118 



THE CA.NADIAN HORTICULTUEIST. 



washing the trees about three times 

 daring the season, applying the first in 

 March or April, the second in June and 

 the last in August. The insects as well 

 as moss will be effectually removed, 

 leaving the bark in a fine healthy con- 

 dition. — Western Farmer. 



CAHBOLIC SOAP FOR INSECTS. 



I am experimenting with Buchan's 

 Carbolic Soap, as a preventive for inj u- 

 rious insects, and am so well pleased 

 with the result thus far, that I wish to 

 stimulate other horticulturists to try 

 some experiment with the article. 



For cut worms, I made the soap suds 

 pretty strong — two gallons of water to 

 half a pound of soap, and with it satu- 

 rated a bushel of sawdust ; then placed 

 a little around the stem of each cabbao-e 

 and tomato plant, — using a handful to 

 eight or ten plants — adding a little more 

 after two or three days when the odor 

 seemed gone. This was completely suc- 

 cessful in ground where the worms were 

 quite plenty, and where pi mts not pro- 

 tected were speedily cut off by them. It 

 is the cheape.^t and most easily applied 

 remedy that I have yet seen. 



For striped bugs on melons and cu- 

 cumber vines, I find the same method 

 of using the soap effective, if the saw- 

 dust is sprinkled on the plants every 

 ■day, — which is very little trouble, — but 

 I am now trying wetting the plants 

 directly with weak suds made of ten 

 gallons of water to half a pound of the 

 Boap, and I think this will prove the 

 best. 



For aphis or plant lice on cherry trees 

 or the like, a sprinkling or two with 

 the suds, by means of a sponge, or bend- 

 ing the shoots so as to dip them into a 

 pail or basin, is speedy death to them. 

 Care must be had not to have the suds 

 too strong when applied to tender plants 



or young shoots of trees ; experiments 

 are needed for this point.— i^rmi Re- 

 corder. 



PALESTINE OF TO-DAY. 



Nothing can well exceed the desolate- 

 ness of much of the country. Treeless 

 it is for twenty or thii-ty miles together. 

 Forests which did exist thirty years ago 

 — for instance, on Mount Carmel and 

 Mount Tabor — fast disappearing ; rich 

 plains of the finest garden soil asking 

 to be cultivated, at best but scratched 

 up a few inches deep in patches, with 

 no hedges or boundaries ; mountain 

 terraces, naturally or artificially form- 

 ed, ready to be planted with vines as 

 the German colony is doing at the foot 

 of Mount Carmel, the villages nothing 

 but mud huts, dust, dirt and squalor, 

 the inhabitants with scarce clothes 

 enough for decency, their houses ovens; 

 large tracts without a horse or cow, 

 sheep or dog ; no pretence at roads, 

 except from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and 

 this like a cart road over a plowed field. 



Everything is taxed; every fruit tree, 

 so none now are planted ; every cow or 

 horse, etc. ; every vegetable sold out of 

 a private garden. Every eighth egg is 

 not taxed, but taken by the government. 

 In some places the taxes of the district 

 are sold to the highest bidder. Nothing 

 like a small farm-house is to be found 

 far or near. If there were, the owner 

 is liable to have soldiers or revenue 

 officers quartered upon him, to be 

 boarded and lodged at his expense. 

 The towns are filthy in the extreme, 

 none more so than Jerusalem itself 



This is a picture. I believe, in no way 

 over drawn of that land which was once 

 "flowing with milk and honey." What 

 might it not become again with fair 

 usage and good government ? But there 

 is no hope for Palestine while it re- 

 mains in the hands of its present rulers. 

 — Cor. Lotidon Times. 



