CUCUMBERS 



237 



Planting an excess of seed. A certain degree of relief from the 

 beetle can be secured by planting an excess of seed. After the first 

 danger is passed the hills can be thinned out as desired. A good 

 method is to plant in squares, one each week, as 

 shown in the accompanying diagram. The first 

 planting, I, is frequently killed and may be fol- 

 lowed by 2 and sometimes 3 . So long as any insects 

 remain, applications of an arsenical are made, and 

 this is continued until a stand of plants is obtained. 

 It is seldom that all four plantings are destroyed. 



Clean culture and trap plants. Much injury by the beetles may 

 be prevented by attention to clean methods of cultivation. As soon 

 as the crop is harvested the vines should be covered with straw or 

 other inflammable material and burned. A few plants left standing 

 throughout the fields will attract such insects as may not have been 

 reached by the fire, and these can be easily destroyed with a spray 

 of strong kerosene emulsion or by Paris green. As trap crops for 

 the last generation, plant later or use later varieties. By destroying 

 the beetles at this time the numbers for the ensuing year will be 

 greatly diminished. 



Some exemption from injury may be secured by planting beans 

 in alternate rows before the cucumbers are planted. The beetles 

 congregate on the beans and, having an abundance of food, are not 

 forced by hunger to attack the young cucumbers. Gourds planted in 

 the vicinity of other cucurbits are claimed to act successfully as a trap. 



Driving with air-slaked lime. In certain melon-and-squash- 

 growing sections " driving " is resorted to as a means of controlling 

 this insect. In the morning, when the beetles are active, air-slaked 

 lime is dusted over the plants with the wind, and the beetles fly 

 before it to the next patch, which is treated in the same way. 



Arsenicals, with ashes, dust, or plaster. A remedy frequently 

 suggested is to dust most of the plants with sifted wood ashes or 

 land plaster, and cover the remainder with an arsenical. The beetles 

 congregate on the clean plants, where they are killed by the poison, 

 not always, however, before they have fed to such an extent that 

 the plants will be more or less damaged. 



Repellents. Land plaster, or gypsum, thoroughly saturated with 

 kerosene or turpentine acts as a repellent. The odor of turpentine 



