92 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Different experimenters have recommended different pro- 

 portions of paris green in water, but it is necessary to use 

 a mixture strong enough to kill the insects and at the same 

 time not strong enough to injure the foliage of the plants. 

 When used dry, it should be thoroughly mixed with flour 

 or plaster of paris, in the proportion of one part of the poison 

 to fifty by measure of the flour or plaster of paris, and 

 dusted on to the plants when they are wet. When the sub- 

 stance is to be used in water the proportion should not be 

 over one pound to fifty gallons of water if the paris green 

 has not been adulterated in any way, and even this propor- 

 tion may prove too strong for the foliage of the more tender 

 plants. I have no doubt, however, that a proportion of one 

 pound to a hundred gallons of water will prove quite suffi- 

 cient for all practical purposes. 



London purple may be used in the same manner as the paris 

 green, and the proportions which have been recommended 

 are one-half a pound of the London purple to forty gallons 

 of water. This substance has the advantage of being cheaper 

 than paris green. If one or the other of these substances 

 be showered on to our fruit trees when the leaves first begin 

 to l3urst from the buds, it will destroy both species of 

 canker-worms, the bud-moth, tent caterpillar, forest tent 

 caterpillar and a host of other leaf devouring insects, and if, 

 when the fruit is first set, the apple tree be again showered, 

 a large percentage of the apple-worms will be destroyed, as 

 has already been shown. 



Hellebore, when it can be obtained pure and has not lost 

 its strength, is an infiiUible remedy for the imported currant- 

 worm (Nematus ventricosus^lQiig). An equally destructive 

 substance may be made by soaking the roots of our common 

 poke-weed in water and sprinkling the currant bushes with 

 it. Hellebore or poke-weed may be used for the destruction 

 of all our troublesome saw-flies, as the slugs on the rose 

 bushes, pear trees and raspberries. 



Pyrethrum or insect powder is now grown and prepared 

 in this countr}' and sold under the name of Buhach. It is 

 composed of the finely pulverized flowers of different species 

 of pyrethrum and may be used as a dry powder, as a fume, 

 as an alcoholic extract diluted, as a tea decoction, or in solu- 



