FARMERS' IXSTITUTES. 433 



CLASSIFICATION OF llEMEDIES. 



1. Give poison with their food. 2. Kill by applying in-itants or poi.sous to 

 the body. 3. Kill by mechanical means. 4. Prevent the insects from reach- 

 ing the food-plants. 5. Prevent egg laying. G. Capture and destroy. 7. 

 Vary time of planting. 8. Practice thorough culture, l^et us now consider 

 these several methods more in detail. 



rSE OF POISONS. 



It will be remembered that most of our insect pests are mandibulate, and as 

 all such crop and eat their food, we at once see that to exterminate the pests 

 we have only to scatter some insect poison upon the food plants. Hence 

 all insects that eat the foliage from our trees or vines, or even eat the cuticle 

 of the leaves as do many slugs and caterpillars, may be killed by this first 

 method. We have only then to name the best poison, and the most practicable 

 means to make the application. 



PARIS GREEN. 



Paris green takes first rank as an insecticide. From its virulency as a poi- 

 son its use cannot be made universal. On vines and fruit trees, it should not 

 be used if the tree and the shrubs are in fruit, except very early in the season. 

 The color of Paris green, as also its insolubility, are greatly in its favor. From 

 the first it is not liable to be mistaken for some harmless substance, and 

 accidentally taken as medicine, or used in cooking. And from the second it 

 is powerless to poison the soil. 



Another arsenical poison, arsenite of lime, received from Hemingway & Co., 

 London, and called by them London Purple, was tried by me the past summer 

 with good results. This substance is much cheaper than Paris green, has a 

 somewhat less favorable color, as it would be easily mistaken for some of the 

 spices ; but as it is readily soluble in cold water, I can not recommend its use 

 in the place of the very insoluble Paris green. It will be in the market another 

 season. Paris green is specially desirable in ridding our shade trees and shrub- 

 bery of caterpillars and slugs which may threaten their destruction, in exter- 

 minating insects like the potato beetle, which feed upon such parts of the 

 plants as are not used for food, in fighting canker worms and other similar in- 

 sects which attack our orchards before the fruit is much grown, and always in 

 preserving trees and vines not in bearing. 



HOW APPLIED. 



These substances may be applied in the dry form, or mixed with water. In 

 the dry form they may be mixed with Hour in the ratio of one to eight, or with 

 plaster in the ratio of one to fifty. If the first mixture is used it should be 

 applied when the vines are dry, and the least possible amount used. The sec- 

 ond may be best used when the dew is on, and a good quantity will not injure 

 the plants. The first mixture is less apt to be washed off by heavy rains; the 

 second is safer in careless hands. The application is best made when there is 

 little or no wind. 



In water about a table spoonful of tlie poison may bo used to two gallons of 

 the liquid. As this is only a mixture, and not a solution, care is requisite that 

 this poison may not all settle to the bottom of the vessel. Frequent stirring 

 will prevent this. 



I would advise the use of the above to extirpate the potato beetle, the cucum- 

 ber beetle — where it must be used with tlie greatest care so as not to injure the 



