“Beets are prone to leaf spots.  As soon as such spots appear, the plants should be sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture.  Every two weeks give the plants about three sprayings.

“The cabbage worm I have spoken of.  This worm works all summer.  Cabbages, if neglected, become literally alive with the little caterpillars.  They eat and eat the foliage, riddling it completely.  They eat into the heads so that the cabbage plant is completely spoiled.  George treated his with pyrethrum powder.  This he mixed with five times its bulk of dust.  It was then dusted or shaken over the cabbage plant.  A very good thing to do before trouble begins is to dust the soil and tender plants with lime.  After the plants have begun to head use hellebore powder.

“Lice appear on cauliflower.  The kerosene emulsion which we use on our indoor plants is all right for this work, too.  The lice appear on the foliage in great white masses.  They suck the life and goodness from the plant.  They come all through the summer at any time.  Whale oil soap is another good spray to use.  Peter has typewritten receipts for these sprays which you may have at the close of this talk.  Sometimes the root of the cauliflower is attacked.  Little white maggots mine or burrow through the root.  They are quite likely to begin their bad work in June or July.  That rather dangerous carbon bisulphid is the medicine for this trouble.  Make a hole in the soil as you did when treating the ant.  Do not make this too near the plant.  I should say six inches away would be about right.  Pour a teaspoonful of the poison into the hole and it will take care of itself.  Cover the hole over as you would in the case of the ant.  When cauliflower plants begin to look sickly pull one up.  If it is full of maggots that is easy to determine.  But it may be that you will find great lumps or knots on the root.  Since these knots appear during the same months as the maggots, you can only be sure of the real cause by pulling up a plant.  If these knots are on the root, then you have a very serious trouble to contend with.  So serious is the club root condition that the only safe thing to do is to pull up and completely destroy the diseased plants.  Dig the soil up after this.  Then lime it.  Put a lot of lime on, not just a dusting over the surface of the soil.  This represents soil that is in trouble, so do not plant cauliflower here again, or its coarser cousin, the cabbage.

“Sometimes a little red or orange and black bug appears.  This is called the harlequin bug from its fantastic appearance.  This bug may come all summer long at any time.  The whale oil soap spray is the one to use.  Celery may be troubled with the light green caterpillar with the black bands before spoken of.  This caterpillar arrives in August.  It is not difficult at all to see, so many may be picked off just by hand.  One may use Paris green as a spray.

“None of you had any trouble with corn being infested.  But sometimes a worm, called the earworm, which is like the tomato worm, will appear during June and eat the tips of the young ears.  A little Paris green sprinkled on the leaves, at their base will kill them.