i8 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



have proved to be the simplest of all deterrents. Drive this well 

 up on the under side of the foliage, if necessary laying the plants 

 on their side to facilitate the operation. Should the red spider 

 attack in the face of this, and obtain a foothold, fall back on that 

 old and potent remedy soft soap, paraffin, and water. This is 

 a most useful, all-round insecticide, consisting of i oz. soft soap, 

 i tablespoonful paraffin, and i gallon water, which must be kept 

 vigorously stirred while being used, or the paraffin will not be 

 sufficiently diffused. 



At the end of August the plants should be immediately housed. 

 It is no longer quite safe for them outside ; but they must not be 

 rushed into a dirty house. Do not root up your tomatoes and fill 

 up with carnations without due preparation, for if you do you will 

 have ample opportunities for regret. The house must be clean, 

 absolutely clean. Dig and heavily dress the borders with a soil 

 insecticide, fumigate with sulphur or cyanide, wash the rafters 

 and glass with soft soap, and so make everything sweet and fresh 

 and clean for the valuable stock which has to take up an eight 

 months' residence in that house. Filth and dirt and pests are 

 almost bound to come some time, and it is something gained to 

 give a clean start, for it is much easier to keep clean than to have 

 to cleanse. 



As the plants, showing well for bloom, are being carried in, the 

 opportunity for feeding with a fertiliser is a convenient one a 

 spoonful of a recognised standard carnation manure being admin- 

 istered to each. Do not persuade yourself to use any but a well- 

 balanced manure of repute, such perhaps as the great specialists 

 use. A volatile manure, such, for example, as nitrate of soda, 

 is far from being the best, for it is swift-acting and its effect is 

 immediately apparent where you do not want it, viz. in the foliage. 

 It must be a slower acting agent in which, with nitrogen, the 

 phosphates and potash are duly proportioned. 



When all are safely housed, we have to essay the winter's work, 

 and this should be to a fixed, though not arbitrary, plan. Let us 

 see what lies before us. First, there is the perfecting of that crop 

 of bloom already well on the way ; second, the general good health 

 and cleanliness of the plants have to be maintained ; third, the 

 promotion of new growths to produce the succeeding crop ; 



