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ANT KILLER. 

 Since the Girdle Paint can only prevent the ants from injuring 

 the tree to which it is applied, the following preparation is recom- 

 mended for exterminating them in the grove : 



Resin, 2 parts ; sal soda, I part ; tobacco tea, i part. Boil 

 all together, stirring slowly over a slow fire till all the resin is 

 dissolved. After simmering about 15 minutes, remove from the 

 fire and add little by little 10 to 15 parts of tobacco tea, stirring 

 rapidly for five minutes or more ; this should produce a very frothy 

 soap which contains only just enough alkali to hold the resin in 

 solution. Apply with a large syringe or coarse-holed spray pump 

 directly to the open holes or galleries of ants' nests. 



If properly mixed a few spoonfulls of this liquid applied on 

 top of an ant nest will sink into the passages and flow along the 

 tunnels, killing the ants and filling up the galleries, without inju- 

 ring the tree roots. If too thin it will soak into the soil and be 

 wasted ; if too thick it will not reach the centre of the nest to kill 

 the eggs and queens. The effect of this mixture upon the ants is 

 both chemical and mechanical ; the caustic action of the soda des- 

 troys the eggs and the soft parts of the aduhs, while the resin 

 forms a sticky, air-tight coating over all surfaces with which it 

 comes into contact. 



This ant killer is of some use in combating the May beetle or 

 " Caculo ;" in orange orchards. When applied to the openings of 

 their vertical burrows it runs down and kills or drives out these 

 insects and their grubs which may be at the bottom of the hole. 

 But this should not be used in large quantities around the roots of 

 young trees, since the caustic action of the sal soda might injure 

 the small roots. 



The ordinary fine-spray pump is not adapted to this work, since 

 it becomes clogged easily and does not leave the mixture in a 

 frothy state. The common garden brass cylinder syringe having 

 a few holes in the tip serves the purpose well. 



The cost of this preparation, ready for applying should be a little 

 less than i cent per quart. 



CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO UNDER CLOTH. 



Remarkable and immensely profitable results are being obtained 

 in a number of cigar-leaf producing countries of the world through 

 the growing of cigar wrapper leaf under a special cotton fabric 

 known in Cuba, as cheese cloth, and in the United States as to- 

 bacco shade cloth. 



In Cuba in the season commencing in the fall of 1 903, about 

 one thousand acres of tobacco was grown under cloth ; in Porto 

 Rico about 250 acres ; and the same year in Florida there was 

 grown under shade about 2,500 acres, with about 700 more in other 

 parts of the United States which produce cigar-leaf. 



