28 MILDEW AND BLIGHT. 



aud abundant and they quickly destroy the beauty 

 of a flower, by attacking its roots and heart.* 



Mildew and blight infest roses and honeysuckels. 

 Soap-suds thrown over rose-bushes, heavy water- 

 ings with tobacco-water, or the water in which po- 

 tatoes have been boiled, is successful in a degree, 

 but the best way is a very troublesome one to per- 

 severe in. Pinch every leaf well which curls up, 

 by which you may know a small magot is depos- 

 ited therein. By so doing you destroy the germ of 

 a thousand little monsters. 



Mildew and blight come from the east ; there- 

 fore honeysuckles should be sheltered from that 

 aspect ; for as they rise and spread widely, they 

 are not so manageable as a rose-bush. A mass of 

 luxuriant honeysuckles is beatiful to the eye and 

 delicious in fragrance ; but covered with mildew, it 

 is a blackened and miserable object. Mildew, for- 

 tunately, does not make its appearance every 

 spring ; but once in four or five years it comes as 

 a plague, to desolate the garden. A great deal 

 may be raked away, if taken oft* as soon as it 

 spreads its cobweb over these lovely flowers ; but 

 it should be done without delay. 



I cannot lay too great stress upon the neatness in 

 which a lady's garden should be kept. If it is not 

 beautifully neat, it is nothing. For this reason 

 keep every plant distinct in the flower-bed ; let 

 every tall flower be well staked, that the wind may 



*The Emperor Pagonatus, who wrote a treatise upon 

 agriculture, assures us, that to clear a garden of ants, we 

 should burn empty snail shells with storax wood, and throw 

 the ashes upon the ant-hills, which obliges them to remove. 

 I never tried this method. 



