32 THE BOOK OF VEGETABLES 



Diseases. For anthracnose, buy sound seed, avoid 

 low, damp ground, pick and burn all diseased plants. 

 Spray with Bordeaux (weak, containing 1.5 per cent of 

 copper sulphate) and keep the foliage covered with it. 

 Or spray with sulphur in water. For rust, Bordeaux. 

 For Lima- blight, spray with "some clear copper com- 

 pound" (Lodeman) two or three times before the dis- 

 ease is expected. 



Pests. If the weevil attacks the plant, treat the 

 seed, as soon as picked, with bisulphide of carbon in a 

 closed vessel ; give two or three applications three to four 

 weeks apart. Or heat to 145 Fahr. for an hour. Seed 

 so treated may be safely sown. Destroy all rubbish of 

 the patch, especially all unused seed. Sow none but 

 seed free of the pest; or sow in the drills sifted coal 

 ashes, or sand saturated with carbolic acid. Scatter 

 suspected seed lightly in water before sowing, and 

 reject all that floats. 



For leaf-beetle, hand-picking, pyrethrum, arsenical 

 sprays, clean culture. 



For blister-beetles, spray at their first appearance 

 with Paris Green mixed with ten to twenty parts of 

 flour or air-slaked lime or plaster, or with ten gallons 

 Bordeaux or whitewash to an ounce of the poison. 

 When the beetles come in numbers, catch in butterfly- 

 nets or drive before the wind into a windrow of straw or 

 rubbish, and burn. Or beat into pans containing kero- 

 sene or coal-oil. Act promptly. 



