October i, 189 1] 



THE HUMMING BIRD. 



81 



succulent weed or other vegetation which has been 

 previously poisoned by dipping it, after tying in 

 bundles, into a strong mixture of Paris green. The 

 cut-worms eat the poisoned plants and bury them- 

 selves and die. In hot, dry weather these bundles 

 should be placed out after sun-down, and a shingle 

 may he placed on each to keep it from fading. 



(iii.) Banding and Wrapping, (a.) It will be found 

 to well repay the trouble and expense to place a band 

 of tin around each cabbage or other plant at the time 

 of setting out. These may very easily be made by 

 taking pieces of tin 6 inches long and 2.\ wide and 

 bending them around a spade or broom handle so as 

 to form short tubes. In placing them around a plant 

 the two ends can be sprung apart to admit the plant, 

 and then the tube should be pressed about half an 

 inch into the ground. I have found this a useful 

 means of disposing of empty tomato and other cans. 

 To prepare these easily they need only be thrown into 

 a bonfire, when the tops and bottoms fall off and the 

 sides become unsoldered. The central piece of tin 

 can then be cut down the centre with a pair of shears, 

 and forms two tubes. 



(£) Wrapping a piece of paper round the stems of 

 plants when setting them out will also save a great 

 many. 



(c.) Hand-picking or digging out the cut-worm 

 whenever a plant is seen to be cut off should, of 

 course, always be practised. 



Natural Enemies. — There are two enemies which 

 deserve special notice, and, from the service they do, 

 should be known by sight to every cultivator. They 

 are the Fiery Ground-beetle, or Cut-worm Lion 

 (Calosoma calidum, Fab.) and the Black Ground 

 Wasp {Ammophila luctuosa). Both of these are 

 desperate enemies of cut-worms, the former feeding 

 on them in all of its stages, the latter digging them 

 out and storing its nest with them as food for its 

 young grubs. 



32. Imported Cabbage Butterfly (Pieris rapœ, 

 L.). — The white butterflies which fly over cabbage 

 beds during summer lay eggs on the leaves, from 

 which are hatched the troublesome cabbage-worms. 



Remedies. — The best remedy for this insect is 

 undoubtedly insect powder, diluted with four times its 

 weight of common flour, as directed under Remedy 

 IV. 



33. Onion Maggot {Phorbia ceparum, Meigen.) — 

 Equalling in destructiveness and more difficult to deal 

 with than the Cabbage and Radish Maggots, is the 

 Onion Maggot. 



Remedies. — Rich, well-worked soil and early planting 

 are advised. 



(i.) Kerosene emulsion watered along the rows 

 when the onions are found to be infested has proved 

 successful. 



(ii.) A sprinkling of gas-lime, sown broadcast over 

 the beds every two weeks, was also found to protect 

 the crops considerably, and was thought to act as a 

 good fertilizer. 



Suggestion. — I would suggest the use of Nitrate of 

 Soda, at the rate of 200 lbs. to the acre ; this is a 

 valuable fertiliser, and has been found of marked use 

 in checking the ravages of the Cabbage Maggot. 



34. Radish Maggot {Anthomyia radicum, Bouché). 

 — The most serious pest of radishes is the root 

 maggot. This is the larval form of a small fly closely 

 resembling the fly of the Onion maggot. 



Remedies. — Early sowing and the use of new 

 ground are recommended, but are by no means sure 

 remedies. I have obtained the best results from 

 using Prof. A. J. Cook's carbolic wash, Remedy IV. 

 The use of salt and gas lime are also beneficial, but 

 are not infallible remedies. 



35. Squash Bug (Anasa tristis, De Geer). — 

 Numbers of large, ill-smelling, dark-brown bugs, paler 

 beneath, 4 inch long, clustering round squash vines 

 about the end of June and sucking the tops. The 

 eggs are laid on the leaves, and the young are soon 

 found with the full grown bugs. 



Remedies. — Constant hand-picking, from the vines 

 when they first appear, and by placing shingles close 

 to the hills beneath which the bugs hide during the 

 day time, are generally effective. Coal oil and plaster 

 scattered amongst the vines will drive away many. 



36. Striped Cucumber Beetle {Diabrotica 

 vittata, Fab.). — As soon as squash, cucumber or 

 melon plants appear above the ground they are 

 attacked by small, yellow-striped beetles, which, if not 

 noticed, will soon destroy the plants. 



Remedies. — Sifting dry ashes and Paris green (1 to 

 50) over the vines is the best application to protect 

 the vines. Ashes alone are also useful. A remedy 

 much adopted in the United States is described by 

 Dr. C. M. Weed in a Bulletin of the Ohio Agricul- 

 tural Exper't. Station for September, 1889, and con- 

 sists of covering the vines with a piece of gauze or 

 cheesecloth, supported by two or three sticks stuck 

 into the ground, and with the edges held down by a 

 handful of earth on each side. 



37. Turnip Flea-beetle {Phyllotreta vittata,Ysb.). 

 — There is, perhaps, no insect better known or more 

 execrated by farmers than "the fly" or flea-beetle of 

 the turnip. The perfect beetles, black, with white 

 marks on the wings, pass the winter beneath rubbish 

 or clods of earth, and appear on various plants of the 

 cress family early in spring. As soon as the young 

 turnips appear they attack the seed leaves, and very 

 frequently destroy the whole crop. The grub state is 

 passed underground on the roots of plants of the 

 cress family. 



Remedies. — I have found the most successful treat- 

 ment of this insect to be the sowing of perfectly dry 

 land plaster or ashes, with 50 parts of which 1 part of 

 Paris green had been mixed (Remedy I.) Other 

 experimenters speak highly of a decoction of waste 

 factory tobacco, 1 lb. in 2 or 3 gallons of water. This 

 latter remedy is useful upon Garden Cress, where 

 Paris green cannot be used. See also remedy for 

 No. 36. 



I think that the publication in The Humming 

 Bird of this very valuable and interesting notice, for 

 which I congratulate sincerely the author, Mr. James 

 Fletcher, will be of use to British farmers and others. 



The Editor. 



