Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-07-11
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD
The War ON Insects.

y
by means of open boxes, covered above
by some kind of gauze, is the surest pre-
tentative. Sprinkling the plants with
Paris green and flour, as applied for the
potato beetle. is also effective, and
powdered white hellebore has been used
with good results. There are three
broods of the insect each season.
Potato BEETLE.-Paris green is the
treatment here-applied either in its dry
state, mixed with thirty parts, by
weight, of cheap or damaged flour,
plaster or gypsum; or in solution, in the
proportion of one teaspoonful of the
green to a bucket of water. When APP
piled in the dry state the prepared mix
ture is busted upon the vines by means
of an apparatus which can be cheaply
made by attaching an old tin fruit can
to handle two feet long, and perforating
the bottom of the can with holes. The
operator passes down the row holding
the can to windward, and by gently tap
ping the handle with stick held in the
right hand the busting is easily and
evenly done. The liquid preparation is
applied by means of sprinklers or from
n broom dipped into it rs the operator
passes along the rows. Manipulating is
resorted to sometimes, but it is most eff
ficacious early in the season before the
bugs have become plenty.
CABBAGE WORM-Early in the season
the white parent butterflies should be
destroyed, before they can have time
to deposit their eggs, or the eggs
should be searched for upon the under
side of the leaves. A cheap net may be
made by attaching broom handle to II
barrel hoop, and fastening to it bag of
mosquito netting twice as deep as the
diameter. The children can be employed
to catch the butterflies at 50 much q
dozen. Later in the season the chrys;I-
lids may be destroyed by Turing the
worms under small pieces of board or
single laid along the rows-supported
an inch or two from the ground at one
end. These should be examined now
and then, and the pupe crushed. South
ern planters are in the habit of breaking
off cabbage leaves and laying them upon
the heads of cabbage at night; when the
worms will be found in the early morn
ing collected beneath them, and can be
crushed by the foot.
COOLING MoTH.-This insect pro-
duces the apple worms, which are easily
entrapped when ready to enter the
b chrysalis state, by means of cloth OF
paper bands upon the trees. The appli-
cation should begin from the middle OF
May to lst ofJune, and the bands should
be used as long as an apple remains upon
the tree. They should be changed every
week or ten days, and the chrysalids
that have formed beneath them should
be destroyed. When rag or cloth bands
NJ IL 1T,
them between the rollers of clothes
wringer will accomplish the result, and
the bands may be employed again. The
paper bands, however, must be burned.
These are cheaply made from straw
folding sheet lengthwise so as to form
eight thicknesses. the cost hardly ex-
ceeding five cents per tree for the season.
The trees should be kept free from
rough bark, and it is well to let the
hogs eat up all fallen fruit.
TENT CATERPILLAR.-Whe the or
chardist has neglected to destroy the egg
clusters, which are easily seen upon the
twigs in winter, the nests should be de-
stroyed as soon as they begin to form
and while the worms are small. These
generally feed twice day, and may be
found at home early in the morning or
late in the afternoon, and the hours
named are therefore to be taken for the
destruction of their cobweb-like nests.
CURRANT WORM-White hellebore is
an ettectual remedy. 1t should be busted
lightly over the bushes from a muslin
bag, or tin vessel covered with gauze.
though the operator should stand to
windward, and will suffer less incon-
venience from sneezing if the vessel or
bag is fastened to stick. The powder
is not poisonous like Paris green, but
from its extreme fineness is carried al.
most by q breath and is very irritating
TO the nostrils On this account it /,
well to use the remedy when there il
but little wind.-CbdrIeS r. DOdqe, ii
NcU York Tribune.
New Method of Striking Cuttings.
A short notice has appeared in st
Petersburg journal of a paper on the alb
sorption of water by the green parts o
plants; and it appears to have suggested
to Mr.. G.. Weidenburg Il method @
striking cuttings. After inferring tina
the frequent fading of cuttings befor
they have struck root may be accounts
for by a too great Transportation, he pro
poses making the cuttings longer tina
usual and burying some of the leaves, IL
S well as the stalk, so that about a thir
remains above out of the earth. Thos
leaves in the ground may thus undel
take the function of absorbing moisture
and so help to balance the loss of waite
from the exposed leaves. The grounC
he adds, in which the cuttings stan
should be, if possible, porous, in orde
that the air may have access and til;
the rotting of the leaves may be pr,
vented. This process enables the Gu
ting to make roots before the leave
decay. Weidenburg appears to hav
found that roses of all sorts, pinks an
other cuttings of plants thus make yer
good roots, which are usually hard t
grow.
Kerosene i'm the Poultry Yard.
Kerosene oil judiciously applied is
valuable article in the poultry hous
Perches washed with it occasionally wi
remain free from vermin; it is also e
fective in the cleaning of nest boxes.
appears, however, that there is wron
as well as right way of employing tn
pungent substance. According to IL
Poultry World kerosene should be al
piled beneath the nests and upon ii
wood work only. 1t is too strong an
penetrating to be placed where it wi
come in direct contact with the eggs thi
are being set on, or to touch the bodi
of the fowls. Therefore, where it
carelessly or too profusely scattered, {
that the hen sits upon it or her eggs a.
touched with the liquid, it does mo-
harm than good, often permeating Il
shells and destroying the embryo chick
According to the authority referred t
at any period, either when first laid