STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
507 
STRIFED FLEA-BEETLE. REMEDIES. DDSTINO WITIl LIME. 
them on radish, cabbage, or other leaves in the garden, I have 
always been accustomed by striking the hand menancingly towards 
them, and by brushing and shaking the plants, to dislodge and 
scare them away. There is very little efficacy in this, however, 
unless it be repeated two or three times daily, for the insects all 
return to their favorite locations, immediately after the threatened 
danger passes by, and in an hour will be found again as numerous 
upon the leaves as they were before. But if they arc frequently 
disturbed upon any particular plants they will be apt to forsake 
them and take up their abode in other quarters where they can 
remain unmolested. 
Being so timorous and fearful, the thought occui'cd to me, that 
something upon the plan of a “scare-crow” might, perhaps, be effi¬ 
cacious in protecting plants from these beetles. I accordingly, a 
few years ago, crumpled an old newspaper together, tieing a pack¬ 
thread around it and suspended it above abed of turnips, to swing 
backwards and fo'rth with the wind, the lower edge of the paper 
brushing slightly against a few of the leaves. The result was, 
those leaves only that were brushed by the paper were free from 
beetles. A leaf over which the paper was frequently whirling and 
swinging, quite close to it but without touching it, appeared to be 
as much infested by them as any leaf in the bed. 
Mr. LeKeux experimented with several substances. He found 
that washing over the plants with sulphate of potash had no effect 
upon the flea-beetles. Powdered sulphur, strewed one-tenth of an 
inch thick, did not deter them from attacking the plants. Snuff, 
assafoetida, and a powder called “ anti-tinea,” for preserving furs, 
proved equally powerless. They did retire from smelling salts 
(carbonate of ammonia), and died immediately on being exposed 
to the effluvia from it; but a small bit placed an inch from the 
plant would destroy it also. 
With regard to lime, Mr. LeKeux states that forty 7 bushels per 
acre, spread upon the ground immediately before the seeds were 
sown, did no good. And when the turnip plants came up, and the 
beetle was observed attacking them, lime-dust was thrown over 
them, so that many of the plants were quite white with a coat of 
it; after which as many flies were found upon those as upon any 
that were free, and they were eventually devoured. Mr. Curtis 
(Farm Insects, p. 27), quoting this statement, observes that it is 
oontrary to his own experience; for a plot nearly eaten off by 
