HOKTICULTUEAL PROCESSES. 59 



home. Hens and chickens should have access whenever it 

 can safelj be permitted. 



To drive insects away from plants various preparations are 

 useful. A writer in the Southern Cultivator recommends the 

 following : 



"Put into a barrel of water a quarter of a pound of cam- 

 phor, in pieces of the size of a hickory nut, and let it stand a 

 day before using. Water your plants with this. The barrel 

 may be refilled many times before the camphor will have all 

 been dissolved. A cupful of strong lye put into the water 

 will add to the strength of the mixture by causing the water 

 to take up more camphor. Camphor is very offensive to most 

 insects." Tobacco-water is another efficient remedy. Lime, 

 charcoal-dust, ashes, soot, snuff, and sulphur sprinkled upon 

 plants prove a defense against most destroyers. To expel the 

 striped bug from cucumbers, squashes, etc., water the plants 

 daily with a strong decoction of quassia, made by pouring four 

 gallons of boiling water on four pounds of quassia, in a barrel, 

 and, after twelve hours, filling the barrel with water. The 

 intolerable squash or pumpkin bug may be thoroughly driven 

 off by a decoction of double strength, containing a pound of 

 glue to t^n gallons, to make it adhere. 



The most effectual and the cheapest remedy for the striped 

 bug, however, consists in defending each hill of melons, cu- 

 cumbers, squashes, etc., by a box about fifteen inches square, 

 the sides being eight to ten inches high, covered with millinet 

 or some similar thin material. 



The following recipe for making a " barrier to insects" is 

 given in the Gardener^ s Chronicle. It may be easily tried : 



" Take of common resin 1^ lbs. ; sweet oil, 1 lb. ; place them 

 in a pipkin over the fire until the resin is melted ; stir the mate- 

 rials together, that chey may be well blended ; when cold the 

 substance formed, which the discoverer caUs 'rezoil,' will be 

 of the consistency of molasses. To use the rezoil it should be 

 spread with a brush upon shreds or any fitting material, and 

 wrapped roimd the stem of the plant ; if any support is used, 



