Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


 Control.-Any or all of these caterpillars are easily controlled
by means of arsenicals. One can use paris green but either lead


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Fig. 20.-Southern cabbage butterfly: a, larva:
b, pupa. Natural size. (From U. S. Bur. of
Ent.)


or calcium arsenate is
preferable. One pound of
paris green or 2 pounds of
lead or calcium arsenate
powder is put into 50 gal-
lons of water. This liquid
usually does not stick well
to cabbage plants on ac-
count of the "bloom," a
waxy coating. To make it
stick, add lime when the
mixture is made, at the


rate of 2 or 3 pounds for 50 gallons of water, according to
whether the water is hard or soft. Flour-paste is also a good
substance to make the arsenic compound stick to cabbage leaves.
A paste made by boiling 2 pounds of flour in 2 gallons of water
may be added to 50 gallons of the arsenical solution.
 A spreader recommended by the Illinois Agricultural Experi-
ment Station is made by dissolving 5 pounds rosin and 1 pint
fish-oil soap in a gallon of water in an iron kettle. Then add
4 gallons of water and 1 pound of concentrated lye or potash
and boil for a few minutes. When ready to spray, add to 32
gallons of water 2 gallons of the above solution, 6 gallons of milk
obtained by slaking quick lime in water (strain it so as not to
clog the sprayer), and 1/ pound of paris green or 2 pounds of
powdered lead arsenate.
 A new "spreader" worked out by the U. S. Department of
Agriculture is a solution of cactus. Thirty pounds of cactus is
chopped fine and allowed to soak over night in 50 gallons of
water. This is strained and the arsenic added. In those parts
of the State where some of the wild species of prickly pears"
or spineless cactus grow, this should make a cheap sticker."
 Some of the oil derivatives now on the market make most ex-
cellent spreaders, as do also some of the oleates.
 Arsenical poisons may be used dry. It is well to use a filler of
cheap flour or air-slaked or hydrated lime, mixing about ten
parts of the filler to one of dry poison.
 Of the three compounds, paris green is the least satisfactory.
Its arsenic content is variable and it may burn tender plants.