BEET WORMS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 9 
worms-will be noticed. These moths span about one inch from 
tip to tip of their wings when spread and are of a dark grayish or 
grayisli-brown color. (See Plate I.Fig. i.) 
They will fly up and go a short distance and then suddenly 
alight, usually upon a leaf of a plant. The presence of the moths 
in anything like large numbers among the beets should be the sig¬ 
nal to prepare for war by procuring a quantity of poison and a 
spray pump or some other instrument for the distribution of the 
poison upon the beet leaves. 
THE POISON TO USE. 
Some combination of arsenic, as arsenite of lime, arsenate of 
lead, Paris green, or London purple should be used. The arsen¬ 
ite of lime is the cheapest of these but is a little more troublesome 
to prepare and apply. Arsenate of lead is more easily mixed and 
applied but is by far the most expensive poison to use. Paris 
green settles badly in the barrel or tank and must be kept thor¬ 
oughly stirred. It would be cheaper than the arsenate of lead but 
dearer than the arsenite of lime. The chief objection to Paris 
green last year in Colorado was its serious adulteration with white 
arsenic causing it to burn foliage. Samples of this poison ob¬ 
tained at Greeley last year, where it was selling for 14 and 15 cents 
a pound, were badly adulterated which accounts for the low price 
at which it was sold. A sample of this Paris green was taken to 
the station chemist, Dr. W. P. Headden, for analysis to determine 
percentage of arsenic. The report of the analysis was as follows: 
“Total Arsenic - - - 60.69 per cent. 
Soluble (free) Arsenic - - 8.51 per cent.' 1 
Such Paris green is unfit to use because of its tendency to 
burn foliage, and it will mix with difficulty with water. 
These poisons may be applied dry by means of dust sprayers, 
or by shaking them through porous cloth sacks (as cheesecloth) 
carried in the hands, or they may be applied in water by means of 
force pump and spraying nozzles attached to a barrel or tank. 
Both of these methods have their stiong advocates but after con¬ 
siderable investigation I am convinced thoroughly that the wet 
spray is much better where it can be used. The principle objec¬ 
tion to it is the expense of getting pumps and barrels or tanks 
necessary to spray large fields. At Plate II, Fig. 1, is illus¬ 
trated a barrel sprayer mounted on cast off cultivator wheels such 
as is used by the American Beet Sugar company and by Mr. P. K. 
Blinn of the Colorado Experiment Station at Rocky P'ord. One 
man with this barrel pump will spray four rows of beets as fast as 
a horse will walk across the field. The dust sprayers are very in¬ 
expensive but all that I have seen used distribute the poison very 
unevenly over the plants. The dust sprayers have been used quite 
