INSECTS AND DISORDERS. 221 



limited. These fruits are in every sense luxuries. I 

 doubt if one could grow them in winter for less than f i 

 each, unless he did it upon a large scale. Good musk- 

 melons in midwinter would bring almost any price, if 

 placed before the right kind of consumers. 



Insects and diseases. There have been three serious 

 insect enemies to our winter melons black aphis, mites 

 ( Tetranychus bimaculatus) , and mealy-bug. The best 

 method of dealing with these pests is to keep them off. 

 It is a poor gardener who is always looking for some 

 easy means of killing insects. If the plants are carefully 

 watched and every difficulty met at its beginning, there 

 will be no occasion for worrying about bugs. A fumi- 

 gation with tobacco smoke, or with the extract, twice a 

 week will keep away the aphis ; but if the fumigation 

 is delayed until after the lice have curled up the leaves, 

 the gardener will likely have a serious task in overcom- 

 ing the pests, and the plants may be irreparably injured 

 in the meantime. 



For mites, keep the house and plants as moist as 

 possible. At all events, do not allow the plants to be- 

 come so dry that they wilt, for this neglect will sap the 

 vitality out of any plant, and it falls an easy prey to ene- 

 mies. When the mites first appear upon the foliage, if 

 the gardener should be so unfortunate as to have them, 

 knock the pests off with a hard stream of water from 

 the hose, or pick the affected leaves and burn them. If 

 the plants become seriously involved, so that all the 

 leaves are speckled-grey from the work of the minute 

 pests on the under side, then destroy the plants. Melon 

 plants which have become seriously checked from the 

 attacks of insects or fungi are of no further use, and 

 they may as well be destroyed first as last. 



Mealy-bugs are easily kept off by directing a fine, 

 hard stream against them, when watering the house. 

 When these bugs first appear, they usually congregate 

 in the axils of the leaves, and a strong stream of water 



