740 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



four rows at a time, having a uozzle for each row, I have discarded 

 because the work done by it is not thorough enough. There may be 

 improvements m it, but the probability is that human direction of the 

 uozzle as it plays upon each hill will always be desirable. The barrel 

 pump in a one-horse cart, carrying two hose and nozzles under direc- 

 tion of two men, secures thoroughness. 



Applying Arsenites Dry. — Tlie grower of potatoes on a small scale 

 may not have even a knapsack sprayer, and primarily for his benefit 

 I describe a method of applying Paris green in dry form that makes 

 (he poison more effective than it can be made in liquid form. The 

 method will not commend itself to many extensive growers because 

 it is relatively slow, and yet I have learned to leave in the tool-house 

 all modern devices for applying poison to potato vines and to use 

 this rather primitive method in large fields for the simple reason 

 that it insures the death of all the grubs, and we no longer have any 

 second brood late in summer to do injury. 



Observation shows that the young grubs go to the buds of the 

 plant when they leave the leaf on which they hatched. It is there 

 that they find the tender fibre suited to their taste. A slight amount 

 of poison kills quickly when taken at this age. It is right in the 

 bud, and well down in it, that the poison should be placedi, and there 

 some of it should remain throughout the hatching season. These 

 two things are secured by using a sifting can that drops the poison 

 where wanted, and by having the poison mixed with some material 

 that will form a paste in the first dew, and adhere to the leaves. 

 Air-guns are more speedy, and they clean the vines of the grubs that 

 are present in fair degree, but they do not leave a body of poison in 

 the buds of the j)lant that will remain for the next lot of tiny grubs 

 that are hatched. Several applications with air-guns or bellows are 

 required, and these cannot be made when much air is stirring. Often 

 the grubs make their appearance rapidly in threatening weather 

 when there is wind and showers, and arsenites in water, or in dry 

 form without a diluent tlliat will stick, do not do effective w'ork. 



The Sifting Can. — The device recommended to the small grower is 

 made of a tin fruit can, with a handle attached. Twenty or thirty 

 small holes should be punched into the bottom of the can with an 

 awl. Then near the top a slit two inches long should be cut in the 

 side, and this bisected by another slit. Pulling the four flaps out- 

 ward, the end of a handle three feet long should be thrust through 

 at such an angle that it will be near the bottom when it strikes the 

 opposite side of the can. A nail is driven through the tin into the 

 end of the handle, and the points of the four flaps of tin are tacked 

 to the wood. No cover is needed. This sifter is carried in one hand, 

 and is jarred by a stick carried in the other hand, when the can is 



