PLANTING AND MAINTENANCE 137 



used with great persistence to get rid of them 

 all, however, for they multiply with fearful 

 rapidity and each one must be drenched with 

 the liquid in order to exterminate them. For 

 these belong to the same general class as the 

 scale insects — the class which feeds on the plant's 

 juices rather than on its tissues, and cannot 

 therefore be poisoned directly, but only by 

 contact. 



Use one-quarter of a cake of any common 

 laundry soap to four gallons of water, dissolving 

 by heat and applying hot and on successive days 

 until none of the insects alive are to be found. 

 Leaves curling down or back are a pretty sure 

 sign of their presence, for they infest the under 

 side, which, drying out under their persistent 

 little bills, shrinks and rolls back. Worms, on 

 the contrary, eat plant tissue always, hence may 

 be poisoned directly. For these arsenate of lead 

 is preferable to paris green or any other direct 

 poison; it comes in prepared forms. 



Directions for the use of sprays and poisons 

 of all kinds should always be followed scrupu- 

 lously, both as to proportion to be used and 

 the time to do the work of applying; for even 

 a day or two earlier or later than the stipulated 

 time may make all the difference between suc- 

 cess and failure in combating any particular 



