California Insect Powder
Categories:
Grains and Forage Crops
What part of the plant is used in making insect powder and how is it
prepared? Is the plant a perennial? What soil suits it best?
The plant is Pyrethrum cinerariaefolium and has a white blossom
resembling the common marguerite. The powder is made of the petals and
the seed capsules or heads are thoroughly dried in the sun and ground
with a run of stone such as was formerly used for making flour. The
powder must be finely ground, and only good powder can be made in a mill
suitably equipped for that purpose. The plant is a perennial, beginning
to bloom the second year from seed. It will grow in any good soil with
ordinary cultivation. Twenty-five years ago it was thought that a great
California industry might be established on that basis, but there is at
the present time but one establishment, which grows about all the
material it can use on its own ranch in Merced county, on a fine, deep
loam which the plant seems to enjoy.