86 VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



vegetable. The orange colored eggs, varying in number from 

 a dozen to fifty, are generally laid on the under side of the 

 potato leaf. They hatch in about a week into sluggish larvae 

 which feed upon the leaves, never leaving a plant until all the 

 leaves are gone. They also feed to some extent upon tomato 

 and egg plants. When fully developed the larva? descend to 

 the ground where they pupate and emerge as perfect beetles. 

 There are three broods each season. The beetles winter over 

 in potato fields. 



Remedies. The number of these pests varies greatly from 

 year to year. The chief remedies are arsenical poisons ap- 

 plied to the foliage. For this purpose Paris green and Lon- 

 don purple are commonly used. The method of applying them 

 varies much. It is a common practice to use one pound of 

 Paris green to 150 gallons of water. This must be constantly 

 agitated while in use or the poison will settle to the bottom of 

 the vessel. London purple may also be applied in water, but 

 as it varies somewhat in composition and is liable to contain 

 a dangerous amount of free acid, it is safest to use with it 

 an equal amount of milk of lime. It is also a good plan to use 

 milk of lime with Paris green. Some experiments show that 

 about one pound of lime, one pound London purple and sev- 

 enty gallons of water, is a safe and satisfactory formula to use 

 for this crop. When thus applied the work may be done with 

 a spraying machine, a watering pot or a brush broom. On a 

 large scale, some kind of a spraying apparatus is necessary. 



These poisons may also be safely applied when mixed with 

 one hundred times their bulk of flour, sifted ashes or road dust 

 or mixed with one hundred pounds of land plaster. When 

 thus used they are easily applied by means of a coarse linen bag. 

 There are a number of proprietory insecticides for the potato 

 beetle but they generally depend for their success on the arsen- 

 ic they contain. But no matter what insecticide is applied, in 

 order to do the most good it should be used as soon as the 

 young larvae can be seen on the leaves. 



The Imported and Native Cabbage Worm {Pieris sp.). The im- 

 ported cabbage worm resembles our native species and both 

 of them are very destructive to cabbage, turnip, cauliflower 

 and similar vegetables and to such flowering plants as mig- 

 nonette, stocks and nasturtiums. They feed on the leaves 



