One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered Part 81

You have to do with the bean weevil. The eggs are inserted by the insect while the beans are still green in the pods; subsequently the eggs hatch and the worm excavates the interior of the ripened beans. The beans can be protected after ripening by heating carefully to 130 Fahrenheit, which will destroy the egg, or the larva if already hatched. Of course, this heating must be done cautiously and with the aid of a good thermometer for fear of destroying the germinating power. The work of the insect can also be stopped by putting the beans in a barrel or other close receptacle, with a saucer containing about an ounce of carbon bi-sulfid to vaporize. Be careful not to approach the vapor with a light. After treatment for one-half hour, the cover can be removed and the vapor will entirely dissipate. This is a safer treatment than the heating. Similar methods of control can be used on other pea and bean weevils.

Slugs in Garden.

Can you advise me how I can get rid of slugs in my garden?

When barriers of lime, ashes, etc., are ineffective, traps consisting of pieces of board sacking and similar materials placed about the field prove inviting to the slugs. They collect under these and by going over the field in the early morning they may be put into a salt-water solution or otherwise destroyed. a.r.s.enical sprays applied with an underspray nozzle to the lower surface of the leaves will help control the slugs. Poison bran mash consisting of 16 pounds of coa.r.s.e bran, 2 quarts of cheap syrup, and enough warm water to make a coa.r.s.e mash, is very good for cutworms and should be equally effective for slugs. It should be placed in small heaps about the plants to be protected.

Cabbage leaves dipped in grease drippings and placed about the fields also prove attractive bait for the slugs, which may then be collected there. If a person has a taste for poultry, the keeping of a few ducks may solve the slug problem without further bother. Cultivation or irrigation methods that give a dry surface most of the time also discourage these pests.

Cause of Mottle Leaf.

What is the cause and cure of mottle leaf of citrus trees?

There are apparently a number of causes of this trouble, all more or less obscure and hard to overcome. It is generally thought that it is due to poor nutrition, whatever the reason for poor nutrition might be.

The presence of a nematode or eel worm on the roots has found to be a cause of mottle leaf in many cases. Poor drainage, too sandy soil and a number of other things frequently cause it. Whatever the cause, no one good method of cure has been found.

Potato Scab.

I think most of my potatoes will have some scab. Will you please tell me if my next crop would be apt to have scab, provided I got good clean seed and planted in the same ground?

It seems demonstrated that a treatment of the seed will practically insure against potato scab. One method is dipping the potatoes in a solution of corrosive sublimate. Dissolve one ounce in eight gallons of water and soak the seed potatoes in this solution for one and one-half hours before cutting.

Gopher Poison.

I have some alfalfa, some hogs and some gophers, also some strychnine and carrots. If I put the strychnine on the carrots, and endeavor to poison the gophers, and the hogs get hold of the poison will it kill them?

You will find that hogs are liable to poison like any other animal, and the safest way to poison the gophers, while the hogs are running in the field is to bury the poisoned carrots very deeply in the gopher hole and then put a row of sticks or branches over the mouth of the hole so that the hogs cannot root around and get at the poisoned carrots.

How to Make Bordeaux.

Use copper sulphate (bluestone) 5 pounds; quick-lime (good stone lime), 6 pounds; water, 50 gallons. Put the bluestone in a sack and hang it so it will be suspended just under the surface of a barrel of water over night, or dissolve in hot water. Use one gallon of water to one pound of bluestone. Slake the lime in a separate barrel, using just enough water to make a smooth, clean, thin whitewash. Stir this vigorously. Use wooden vessels only. Fill the spray tank half full of water, add one gallon of bluestone solution for each pound required, then strain in the lime and the remainder of the water and stir thoroughly. The formula may be varied according to conditions, using from 3 to 8 pounds of bluestone to 50 gallons of water and an equal or slight excess of lime. Use the stronger mixture in rainy weather. Keep the mixture constantly agitated while applying.

Formula for Lime-Sulphur.

To make lime-sulphur take quick-lime, 20 pounds; ground sulphur, 15 pounds and water 30 gallons. Slake the lime with hot water in a large kettle, add the sulphur and stir well together. After the violent slaking subsides add more water and boil the mixture over a fire for at least one hour. After boiling sufficiently strain into the spray tank and dilute with water to the proper strength. If a steam boiler is available, this mixture may be prepared more easily on a large scale by cooking in barrels into which steam pipes are introduced. This mixture cannot be applied safely except during the winter when the trees are dormant. A large proportion of the lime-sulphur used in the State is purchased already prepared in more concentrated form.