174 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Chittenden in the bulletin cited. The damage brought about by this 

 beetle is said to be largely due to its spreading the cabbage rot, a disease 

 that causes considerable loss annually. 



REMEDIES. 



The beetle is said to prefer wild hedge 

 mustard and pepper-grass to cultivated plants. 

 It is recommended that all such plants be 

 Fig. 24.— Cabbage flea-beetle, en- pullcd up and bumed about the middle of 



Amet'EntTvoYl'rpfK"^^' ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^SS^ ^re laid. Arsenical poison- 

 ing is also recommended while the plants are 

 very young and before they show signs of forming heads. 



Cabbage Snakes {Mermis albicans). 



Alarming stories relative to the poisonous properties of 'Hong, slender, 

 hair-like snakes" which are found in the cabbage, reach us from time to 

 time. These "fearful snakes" are the same creatures that are found in 

 watering-troughs and pools so frequently, they are then known as "hair- 

 snakes," believed by the uninformed to be animated horse-hairs. They 

 really are parasites from the bodies of grasshoopers, crickets, etc., which 

 pass part of their existence in the soil or water, the eggs being hatched 

 in the soil and the young gaining access to the bodies of grasshoppers 

 or crickets early in their career. When a grasshopper is about to die 

 from the drain put upon its strength by the parasite, the latter crawls 

 out. Some fall into the cabbages on which the hoppers happen to be 

 feeding when their strength fails. Such hair-snakes settle down into 

 the cabbage head, finding a moist place wherein they manage to live 

 for some time. 



It is not at all likely that harm would result from eating a piece of 

 hair-snake, although the writer has never knowingly tried it. When 

 well cooked, there should be no reasons other than those of sentiment, 

 for fearing them. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CELERY.* 



AFFECTING THE TOPS. 

 Celery ApWs {Rhopalosipum dianthi). 



Occasionally celery is infested by one of the plant-lice or green-flies. 

 The writer has never seen any serious injury by these insects, but in 

 case they become troublesome, kerosene-emulsion should prove effective 

 as should also tobacco water. 



Little Negro-bug {Corymelaena pulicaria). 



Bulletin 102 of this station contains a description of an outbreak 

 by the little ncgi'o-bug. This insect ordinarily seems to prefer weeds 



* For further Information on celery insects, see Bui. 102 of this station, published also in the 

 nnual Report for 1894. 



