248 



and strawberries were iujured by it; some young forest trees in the 

 nursery bad the terminal buds attacked. 



Mr. Cook said the larva eats everything. It becomes fully developed 

 on blue grass and timothy ; he does not know positively that grain was 

 attacked ; all garden produce was eaten. 



Mr. Smith replied to Mr. Fletcher's query as to the best method of 

 using pyrethrum, that he had found it most satisfactory in water. 



Mr. Beckwith had used it very successfully with lime. 



Mr. Fletcher asked whether the powder was not as a rule better 

 than the water mixture. He had found it so in his experience. 



Mr. Cook had found the water mixture of pyrethrum more effective. 



Mr. Gillette said that he had found the dry ijyrethrum much more 

 effective than the water mixtures, especially if applied in the cool of 

 the day. 



Mr. Summers found that the difficulty with the water mixtures seemed 

 to be in making them stick ; he asked whether the addition of soap 

 would make them adhere better. 



Mr. Fletcher said it would for such plants as threw off liquids by 

 reason of waxy coatings on the leaves, etc. 



Mr. Cook asked in reference to traps for cutworms, whether Mr. 

 Fletcher still makes up his lures in bundles. He has found it most 

 satisfactory to put alternate layers of grass and poison on a platform 

 wagon, and then pitch it off with a fork. 



Mr. Fletcher said, yes, he not only still tied it up in bundles, but even 

 went to the trouble of putting a shingle upon it. It keeps fresh so much 

 longer and seems to be more attractive. The arsenic acts very slowly, 

 but very surely. The worms will burrow out of sight if thej^ feel them- 

 selves sick, and the bait may seem to have done no good. But if the 

 earth beneath the bundle be scraped away the worms will be found dead 

 or dying. They sometimes wander away to die ; some were found 4 feet 

 away from the bundles, the Paris green being distinctly visible in the 

 alimentary caual. He described how he checked damage in a turnip 

 field by these lures. Three quarts were gathered next day from a few 

 of the traps, all of which died in a few hours. 



Mr. Cook said one practice is to spray a patch of clover and then mow 

 it. He uses clover very largely. 



Mr. Fletcher said clover was a very unsatisfactory plant for him. It 

 is often not possible to get it early in the season when needed, and the 

 poison does not stick so well as it does to other plants. He always rec- 

 ommends succulent plants, but is careful to tell the farmers that they 

 can use almost any weed growing around fence corners. He had found 

 pepper grass [Lepidium virginicum) a very attractive plant. Lambs' 

 quarters [Ghenopodium album) is also greedily eaten by cutworms, but 

 it is difficult to make Paris green adhere to it. For such plants it is 

 necessary to rub a little soap in the vvater before mixing it with the 

 Paris green with which the traps are to be poisoned. 



