5 
caterpillars now upon the beets. If the present brood is al¬ 
lowed to mature, it means a greatly increased number of 
caterpillars to contend with next year. It is with insects as 
with plants. The greater the number allowed to mature this 
year, the greater will be the quantity of seeds sown, and the 
larger will be next year’s crop. The old adage, “A stitch in 
time saves nine,” is more than doubly true when dealing 
with the destruction of insect life. 
The closest watch should be kept during the next two 
or three weeks for the appearance of small worms. If none 
seem to be present, look carefully among the small and ten¬ 
der leaves at the base of the large ones, where they may be 
found. 
REMEDIES. 
A moderate number of friendly insects were found 
about the beets. These were lady-beetles, Aphis-lions and 
ground-beetles, all of which were probably preying to some 
extent upon the small caterpillars. Birds were very scarce 
in the beet fields; the crow seemed to be doing more than 
any others of the feathered tribe to destroy the caterpillars. 
It is plainly evident that the natural enemies are far too few 
to be of much service at present in keeping this insect with¬ 
in proper bounds. Artificial measures must be adopted to 
save a good partial crop of sugar beets over the eastern 
portion of the plantations about Grand Junction this year, 
and without these measures the crop over the whole valley 
may be largely a failure another year. 
The caterpillars can be destroyed. The writer used 
both Paris green and kerosene emulsion, with satisfactory 
results, while at Grand Junction. The emulsion is more ex¬ 
pensive and needs to be applied very thoroughly to give 
good results. The caterpillars should be thoroughlv wet 
with it. This remedy would be specially useful on those 
fields where the caterpillars are very abundant and of 
large size and where the tops of the beets have been nearly 
or quite devoured. The chief benefit from destroying these 
caterpillars will be to lessen the number of the next brood. 
By closely watching for the first appearance of the cat¬ 
erpillars when they are small, and then promptly and 
thoroughly treating the beets with Paris green or other arsen¬ 
ical poison, it is believed that the pest can be quite easily 
kept in check. 
The poisons may be applied in a watery spray in the 
proportion of a pound of poison to ioo gallons of water. 
