82 THE PRACTICAL GARDEN -BOOK 



inch wire plate-covers. Covers, however, are too expensive 

 on large areas, and they have the disadvantage of fre- 

 quently making the plants weak, so that winds will snap 

 them off or twist and ruin them when the covers have to be 

 removed. If covers are used alone, their removal leaves 

 the unprotected vines not only for feeding places but for 

 breeding places for the beetles. 



"Bordeaux mixture, if thoroughly and frequently ap- 

 plied, makes as efficient a protection as the covers, is much 

 cheaper, and at the same time protects the plants from dis- 

 eases. This mixture (1-to-ll formula) should be sprayed 

 upon the Cucumbers when they are just well up, again when 

 they show the third leaf, and the third time just before the 

 plants commence to form runners. The early application 

 can probably best be made with a knapsack sprayer, and 

 later ones by any good pump sprayer. The three applica- 

 tions should not cost over $2 per acre. The Bordeaux mix- 

 ture is a much better repellant, according to station tests, 

 than kerosene, turpentine, tobacco dust, cow manure, bur- 

 dock infusion, slug shot, bug death, or any other known 

 compound. Indeed, all materials of this class, supposed to 

 drive away the beetles by their distasteful odor, proved fail- 

 ures when used alone. Air-slaked lime, dusted over the 

 vines, will make them unpalatable to the beetles, but the 

 lime is liable to stunt the plants. It may be used, with 

 care, by those whose crop is not large enough to warrant 

 purchase of a spraying outfit. 



"All of these appliances or applications, covers, Bor- 

 deaux mixture or lime, merely protect the young plants 

 until they are strong enough to stand the injury from the 

 beetles ; they do not kill the insects. To do this, trap crops 

 are needed. As the squash is the beetle's favorite food 

 plant, this vegetable should be planted in single rows 

 along the margins of small patches, in several rows around 

 large fields about four days before the Cucumbers or 

 melon seeds are sown. When these trap plants are up and 



