CHAPTER XV 



INSECTICIDES— TOOL-ROOM 



^I^HE enemies of growing things have 

 certainly increased alarmingly of late 

 years. I cannot recall that formerly any 

 insect was to be found in either vegetable or 

 flower garden, other than the potato bug, 

 currant -worm, cabbage -worm, and the green 

 worm and small black beetle on the Rose ; 

 but now there are so many horrid creatures 

 lying in wait until a plant is in perfection, 

 to cut the stalk, or eat the root, or eat the 

 pith from the stalk so that it falls, or to 

 devour the leaves and eat the blossoms, 

 that insecticides and a spraying machine are 

 as necessary to a garden as a spade. For 

 a small garden a spraying machine holding 

 from a couple of quarts to a gallon, can be 

 bought for a trifling sum, that will answer 



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