276 VEGETABLE FOES AND DISEASES 



beetles are just as fond of Turnip as of Mustard seed- 

 lings, though attacking the latter because they come 

 up first. In dry seasons the Mustard seedling has 

 little value, as the beetles are rather fostered than other- 

 wise by the Mustard, the generations of beetles follow- 

 ing rapidly. 



Remedies. i. Very finely powdered lime sprinkled 

 on the plants when coming up and whilst damp with 

 dew is the oldest and most serviceable dressing when 

 persisted in at intervals. The writer used this for over 

 half a century and found it effective on fine tilth. 



2. Dressings of soot, sprinkled on the plants when 

 the dew is on them, are of service. Soot and lime, 

 one bushel of soot and two bushels of lime mixed, also 

 form a useful dressing, applying it when the dew is on 

 the plants. More effective, but less useful to the 

 Turnips, is a dressing of wood ashes, or peat moss, 

 finely powdered and moistened with half a gallon of 

 paraffin oil per cwt. It should be distributed very 

 lightly over the plants. A mixture of air-slaked lime 

 and gas lime fresh from gasworks in equal parts, with 

 five pounds flowers of sulphur added to each bushel of 

 the mixture and well mixed, has been used to advant- 

 age. All the above dry substances can be put in by 

 horse distributors evenly and in small quantities 

 without water, and on a small scale by hand-worked 

 bellows apparatus. 



3. Paraffin oil distributed by horse or hand dis- 

 tributors in very small quantities, so that each leaf is 

 sprinkled and made distasteful to the beetles. These 



