THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY. 113 
occurs only in soil deficient in plant food. Improper germination can be avoided by 
the use of proper seed and the methods of planting already described. 
Insect pests have thus far not proved extremely destructive. The garden web- 
worm (Eurycreon rantalis) has been perhaps the worst pest. The worm is not quite 
an inch long, pale or dark yellow, marked with distinctly jet black spots. It feeds on 
a great many plants, and has several natural enemies. The worm spins for itself a 
delicate silk cocoon in the debris on the ground at the top of the beet and transforms 
to the chrysalis stage, in which it remains from one to two weeks. The young worms 
devour only the surface and substance of the leaf on the side where they are, leaving 
the veins and opposite epidermis untouched, producing a skeleton leaf. Where the 
tops are not intended to be ; 
fed to stuck, Mr Lawrence 
Bruner, entomologist Ne- 
braska station (Bulletin 16) 
recommends spraying with 
a solution of one pound of 
London purple or Paris 
green in 200 gallons of water, 
applied with the modern 
spraying apparatus, by 
which the poison is dis- 
tributed in avery fine mist. 
The pale flea beetle 
(Systena blanda), varying 
from black to nearly yel- 
lowish white, gnaws the 
leaves full of holes upon 
either side, causing a blis- 
NEBRASKA SILO FOR BEETS. 
ter-like appearance, like rose secrian an, pile ot pect is about 4 Feet mide and 3 feet high 
“ covered with six inches of soil. efore severe weather sets in, cover w: 
leaf spot or leaf blight.  sixinehes of straw, and then’ two inches of soil. V—Ventilating holes, one 
: : foot in diameter, every 5 feet. See Pages 105-107. 
Spraying with kerosene ia ? 
emulsion drove it away and the arsenical spray effectually removed it. Other flea 
beetles and blister beetles are sometimes destructive and if necessary can be destroyed 
as just described. A variety of bugs and a few leaf hoppers are sometimes destructive, 
the most practical remedy for them being to destroy their natural food plant. 
The various cutworms sometimes do much damage by eating off the small beet 
plants in May and June, in Nebraska. All of these cutworms have parasites that usu- 
ally keep them from breeding very rapidly, except when some unusually favorable 
conditions of soil or climate occur. The very best remedy that has thus far been sug- 
gested and tried against cutworms is the use of poisoned grasses, cabbage leaves, or 
clover. This is done by taking these substances and tying them into loose bunches 
and then sprinkling them with a solution of Paris green or London purple, say a ta- 
blespoonful to a bucket of water. Then in the evening scatter these poisoned baits 
over the field between the rows of beets, cabbage, etc. The worms will be attracted 
