132 VILLA GARDENING paut i 



plants well was generally acted on. Tobacco dust or powder is a 

 very good and cheap insecticide, and is easily applied. Too often a 

 feeling of carelessness is present — a i^rocrastinating habit — which 

 puts off till to-moiTOw what ought to be done to-day. And to 

 make a liquid wash requires time and trouble. Perhaps there is 

 no hot water handy to dissolve the soap, or something or other 

 stands in the way ; but, with the powder, the thing is so handy 

 and easily and quickly applied, that even a man without much 

 perseverance can get through it. Gishurst compound, 3 ounces to 

 the gallon, dissolved in warm water and appUed through the syringe, 

 or Quassia chips, 3 ounces to the gallon, immersed in boiling 

 water, will kill all kinds of aphis cheaply ; but, as I said before, 

 jirevention is better than cure, and preventive measm-es should 

 all tend to the encouragement of growth. 



Watering and Mulching. — A supply of water is a necessity 

 in gardening. Of late years the watering-pot has not been called 

 into use so much as formerly ; but doubtless in due course sun- 

 shine and warmth will come again. But, except in the case of 

 recently-planted things, or plants grown in pots or in a limited 

 root space, watering is not an unmixed good — indeed, in some 

 hands it might do harm. On a porous soil we are obliged to water 

 when hot weather sets in, but it is as well to defer it as long as 

 possible, and to this end mulching comes in most fittingly. Now, 

 mulching may be done in various ways. AVhere plants need more 

 nourishment than ordinary water contains, a covering of manm-e 

 over the surface two or three inches thick wiU give it, and at the 

 same time keep the earth cool and moist by arresting the escape 

 of the water by evaporation in the usual way. A mulch of short 

 Grass, Cocoa-fibre, tan, sawdust, partly decomposed, and other 

 substances of a like nature, has a value in hot seasons when the 

 earth is baked and parched with drought. A still simj)ler form 

 of mulch is to keep a couple of inches of the surfiice-soil loose by 

 frequent stirring. Where the land has been kept in good heart 

 and deeply cultivated, this mulch of loose surface -soil is very 

 efficient. But still, with all these aids to good cidtivation, diu-ing 

 a prolonged drought many things may requke watering, and when 

 this becomes necessary, do it in the evening, and do it thoroughly, 

 i.e. water until the roots are all moistened, and then the next 

 morning early take a Dutch hoe and loosen up the surface to keep 

 the ground from baking and cracking, and let all the water escape 

 directly the rays of a hot sun strike upon it. Too much watering 

 washes away all the fertility from the soil ; therefore, if it should 

 be necessary during hot weather to water anything very often, 

 liquid manm-e should be given every third watering to keep the 



