Proceedings, 1920. 103 



owing to difficulty in obtaining sufficient Paris green. The grower was 

 not aware of the necessity of avoiding contact between the bait and the 

 plants, and had been in the habit of applying the bait to the rows of plants 

 without troubling to avoid contact. No ill effect had resulted in previous 

 years, but Paris green had always been used in place of white arsenic. 

 Greater care, therefore, is necessary in using white arsenic than Paris green, 

 but care should be exercised on all occasions with growing plants with either 

 arsenical. On another occasion a representative of a commercial firm called 

 for advice as to the planting of 80 acres which had been prepared to receive 

 tomato-plants and which had been baited for cutworms. Thirty plants set 

 the previous evening had been cut down overnight and it was feared that 

 heavy losses would result if the field were planted. A visit was paid to this 

 field, and on examination of the plants destroyed an average of seven cut- 

 worms to each plant was found. The preparation and handling of this acre- 

 age was entirely in the hands of Chinamen, who insisted that the injury was 

 not due to cutworms, as they had carefully baited the land to destroy them 

 by placing about a tablespoonful of poisoned-bran bait on the spot each 

 plant was to occupy. This bait on examination was found to have been 

 improperly mixed, at least 50 per cent, of the bran being free of poison. 

 The method used to apply the bran was not only unsatisfactory, but must 

 have taken considerable time. It was advisable, therefore, to rebait the 

 entire field, the formula given being in the proportions of : Bran, 50 lb. ; 

 Paris green, i lb. ; molasses, 2 quarts ; lemons, 6 fruits ; and water, 5 gallons. 



This bait is prepared by thoroughly mixing the bran and Paris green 

 in their dry state. One gallon of the water is heated, in which the molasses 

 is dissolved, which is then added to the remaining 4 gallons of water. The 

 juice of the lemons, and their pulp and peel after being finely chopped, 

 are then added. The liquid is then gradually mixed with the bran and Paris 

 green and thoroughly worked until all the bran is equally moistened. This 

 bait was, on the occasion mentioned above, and should at all times be pre- 

 pared just before use and broadcasted over the ground immediately after 

 the ground has been prepared for planting, but before planting or seeding 

 has taken place. It should be applied over the entire acreage as thinly as 

 possible in the cool of the evening. This quantity of bait will cover about 7 

 acres if thinly broadcasted. 



No further visits were paid to this field, but on inquiry at the end of 

 July it was reported that not a single plant had been lost through cutworms. 



On another occasion a small lot of about i acre, which had been pre- 

 pared for planting, but was abandoned owing to the enormous quantity of 

 cutworms present, was taken over by two boys for a war-garden. The 

 writer personally baited this lot with the mixture before described, and 

 obtained 100 per cent, results overnight. The boys were put to work to 

 hunt for live cutworms the following morning, and, although over 3,000 

 dead cutworms were gathered, they failed to find a live one. This lot was 

 then planted to beans, with no loss for the remainder of the summer through 

 cutworms. 



