THE GARDEN. 97 



pected. Safety conaists in attacking them early. Some worms eat into the 

 forming head, and when they have thus hidden, nothing can be done. In 

 small gardens, hand-picking will answer, but where there are many cab- 

 bages, this is not practicable. The Persian Insect Powder, the Fyrethrum, 

 is the best, and a safe application. There are in some localities cabbage 

 worms which come from other butterflies, but they are to be treated in the 

 same manner. The large green caterpillar, of the five-spotted Sphinx, 

 known as the " Tomato Worm,"' is most destructive; it wiU soon leave no- 

 thing but bare stems upon a tomato plant, eating the green fi-uit as well as 

 the leaves. When the tomatoes are supported by some kind of a treUis, as 

 they always should be in a garden, worms may be detected by the quantity 

 of large pellets of droppings found upon the ground. Where these are seen, 

 the worm should be sought for. Stems without leaves also indicate its pres- 

 ence. When not eating, it will be found close to the stems, on their under- 

 side, and as it is of nearly the same color, may escape notice. The 

 worms " are never very numerous, and hand-picking is the best way 

 . deal with them. In spite of the horn at the tail-end, they can neither 

 piing nor bite. Frequently one of these will be found with its body nearly 

 covered with small egg-shaped white cocoons, often mistaken for eggs. 

 Worms with these should not be destroyed, as they are too weak to do 

 much damage, and the parasitic insect should have time to leave these 

 cocoons, as they are our friends, and should be encouraged. The tomato- 

 worm may sometimes be found on potatoes. — American Agriculturist. 



Hot Water on the Garden. — Insecticides are in demand. The 

 farmer's first interest is to gain an insecticide that is effective. The next 

 important point is that it be stifficiently cheap in cost to permit of free use. 

 Hot water some of the English gardeners accept as a cheap insecticide not 

 sufficiently appreciated, and capable of more extended employment than is 

 usually believed. Hot water judiciously applied has been found cflTective 

 among American farmers for cabbage worms. In careful hands its appli- 

 cation, after the cabbage heads begin to form, has not injured the plants, 

 but has destroyed the bugs. Experiments with hot water on the apliis at 

 Stoke Newington and reported in the English journals, made it appear that 

 aphides perish immediately if immersed in water heated to 120 degrees 

 Fahrenheit. In order to ascertain the degree of heat infested plants could 

 endure in the dipping process, a number of herbaceous and soft-wooded 

 plants were immersed in water heated to various degrees above 120. Fuch- 

 sias were unharmed at 140 degrees and injured at 150 degrees. Pelargo- 

 niums were unhurt up to 150 degrees, but the shghtest rise above that figure 

 killed the soft wood and young leaves. Ferns, heliotropes, petunias, be- 

 gonias, mignonette and many other plants of soft texture were unhurt by 

 being dipped in water at 140 degrees, but the slightest rise above that point 

 proves detrimental. Roses grown in pots for market were kept clean by 

 dipping in water at 120 degrees without injury to the plants and every aphia 

 destroyed. 



Gas Tar as a Remedjr for Bag*. — A correspondent of the Chicago Tri- 

 bune says: " For the last five years I have not lost a cucumber or a melon 

 vine or a cabbage plant. Get a barrel with a few gallons of gas tar in it; 

 pour water on the tar; always havo it ready when needed, and, when the 

 bugs appear, give them a Uberal drink of the tar water from a garden 

 sprinkler or otherwise, and, if the rain washes it off and they return, re- 

 peat the dose. It will also destroy the Colorado potato beetle, and Mghteo 



