EXTERMINATING INSECTS AND WORMS

The most effectual remedy for green fly is fumigation with tobacco. Some soft-wooded plants, such as salvias, heliotropes, etc., will not bear fumigation without injuring their leaves, and for these a weak solution is quite effectual. Steep some tobacco in water, then sprinkle the plant with the solution, afterward syringe with clean water. A little turpen- tine diluted with water (one part to sixteen), will destroy the mealy bug. The red spider is a very small insect, revealing its presence by the browned appearance of the leaves. Sprinkle your plants often, and you will not be troubled with red spider ; but wherever the air is dry and

120 FLOWERS.

close there is his delight. Alcohol, applied with a camel's hair brush, will kill any insect it touches. Plants, treated with these remedies, must be syringed immediately thereafter with clear water. To kill white worms in flower pots take common lime.

This is a sure remedy for rose slugs : Make a tea of tobacco stems and a soapsuds of whale oil or carbolic soap ; mix and apply to the bush with a spnnkler, turning the bush so as to wet the under as well as the upper part of the leaves. Apply before sunrise three or four times. About June small green worms appear on the bushes, which can be destroyed by this remedy. Take four gallons of water, add one tablespoonful of Paris green; stir thoroughly and apply to the bushes with a sprinkler early in the morning. Keep the water well stirred while applying, or the laist in the pot will be too strong and kill the leaves.

Angle worms at the root of plants can be made to come to the sur- face by inserting a fine hair-pin or darning needle into the mold, and then pouring lime water upon the soil. This will be found to be good for the health of the plants, and will also keep the foliage fresh and green.

To destroy small green flies on roses in the greenhouse put hot coals on the floor, on which dampened tobacco stems are laid. The dense smoke kills the pests.

To kill white worms in the soil, also fish worm, tie soot in a rag, as

the old-fashioned way of putting indigo in water on wash days, and

dip and squeeze until the water is black. Give your plants some of

this twice a week. It is a valuable fertilizer as well as an insect

destroyer. This is another way : Stick three or four common matches

down into the soil, also one or two up into the drain opening. The

phosphorus on the match is certain death to animal life and a powerful

fertilizer for plants.

FERTILIZERS.

Plants which are cultivated in pots or tubs require a great deal of water, and if they thrive well, should have stimulating fertilizers. For hard-wooded, slow-growing plants, very fine bone — flour of bone — sold by seedsmen for the purpose, is perhaps the best ; a few tablespoonfuls being forked into the soil of the pot. For soft-wooded, quick-growers, a liquid fertilizer may be used. This may be guano, a teaspoonful to a gallon of water ; soot, two tablespoonfuls to a gallon, or the water of ammonia (liquid hartshorn) of the drug stores, an ounce to the gallon. Water the plants with either of these instead of clear water once or twice a week, as the conditipn of the plant requires. No invariable rule can be given.

Another, and one readily procured is this : Put one bushel of the clippings from horses' hoofs into a barrel, and fill it up with water. Let

CONSER VA TOR V CHA T, 12i

it stand for a week, when it is ready for use. Apply with a watering pot. All bedding plants can be watered with this liquid every other day, if they are not pot-bound ; re-potted plants should be watered once a week until they have plenty of working roots to take up the manure. It will also be found excellent for hard-wooded plants if used once or twice a week. Two or three weeks after the plants have been watered with the manure, the foliage generally changes from a green to a golden yellow, moving from the stem down to a point of the leaf, which, however, lasts only for a few weeks, when it changes to a dark, glossy green. Plants under this watering grow very strong ; the flowers are very large and bright in color. • Plants thus treated can be kept in very small pots for a long time without being transplanted. Flowers watered with this liquid manure will bring twenty-five per cent more than otherwise ; besides, being in small pots, they are lighter, can be packed closer, and are easier to be handled. The fertilizer is not a stimulant, but a plant food, and plants that are watered with it, if planted out, will continue growing and keep in good growth, which cannot be said of guano. It is as powerful as guano, as quick in action, and more lasting.

It will not do the slightest harm to the foliage ; most other liquid manures spoil the foliage when they come in contact with it. It forms no crust on the pots or soil. It is cheaper than any other good fertil- izer which is used in liquid form. The chips need to be renewed or replaced only twice a year, while the water can be withdrawn every day. When liquid guano is used too strong it will cause the plants to drop all their leaves. This liquid will not, even if used once or twice a day for a short time.

This is also a simple and effectual fertilizer : Get some soot from a chimney or stove where wood is used for fuel, put it in an old pitcher and pour hot water upon it, When cool, use it to water the plants every few days. When it is all used, fill up the pitcher again with hot water. The effect upon roses that have almost hopelessly deteriorated is wonderful, in producing a rapid growth of thrifty shoots, with large, thick leaves and a great number of richly tinted roses. Never despair of a decayed rosebush until this has been tried.