4o6 



THE ENGLISH ELOIVER GARDEN. 



The head is furnished with the organs of 

 the mouth, the feelers or antennas, and 

 eyes. To the forebody are attached the 

 legs and the wmgs. The body contains 

 the breathing, digestive and other in- 

 ternal organs. Every insect should have 

 three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings, 

 but in some kinds the latter are altogether 

 wanting, or there is only one pair. Insects 

 do not breathe through openings in their 

 heads, as the higher animals do, but, as 

 a rule, through pores arranged along their 

 sides, which lead into tubes that convey 

 the air to all parts of the body. 



Insecticides act upon insects in different 

 ways ; some smother the insects by clog- 

 ging their breathing apparatus, or by 

 their action on their skins, others by 

 poisoning their food. Those first men- 

 tioned should be used in the case of 

 msects which feed by suction, the others 

 when the insects have biting mouths. 

 Insecticides, as a rule, have no effect on 

 the eggs, so that it is always best in the 

 case of insects that breed very rapidly to 

 use them again m the course of a i&w 

 days, and perhaps even a third time, so 

 as to make sure that the pest has been 

 exterminated. There are now several 

 kinds of spraying machines and spraying 

 nozzles in the market. With them the 

 insecticides can be used much more eco- 

 nomically than with an ordinary syringe, 

 and they can be applied with greater 

 ease to the undersides of the leaves 

 where the insects are as a rule. 



Insecticides. 



Carbolic acid (crude) i pint, soft soap 

 I quart, water i gallon, or carbolic acid i 

 part, water 50 to 100 parts. 



Paraffin i wineglassful, soft soap i pint, 

 mixed very thoroughly together with a 

 little hot water, and then add one gallon of 

 water. This must be kept well stirred. 



Paraffin emulsion. — Soft soap i 

 quart, well mixed in 2 quarts of boiling 

 water, while hot add i pint of paraffin oil, 

 churn or pump the mixture through a 

 garden engine for 5 or 10 minutes, then 

 dilute ten or twelve times with water, and 

 add a quarter of a pint of turpentine. Or 

 condensed milk i to i^ pints, water 3 

 pints, mix together and "add i gallon of 

 paraffm, churn until it forms a butter, 

 dilute with ten or twelve times its bulk of 

 water. 



.Abol, Antipest, and Paranaph are of 

 much the same composition and of the 

 same efficacy. 



Quassia extract. — Boil 6 ozs. of 

 quassia chips in a little water for half an 



hour, strain off the liquor and add it to 



4 ozs. of soft soap and mix thoroughly in 



5 gallons of water ; if it is to be used to 

 kill red spider, add half a pound of flowers 

 of sulphur. 



Tobacco water.— Boil i oz. of strong 

 tobacco in half a gallon of water and strain 

 when cold. 



Soluble paraffin. — Haifa pint to 2 

 gallons of water for mealy bug, quarter of 

 a pint to 2 gallons of water for aphides or 

 red spider. 



The water used with insecticides should 

 always, if possible, be soft water; if this be 

 impossible add a little soda. 



PLANTS AND THEIR PESTS. 



Ants (Lasius niger). — Ants are not 

 injurious directly to flowering plants in 

 any way, but they are so at times by mak- 

 ing their nests at the roots of plants. 

 When this is the case it will generally be 

 found that the plant is infested at the roots 

 by one of the root-feeding aphides, and 

 that the ants chose the locality on that 

 account, so that they might benefit by the 

 sweet substance secreted by the aphides. 

 When a plant is overrun by ants it is an 

 almost certain sign that it is infested by 

 aphides or scale insects. Ants may be 

 destroyed by pouring boiling water, para- 

 ffin oil, carbolic or sulphuric acid, diluted 

 with ten or twelve times their bulk of 

 water, into their nests. If in a position in 

 which it is undesirable to use any of these, 

 a garden pot with the holes at the bottom 



