108 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



course, poison on the foliage is very dangerous if the fo- 

 liage is the edible part. If the edible part is the root or 

 tuber, poison on the foliage is not dangerous. The most 

 widely used poison is Paris green, either used as a powder 

 mixed with twenty times its bulk of flour, and dusted on 

 the plant, or applied as a spray or sprinkle, using one 

 ounce of Paris green to ten or twelve gallons of water. 

 For spraying to kill these pests, lead arsenate has recently 

 been largely substituted for Paris green. It is less de- 

 structive to foliage and can therefore be used in greater 

 strength. This will kill all forms of insects, large and 

 small, which make holes in leaves. It only becomes in- 

 effective when insects occur in such vast multitudes that 

 the plant is all consumed before all the insects are supplied 

 with the poison. Fortunately, this does not often occur 

 in garden practice. 



For larvae which come from the ground and destroy the 

 plant by cutting the stem, the Paris green, either dust or 

 sprinkle, may be placed on tender leaves or sprigs of al- 

 falfa which are placed on the ground beside the plant to 

 be protected. The most injurious insects of this kind are 

 called "cutworms." It is also often satisfactory to use 

 the poison in this way: Take thirty pounds bran, two 

 pints molasses, one pound Paris green; put the molasses 

 into six quarts of hot water, add the bran and Paris 

 green, mixing thoroughly until the water is tinged with 

 green. Place a spoonful of this near the plants and wher- 

 ever the worms are, not getting it too near the stalk. If 

 a- new lot of worms hatch, the dose will have to be re- 

 peated. 



The same preparation is also very effective for grasshop- 

 pers in vineyards, but there is little chance of coping with 

 grasshoppers or army worms in the garden by poisoning. 

 Unless they can be checked by walls of fire or streams of 

 running water around the garden, the gardener has little 

 to do but to replant as soon as they have passed on their 

 way. 



