

175 
For the cucumber beetle, Diabrotica vittata (Fabr.) 
nothing has proved so satisfactory for plants started in the 
open ground as covering the hills with plant protectors of 
some kind. The experience of the past season shows that 
growing melons and cucumbers in drills is not a sure pre- 
ventive from destruction by the beetle, at least, not when 
the same soil is planted for several years in succession. 
Entire rows of plants in which the seeds were placed but 
two to three inches apart, on ground planted to melons and 
cucumbers since 1883, were totally destroyed. 
A method that has proved satisfactory is to start the 
plants of melons and cucumbers on inverted sods in the 
cold frame, and after they have attained two or three rough 
leaves, remove them to their permanent place. If the 
transplanting is done carefully, so as not to remove the 
roots from the sod, and in rainy weather, the plants grow 
on so rapidly that they are little harassed by the beetles. 
In the Station report for 1884, p. 316 it is recommended 
to grow cabbage and other plants that are injured by the 
turnip flea-beetle, Phyllotreta striolata' (Fabr.) within a 
frame of wide boards. The experience of the past two 
seasons shows that this proves reliable only when the frame 
is surrounded by a broad belt of sod of one or more years 
standing. Placed on the cultivated ground of the garden, 
the beetles may appear in sufficient numbers within the 
frame to injure, or even destroy the plants. From this 
fact, it seems probable that the beetles do not hybernate 
much in sod ground. 
As noted in the Station report for 1885, p. 222, mulching 
the soil between currant bushes with coal ashes appears to 
be a partial preventive of injury from the currant worm, 
Nematus ventricosus, (Klug.) At least in a plantation of 
currants made in the spring of 1884 and mulched with coal 
ashes, the injury has been decidedly less than on an old 
plantation that has not been thus mulched. As a sure 
remedy for this pest, nothing better has been found than 
powered white hellebore, applied with water with the 
common sprinkling pot. <A tablespoonful to three gallons 
of water, is sufficient. 
i The green cabbage worm, larva of Pieris rapw L. was 
less destructive than usual the past season. The contagious 
disease noted in our last report, p. 220, again destroyed 
large numbers of the caterpillars. A single application of 
Pyrethrum powder diluted with three parts of air-slacked 
lime proved gufficient. The cabbage plantation was un- 




1In previous reports the name Haltica striolata is used for this insect. The 
above name is adopted on the authority of Prof. J. A. Lintner, N. Y. State 
entomologist. 
