CHAP. II. VERMIN. 43 



it falls on leaves he says "it burns them, and changes their 

 lively green to an unsightly yellow or brown." He recommends 

 ammonia as " a most potent means of destruction, without 

 damaging the vegetation," and says that the effect of solid 

 ammonia dissolved in water is rapid and certain. " The shortest 

 method of preparing the solution," he further states, " is to stir 

 the ammonia into boiling water, and then add cold water until 

 it has been sufficiently diluted. Care must be taken to perform 

 this operation in the open air, and to keep well to the windward 

 of the vessel in which the preparation is being conducted. The 

 fumes that arise from the liquid are so copious and so pungent 

 that they affect the eyes, lungs, and nostrils, and afford a very 

 sufficient reason for their fatal effects upon insects." 



" The ammonia not only exercises no injurious effect upon the 

 herbage, but is absolutely beneficial to it, giving out some of 

 the most valuable properties of stable-litter." * 



ANTS. These are perhaps the most formidable of all pests 

 that the Indian gardener has to contend against. They are 

 remarkably fond of nearly all kinds of small seed, and will often 

 clear off every grain of it from an extensive sowing, within 

 a very short time after it has been made. Lettuce-seed they 

 are especially fond of, which, when sown in the open ground, it 

 is very difficult to save from their depredations. With regard 

 to flower-seeds, when very choice, or when there is but a small 

 supply, the only safe plan is to make the sowing in a seed- 

 gumlah, supported on an empty flower-pot, standing in a pan of 

 water. In flower-pots, moreover, potted with any loose kind of 

 material, such as employed for Orchids, they are very de- 

 structive, establishing themselves by hundreds, laying their eggs, 

 and breeding their young. They cannot be allowed to remain 

 with safety to the plant, nor can they be easily removed, without 

 more or less injuring it at the same time. A saucer of sweet 

 oil is an irresistible bait to them, into which they will rush and 

 destroy themselves by numbers. 



Upon the means of destroying ants, Captain Weston makes the 

 following remarks : " The usual way of getting rid of the red 

 ant is, I believe, by powdered turmeric or huldee. I, however, 

 found a plan my malee had last year more successful. When 

 the seeds were sown, a cocoanut, with the kernel in it, was cut 



* * Our Garden Friends and Foes,' pp. 110, 161. 



