INSECTS AND DISORDERS. 221 
limited. These fruits are in every sense luxuries. I 
doubt if one could grow them in winter for less than $1 
each, unless he did it upon a large scale. Good musk- 
melons in midwinter would bring almost any price, if 
placed before the right kind of consumers. 
Insects and diseases.— There have been three serious 
insect enemies to our winter melons—black aphis, mites 
(Tetranychus bimaculatus), and mealy-bug. The best 
method of dealing with these pests is to keep them off. 
It is a poor gardener who is always looking for some 
easy means of killing insects. If the plants are carefully 
watched and every difficulty met at its beginning, there 
will be no occasion for worrying about bugs. A _ fumi- 
gation with tobacco smoke, or with the extract, twice a 
week will keep away the aphis; but if the fumigation 
is delayed until after the lice have curled up the leaves, 
the gardener will likely have a serious task in overcom- 
ing the pests, and the plants may be irreparably injured 
in the meantime. 
For mites, keep the house and plants as moist as 
possible. At all events, do not allow the plants to be- 
come so dry that they wilt, for this neglect will sap the 
vitality out of any plant, and it falls an easy prey to ene- 
mies. When the mites first appear upon the foliage, —if 
the gardener should be so unfortunate as to have them, 
—knock the pests off with a hard stream of water from 
the hose, or pick the affected leaves and burn them. If 
the plants become seriously involved, so that all the 
leaves are speckled-grey from the work of the minute 
pests on the under side, then destroy the plants. Melon 
plants which have become seriously checked from the 
attacks of insects or fungi are of no further use, and 
they may as well be destroyed first as last. 
Mealy-bugs are easily kept off by directing a fine, 
hard stream against them, when watering the house. 
When these bugs first appear, they usually congregate 
in the axils of the leaves, and a strong stream of water 
