434 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



vine — the canker worm, leaf rollers and tiie slugs and caterpillars that defoliate 

 our evergreens, shade trees and shrubbery. On the border of a threatened oat 

 lield it might bring death to the army worm and relief to the crop. 



nELLEBOKE. 



White hellebore is a less dangerous poison and in many cases quite as effic- 

 ient as Paris Green. This is a vegetable poison, and is made from the root of the 

 Veratrum album, a plant which grows abundantly along the slopes of the Alps. 

 The powder is cheap, costing only forty cents per pound, while an ounce to two 

 gallons of water will prove a deadly mixture to many of our pests. This is spec- 

 ially useful in combating the various slugs which attack our strawbeiry vines, 

 raspberry, gooseberry and currant bushes, and evergreens. I emphasize its 

 desirability in fighting the ubiquitous currant slug, which is aiming, with some 

 show of success, to rob us of our currants, which means our best jelly and jelly 

 cake. These blighting slugs do not all hatch at once, but come forth in suc- 

 cessive broods, from the middle or last of May even to July. Hence several 

 applications of the poison must be made, as many as the presence of the insa- 

 tiate destroyers demands. Ignorance or neglect of this fact has led some to 

 lose faith in this remedy. 



Copperas in strong solution is a less efficient insecticide, which from my ex- 

 perience I cannot recommend very highly. 



Persian insect-powder, the pulverized llower-heads of the Chrysantheiimm 

 roseum from India, is said to be an efficient poison and may well be tried in 

 our experiments to rid our plants, our carpets and furniture and our domestic 

 animals of noxious insects. 



EXTERNAL IRRITANTS OR POISONS. 



We have already seen that the liaustellate insects, many of which are highly 

 noxious, do not eat the plants but pierce through the cuticle or bark and suck 

 out the nutritious sup. Though we are powerless to poison the food of such 

 insects, we are still able to administer death by the application of external poi- 

 sons. The best substances for such use are a weak solution of carbolic acid, 

 a strong suds either of whale-oil or common soft soap and tobacco water. I 

 have found that tlie addition of a half teacupful of crude petroleum to two 

 gallons of either of the above makes them the more effective. 



I have found the above substances peculiarly efficient in fighting slugs, cab- 

 bage worms, — in which cases they may also have acted as internal poisons, 

 — lice on house plants, — where much care is required especially with the 

 tenderer plants, or they will be injured by a too strong fluid, — plant lice, bark 

 lice, — which latter are most susceptible just after hatching, — and the many 

 lice and ticks wliich infest our domestic animals. In these last cases carbolic 

 acid solution is very valuable, and should be freely sprinkled about the 

 kennels, stables, and poultry houses. Tlie tobacco water and kerosene are also 

 very excellent. Pers^ian insect-powder is also recommended higlily by many 

 dog and chicken fanciers. 



Lime, ashes, and even road dust are destructive to some of the more tender 

 skinned insects, especially to such as secrete a slimy viscid substance which 

 covers their bodies, as do some of the slugs. Such treatnient is quite satisfac- 

 tory ill ca<e of the i)ear and cherry tree slugs. Dusting the {)huits with lime 

 and ashes is often recommended as preventing the ravages of the various leaf- 

 eating beetles. I have found these unsatisfactory. 



