88 GENERAL ADVICE 



ting, it is sometimes necessary to provide board 

 shutters to protect the beds, especially if the 

 plants are started very early in the season. These 

 shutters are made of half -inch or five -eighths inch 

 pine lumber, and are the same size as the sash- 

 three by six feet. They may be placed upon the 

 sash underneath the matting, or they may be used 

 above the matting. In some cases they are used 

 without any matting. 



In the growing of plants in hotbeds, every effort 

 should be made to prevent the plants from grow- 

 ing spindling, or becoming " drawn.' 7 To make 

 stocky plants, it is necessary to give room to 

 each plant, to be sure that the distance from 

 the plants to the glass is not great, not to 

 provide too much water in dull and cold wea- 

 ther, and especially to give abundance of air. 



INSECTS AND DISEASES 



The insects and diseases which attack garden 

 plants are legion ; and yet, for the most part, they 

 are not very difficult to combat if one is timely 

 and thorough in his operations. These difficulties 

 may be divided into three great categories : the 

 injuries wrought by insects ; the injuries of para- 

 sitic fungi; the various types of so-called consti- 

 tutional diseases, many of which are caused by 

 germs or microbes. 



Insect injuries are easily recognized. The dis- 

 eases caused by parasitic fungi are usually desig- 



