130 THE BLOSSOM CIRCLE OF THE YEAR 



by six or eight weeks. Usually all the garden instructions are 

 based on the latitude of New York, which is the Greenwich 

 meridian of garden calendars. 



The only insect not thus given in the proper valuation for his 

 southern connections is the exclusive white fly. This chapter 

 covers his work and extinction. 



While studying about these variously inclined enemies it 

 occurred to me that our great-grandmothers and grandmothers 

 must have made their gardens without having to take all the 

 precaution we do to insure bloom and leaf and fruit. Immedi- 

 ately search was made in the old books in the library. 



In Prince's Manual of Roses, issued in 1846, it says: **Even 

 the Rose has its enemies and these enemies, although of the most 

 contemptible description, are extremely pernicious in their habits, 

 until their efforts have been thwarted." Certainly we will all 

 agree with him on this. He says that the green fly may be 

 destroyed by syringing the plants with tobacco water, that the 

 slug is much complained of in New England, and that the rose 

 bug or beetle must be picked off by hand and destroyed. For 

 mildew syringing the plants with sulphur water is suggested. 



In William Cobbett's American Gardener, published in 1819, 

 we are told: "Diseases of trees are various of their kinds but nine 

 times out of ten they proceed from the root. Insects are much 

 more frequently an effect than a cause. The best and perhaps 

 the only remedy against the species of disease of which they are 

 the symptoms, consists of good plants, good planting, good till- 

 age." This sounds as familiar as if it were printed in a current 

 magazine instead of in a book 100 years old. 



The striking point of interest in the "Ladies' Companion to 

 the Flower Garden," written by Mrs. Loudon and edited by 

 A. J. Downing, is in the fact that there is no reference to insects 

 or insecticides. Would it not be fine if "lady's gardens" in these 

 brave days were as free from such infection as one wouki like to 

 believe they were seventy-five years ago ? 



The one volume written for the South is unique because the 

 others all state distinctly that the tables and planting lists are 

 given for the latitude of New York — even as now. In this com- 



