88 VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



beans and other seeds, and for killing gophers, mice or other 

 creatures in their holes. The method of using it for grain 

 weevils, is to fill a barrel or other tight receptacle nearly full of 

 seed, then sprinkle on an ounce of the liquid for each one hun- 

 dred pounds of seed and cover the vessel tightly for several 

 hours. It does not hurt the grain which is just as good and 

 looks as nice as ever after being treated. The germinating 

 qualities of the seed are not injured by this treatment. Yv^hen 

 used for killing moles, gophers and mice, the material should be 

 put on cotton or other absorbent and placed in their holes closed 

 with earth over the cotton. 



Catching Insects by Light at Night. — By suspending a lan- 

 tern at night over a tub of water having its surface coated with 

 kerosene many night flying insects can be destroyed. Among 

 those that can be caught in this way are cut worm moths, the 

 clicking beetle (which is the mature form of the wire worm), 

 and the May beetle (which is the mature form of the white 

 grub). When these insects become especially abundant this 

 method of catching them is worthy of trial. The objections- to 

 it are: (1) tnat it is the larvae and not the flying form of these 

 insects that do serious injury; (2) few persons are so far sighted 

 that they can be persuaded to attack insect enemies until they 

 are suffering from their ravages, and the benefits of this method 

 will not be felt until perhaps the following year. (3) The obser- 

 vations of Dr. Otto Lugger show that insects have generally laid 

 their eggs before they fly much, and only the male insects of 

 some species fly, and the females are nearly or quite wingless. 

 It is obvious that in such cases catching the flying insects will do 

 little if any good. 



Applications of Insecticides. — In applying insecticides it is 

 generally important to begin their use as soon as the insects 

 appear and not wait until the plants have been weakened and 

 set back by their attacks. There are many and various machines 

 for distributing insecticides. The machine best adapted to this 

 purpose will depend much on the insecticide used and the extent 

 of the operations contemplated. For applying liquid compounds 

 some of the many forms of spray pumps will be found best. 

 For the small garden where there is a variety of crops grown, 



