leafage of the 

 cucumber plants, was more than a thousand to one. The 

 cucumber vines among the peas were not concealed from sight 

 while those under the frames were materially obscured by the 

 mosquito netting. It is during the early period of growth that 

 the beetle is often exceedingly destructive. After the vines 

 have become vigorously established the crisis as a general 

 experience has passed, and the plants having attained a size so 

 that their growth is restricted by the frames the latter have to 

 he removed. The plants raised under frames may not he quite 

 so hardy as those otherwise grown, but whether raised among 

 the peas or under frames, in both cases considerable protection 

 is given by these devices against unseasonable cold blasts such 

 as not infrequently occur in backward or late springs. 



Many years afterward when in Shawnee on the Delaware 

 River in Pennsylvania, I noticed in a small vegetable garden 

 that the owner protected his cucumber plants against the 

 spotted beetle by dousing them with cow-manure diluted with 

 water to the consistency of gruel or thin soup; this required 

 repeating, as an ordinary rain storm would wash it off. It 

 will he noticed that the odor of the manure overcame that of 

 the cucumber vines, and is in the same line as the pea-cucum- 

 ber experiment. 



This method however is only practicable on a small scale. 

 Where large areas of many acres are devoted to the cultivation 

 of cucumbers, both the frame and Shawnee methods are unsatis- 



