J90 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9OO. 



cation of the powder or from being poisoned by. eating the Bug 

 Death, the experiments do not conclusively show. In the third 

 experiment the death rate was about as in the other trials and 

 here the attempt was made to get rid of the dust by wetting. 

 Whatever value the material has is dependent upon the strong 

 dislike which the bugs show for it, rather than to any insecticidal 

 qualities which it may have. 



THE COST OF BUG DEATH. 



The price as advertised ranges from 15 cents for a single pound 

 to 8 cents in the largest package which the company puts out. 

 At the rate applied in these experiments it would cost $8.00 per 

 acre for the material for each application. Two applications a 

 fortnight apart would be needed- to keep the potatoes free from 

 bugs. When applied to vines not covering the ground an appli- 

 cation at the rate of 40 pounds per acre was without effect, so it 

 would seem that the second application must be as great as the 

 first. To partly protect would cost for the Bug Death $8.00 per 

 acre while to thoroughly protect against bugs would cost $16.00 

 for materials. The "Perfection Shaker" is a covered tin dish 

 with small holes in the bottom. Applied with this shaker a man 

 would be kept very busy and might develop a lame wrist in the 

 attempt to apply 100 pounds in one day. In Aroostook county 

 there are in the neighborhood of 25,000 acres of potatoes on 

 which the bugs must be killed within a few days time. In the 

 presidential election of 1896 the county polled 6,472 votes. It 

 would take ten days for these voters to protect the potato plants 

 from bugs applying Bug Death with the Perfection shaker. A 

 farmer growing 20 to 50" acres would find it impossible to get 

 the help necessary to apply Bug Death at the right time. 



One pound of Paris green, or other arsenites applied at two 

 different times will do all the work of 200 pounds of Bug Death. 

 The Paris green can be applied with power sprayer at the rate 

 of 20 to 30 acres a day, and a thorough application of Bordeaux 

 mixture can be applied at the same time with only the added cost 

 of materials (about 40 to 45 cents an acre). Reckoning a man's 

 time at 15 cents an hour it would cost at least for materials and 

 labor 18 dollars an acre to apply Bug Death twice. For two dol- 

 lars and a half an acre can be treated four times with Bordeaux 

 mixture and a reliable poison. 



