During the last two years I have been working along a line which is entirely different from the treatment of the maggot, and that is based upon the fact that the fly which lays the egg which produces the maggot in the cabbage comes out early in the spring and flies about the field for probably a week or ten days or two weeks before it lays its eggs, and during that period it eats any sweet material which happens to be on hand.  With this as a basis we thought we might be able to poison the flies and thus prevent injury from the maggots, and we have tried several different spray mixtures along that line.  One mixture which we use is a mixture which is normally used against the fruit flies which are oftentimes injurious to fruit, particularly in the east and in tropical countries.  This contains three ounces of arsenate of lead, two and half pounds of brown sugar and four gallons of water.  The idea is to spray this in the field, spraying it on the plants as soon as the plants are put out in the field.  We have more or less definite dates for the appearance of the flies in the field and for their disappearance again.  But, as you know, the season varies, and the result is somewhat uncertain.  So probably the best method is to base it upon the time you plant out your cabbage.  In the early seasons you will plant your cabbages early, and in the late seasons later.  So plant out your cabbage and then spray them every week until the 10th of May.

You should spray them, not to cover the leaves with the poison, but merely sufficient so that there are a few drops of this poisoned material on the leaves so that the flies can eat it.  Flies will come there and feed upon this mixture and die.

It is rather peculiar that we started work here about the same time on the cabbage maggot that they started work on the onion maggot along similar lines in Wisconsin.  I don’t think that either knew that the other was working towards that end.  They used a different mixture, one-fifth ounce of sodium arsenite, one-half pint of New Orleans molasses and one gallon of water.  This was sprayed over the onions and was very successful in controlling the onion maggot.

I tried their mixture this last year.  They published some of their results last year, so it gave me an opportunity to watch their mixture in comparison with the lead arsenate.  They claimed the lead arsenate did not act as quickly as the sodium arsenite.  That is true, but when you have a ten-day period to kill the fly it don’t make much difference whether it dies in ten hours or twenty-four.  The flies are not doing any injury.  If you take the lead arsenate and sugar and water and put it in a jar, the arsenate always sinks to the bottom, and if you were to test it that way, the fly would feed on the top and you might not get a quick result.  But if you spray it on, the lead arsenate will kill as quickly as the sodium arsenite.