|
|
|
|
|
Bugs on Squash and Cucumber Vines, To Destroy with Saltpeter.
The following appeared in the Southern Husbandman: "To destroy bugs on squashes and cucumber vines, dissolve a table-spoonful of saltpeter in a pail of water, put a pint of this around each hill, shaping the earth so that it will not spread much, and the thing is done. The more saltpeter, if you can afford it—it is good for vegetable but death to animal life. The bugs burrow in the earth at night and fail to rise in the morning. It is also good to kill grub in peach trees—only use twice as much, say a quart to each tree. There was not a yellow or blistered leaf on 12 or 15 trees to which it was applied last season. No danger of killing any vegetable with it. A concentrated solution applied to beans makes them grow wonderfully. "
Remarks. —This same thing has been recommended also by the Wisconsin, State Journal, and I have seen an inquiry about the proportion to use, in another paper, which answered 1 tea-spoonful to 1 gallon of water, or 1 table-spoonfui to a pail. I do not believe that a 1/4 lb. to a pail of water would hurt the plants, as saltpeter is nitre, and this is naturally in the soil and is brought to the surface by shading the soil with clover or even with a board
|
|
|
|
|
|
