Fall harrowing and deep spring plowing will prevent many of the bugs and beetles which spend the larval state in the ground from hatching. This method will also destroy the plum-curculio in orchards.
In attempting to control the boll-weevil of the cotton fields, it has been found that the best method to pursue is the simple one of planting the crop very early, so that the cotton passes the danger stage before the insects emerge, and removing all the plants in the fall.
Worms that infest fruit can be checked for the following year by fall plowing in the orchard and by destroying the decayed fruit as it falls. The farmer who lets his decayed fruit lie on the ground is preparing for a heavy crop of insects to eat his fruit the following summer.
Fruit and forest trees are both protected by a burlap band or a band of "sticky" fly-paper placed around the tree, to prevent insects from crawling up.
The use of poison in destroying insects is now the one most generally and successfully employed by farmers and fruit growers.
Poisons may be liquid or dry. The liquid is made by mixing with water, and for large plants and trees is put on with a spray or force-pump that carries the poison to every part of the plant.
Some insects, such as beetles, caterpillars and grasshoppers, chew the leaves or stems of plants, and the poison may be applied to their food; but others, such as plant-lice, scale insects and all bugs suck the juice, usually from the stem or bark. Poisons must be applied to the insect itself to be effectual in this case.
These are some of the insect poisons most in use:
Paris green, which will kill all insects that chew the leaves, may be used in small quantities in gardens by mixing one-half teaspoonful to a gallon of water, or in large quantities with one pound to one hundred and fifty or two hundred gallons of water.
White hellebore is used to destroy currant worms and is usually dusted on dry.