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, IJ lb. to 25 

 gal., and make the apphcation to the under side 

 of the leaves the latter part of ]\Iay or very early in 

 June in New York. Occasionally, when the beetle is 

 235 Elm -leaf ^'^^ abundant, due in all probability to no spraying 

 beetle, adult, in earlier years, it may be advisable to make a second 

 somewhat en- application, and the same may be true when conditions 

 Ho^ard).^^^^^ 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, i 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 Jose Scale, this insect is also held in control. 



