VEGETABLE GARDENING IN MAY AND JUNE. 1 77 



yir. Nils Anderson : Have yon had any experience with wire 

 worms and what is your remedy? 



Mr. Bailey : I have had a good deal of experience with them, 

 especially on muskmelons. It is a very hard thing to fight. The 

 main thing is to get as vigorous a growth as possible in the start, 

 and if one starts his plants in the hotbed it means a great deal, 

 because hotbed melons are more subject to it than melons grown 

 in the field. I have had some correspondence with people who 

 claimed they prevented injury by spraying, but I can't give the 

 formula just now. It is a Bordeaux mixture spray or something 

 nearly like it. 



The Chairman : Give us your experience in fighting cabbage 

 worms last summer. It is rather interesting and unusual. 



Mr. Bailey : I had quite an experience. We raised about 

 seventeen acres of Holland cabbage. The first trouble was with 

 the common brand of cabbage worm. They were easily handled 

 with Paris green. But right after them came the measuring cab- 

 bage worm, and it just seemed as though they were going to take 

 everything. I found as high as fifty and sixty on one plant. We 

 then began to spray, using Paris green. We worked with small 

 machines and we used dust, but we could not get at the worm very 

 well because they all seemed to work under the leaf and thus avoid 

 the Paris green ; they seemed to work on the parts that were not 

 sprayed. Then we used the horse sprayer and went through with 

 the common nozzles we happened to have, but they were too coarse ; 

 so we used the fine nozzles, and we got nearly done spraying when 

 we noticed the worms were dying, and in three or four days they 

 were all gone. This was not the etfect of spraying, but it was a 

 disease that killed them all off. 



Mr. Merritt : Are you troubled with the white maggot around 

 the root of the cauliflower? 



Mr. Bailey : All we raise is cabbage, Holland cabbage, and the 

 maggots do not seem to trouble that. 



Mr. Tanner : How late can you spray Paris green on cabbage 

 so it will be safe? 



Mr. Bailey : Using it lightly and having it evenly distributed 

 over each plant, I use it right up fo within a few weeks of cutting. 

 I don't think there is any harm in it. 



The Chairman : I thing it was Prof. Gillette only a few years 

 ago said it was not dangerous to use it even up to the time of 

 cutting. He experimented with it in dust form, and then he found 

 that in order to get a dose of Paris green it would be necessary to 

 eat thirty cabbages, outside leaves and all, and there is really no 

 probability of any one being injured by Paris green in that form. 



Prof. Washburn : It is usually a prejudice in the minds of the 

 people. That is the only objection to the use of Paris green. 



Mr. Gust Johnson : What is the percentage of strength used ? 



Prof. Washburn : About the same as is used for other purposes, 

 about one pound to i6o gallons of water and put some soap in. 



Mr. Bailey : We used Paris green this year as long as we ever 

 used it, and our cabbage was fine and large. As soon as we srot 



