204. MANUAL OF GARDENING 
made and applied at any time, is not expensive, and thus far the 
results show that it is a very attractive and effective bait. A table- 
spoonful can be quickly dropped around the base of each cabbage or 
tomato plant; small amounts may be easily scattered along the 
rows of onions and turnips, or a little dropped on a hill of corn or 
cucumbers. 
The best time to apply these poisoned baits is two or three days 
before any plants have come up or been set out in the garden. If the 
ground has been properly prepared, the worms will have had but little 
to eat for several days and they will thus seize the first opportunity to 
appease their hunger upon the baits, and wholesale destruction will 
result. The baits should always be applied at this time wherever 
cut-worms are expected. But it is not too late usually to save most of 
a crop after the pests have made their presence known by cutting off 
some of the plants. Act promptly and use the baits freely. 
For mechanical means of protecting from cut-worms, see pp. 186-7. 
Elm-leaf beetle. — Generally speaking one thorough 
and timely spraying is ample to control the elm-leaf 
beetle (Fig. 235). Use arsenate of lead, 13 lb. to 25 
gal., and make the application to the under side 
of the leaves the latter part of Mayor very early in 
June in New York. Occasionally, when the beetle is 
very abundant, due in all probability to no spraying 
235. Elm-leaf | ‘ : } 
beetle, adult, in earlier years, it may be advisable to make a second 
somewhat en- application, and the same may be true when conditions 
larged (after 
Howard). necessitate the application earlier than when it will 
be most efficacious. This latter condition is likely to 
obtain wherever a large number of trees must be treated with inade- 
quate outfit. 
Oyster-shell scale. — This is an elongate scale or bark-louse, } in. 
in length, resembling an oyster shell in shape and often incrusting the 
bark of apple twigs. It hibernates as minute white eggs under the old 
scales. The eggs hatch during the latter part of May or in June, the 
date depending on the season. When these young appear, spray with 
kerosene emulsion, diluted with 6 parts of water, or whale-oil or any good 
soap, 1 lb. in 4 or 5 gal. of water. When trees are regularly sprayed 
with lime-sulfur for San José Scale, this insect is also held in control. 
