€28 GARDEN MANAGEXIENT. 



plants, and hand-picking the only effective remedy. I am sorry I cannot 

 pronounce any nostrums eflfective for the eradication of these pests. They all 

 remind me of grandmamma's receipt for catching the peacock by puting salt 

 on its tail 



1973. To put the nosti-um on every leaf and branch (not the tail merely), and 

 -wash it clean off with a brush, &c. ;— truly, I -would just as soon wash it off 

 %\'ith the brush, or pick it off with my fingers, and save the price of the in- 

 fallible remedy. I think Gisliurst's compound, Xeal's soap, &c,, may destroy 

 thrip, as well, — perhaps a little better, than a strong decoction of clear soot- 

 water in soap-suds. But as for scale and mealy bug, I fearlessly assert, all the 

 testimonials to the contrary notwithstanding, I have never yet been able to 

 kill it by dipping or washing in any nostrum whatever. I only wish I could, 

 .and regi-et being compelled, by a sense of justice to the reader, to make such 

 a humiliating admission. Where plants have become infested very much with 

 either of these pests, the most satisfactory way, unless they are very valu- 

 able, is to destroy them. But they ought never to be allowed to become very 

 lad. If a stitch in time saves nine, a pick or wash in time saves nine hun- 

 dred and ninety-nine. And it is in thus attacking insects in time, as soon as one 

 is seen, that the true secret of cleanliness and health lies. Better examine a 

 whole collection and not find one, than allow one to become a million through 

 a month's oversight. If practicable, therefore, no plant should be taken into 

 the house without being carefully examined and thoroughly cleaned. The 

 necessary washings involved in this operation, while essential to cleanliness, 

 have also a powerful indirect influence in preserving the plants in health. So 

 great is this secondary benefit, that some cultivators have maintained that no 

 collection of stove-plants can be preserved in luxuriant health without the 

 existence of these aids to successful culture. While I would much rather dis- 

 pense with their assistance, doubtless the ablution that tLeir extermination 

 involves, enables plants to perform their respiratory and elaboratory functions 

 with more ease and greater energ3\ 



1974. Pelargoniums.— MiLintsdn a temperature of 45° by fire-heat, allowing 

 a rise of 10° by the influence of the sun. No syringing or sprinkling 

 must be permitted here, and care must be exercised in watering, to keep the 

 leaves dry. Give air with great caution, avoiding biting winds and cold 

 draughts. This is necessary with Fancy, which ai-e more tender than 

 either the French or show kinds, as they are termed. Great injury may 

 be done even by keeping the door open a few minutes when the wind is blow- 

 ing into the house, and the plants should never be moved out to the potting- 

 shed for shifting after this period. Sudden changes are a fruitful source of 

 that most provoking and troublesome of all diseases to which these plants 

 are subject, — spot. I consider this disease incurable ; if it unfortunately ap- 

 pears, either separate the plant from all the others, or destroy it at once. 

 Nothing has given rise to more dispute among geranium -growers than this : 

 ii is almost as knotty a point among cultivators, as is the nature of electricity 

 among philosophers. This much is generally admitted, that it is consti 



