MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 71 
In order to secure a good crop from such plants as tomato, 
celery, cauliflower, ete., it is best to buy the young plants 
instead of sowing seed directly out of doors. In transplant- 
ing, care should be taken to ner the roots moist and pack 
the soil well around them, not merely bringing it around 
the stems and leaving the roots loose below. The compact- 
ing 1s necessary to bring particles of soil in intimate contact 
with the roots, to produce immediate growth. If transplant- 
ing is required during hot weather, the foliage should be 
trimmed somewhat to reduce the leaf surface from which the 
water evaporates, causing wilting. The plants should be put 
in at the same depth that they grew previously, but, if grown 
very spindly, they may be tetas a little deeper in the soil. 
To get the best results, cultivation is necessary throughout 
the entire season. The riddance of weeds conserves eg re 
and moisture for the plants, while the stirring of the soil 
roduces a dust mulch which also tends to keep the moisture 
in the soil by reducing evaporation. To cultivate a small 
garden properly, such tools as a spade, a hoe, a rake, and a 
hand weeder are most essential, and a hand trowel and a 
dibble—a short, pointed stick—are necessary in transplant- 
ing. For a large garden a wheel-hoe makes a very conven- 
ient and labor-saving tool. Watering may be done with a 
hose, early in the morning or late in the afternoon, and it 
should be a thorough soaking of the ground, as a light 
sprinkling every evening does more harm than good. 
The price of a good garden is a never-ceasing warfare 
against insect pests and plant diseases. There are a number 
of methods more or less successful in combating these pests 
—mechanical means, use of poisoned bait, fumigation, and 
spraying, the last being the most efficacious if the nature of 
the organism is known. 
There are three classes of plant enemies that may be con- 
trolled by spraying—chewing insects, sucking insects, and 
plant diseases. The chewing insects bite off portions of the 
plant, chew and swallow them. Various caterpillars and 
some of the beetles belong to this class. The simplest man- 
ner of killing these is poisoning their food by coating it 
with a stomach poison like Paris green or arsenate of lead, 
but such poisons should be used only upon parts which are 
not for human consumption. White hellebore is useful for 
plants which are to be eaten shortly after spraying, because 
it loses its poisonous properties after a few days’ exposure to 
the air. It may be dusted in dry form or mixed with water 
in the proportion of one pound to fifty ae of water. 
Paris green may be used in powder form by dusting upon 
