334 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t October 37, 1870. 



For red spider we have found nothing more disliked than a 

 moist atmosphere with the smell of sulphur fumes in it. For 

 green fly, where washing overhead cannot be given, we have 

 found nothing better than tobacco-smokiDg, and the best to- 

 bacco is the best material, if motives of economy do not render 

 it advisable to use tobacco paper instead. 'We find Griffiths's 

 tobacco paper very safe, and we considered it best until we 

 used that sent out by Mr. Appleby along with his fumigator, 

 which may be described as a three-footed kettle with holes in 

 the bottom and holes in its lid. We have never found such 

 effects on green fly produced by such a small quantity of ma- 

 terial. The direction muBt be attended to — not to stop in the 

 place after the tobacco is fairly lighted, and it burns so slowly 

 and surely that there is no neces»ity for doing so. For general 

 purposes, for keeping inseots away and disposing of tbem when 

 they come, and when we can use liquid, our mainstay is weak 

 soft-soap water. 



Of all intruders we think the mealy bug about the worst to 

 get rid of, for it lodges in so many nooks and crannies. Until 

 lately we have had no trouble with this pest for a great many 

 years. We believe it came to us about the time the new varie- 

 ties of Coleus were first brought out, and we fear we shall have 

 some trouble with it before we free ourselveB of it. We have 

 some Figs that were first turned out of pots into a low pit as 

 bush plants, and that have borne very well for many years. 

 Partly from carelessness, these plants had little done to them 

 in the way of cleaning for two or three years, as they did not 

 seem to require it. This summer the stems are infested with 

 scale, and what is inconceivably worse, through some fine 

 Coleuses standing at one end, they are also attacked with the 

 bug. The withering leavea were taken off and burned ; the 

 plants have been syringed several times with soft-soap water at 

 about 170°, as we were afraid to use it warmer in case we should 

 hurt the young Figs showing like small pinheads. The stems 

 aod shoots were washed with cloths and a brush. Every move- 

 able board was removal and washed, and all the walls, wood- 

 work, &c, thoroughly syringed with the hot soap water, and 

 then well scrubbed down before being freBh limewashed. The 

 surface soil of the bed after all this washing was carefully 

 scraped off to the depth at least of 2 inches. If we could spare 

 the house as long we would wait for frost to nip the trees a 

 little before we painted them over with some suitable mixture. 

 The main shoots and stems had been painted with lime and 

 Gishurst three yearsago, and wherever that remained there was 

 no scale. After the washing, when we syringed again with the 

 hot water, we could see it brought out some small bugs from 

 their holeB and crannies. We hope we shall thus get rid of 

 the enemy, using a sharp look-out, as of all insects it is the 

 most obnoxious to us, though we have had little to do with it 

 since our young days. 



Of this we are sure, that however and with whatever mixture, 

 dangerous or otherwise, plants may be cleaned, if the cleaning iB 

 confined to tbem this insect will never be eradicated from a 

 house where it has once gained an entrance. It will find a 

 home in every hole and cranny of sashes, stages, shelves, and 

 ■walls, and unless dislodged or shut up, there it will remain 

 until it makes a feeding ground of the plants. The thorough 

 cleansing of houses as well as plants is all the more important, 

 as this insect is so easily carried from house to house. We be- 

 lieve that very often, quite inadvertently, workmen take the 

 insect on their clothes from house to house. Notwithstanding 

 all this care, for which the wet days gave a good opportunity, 

 we shall keep an extra look-out on these Fig trees next season. 

 For the soale, we feel confident that will be destroyed. We do 

 not feel quite so certain about the mealy bug, as a few might 

 ■escape the washing and the smearing of the shoots. But for 

 the scale appearing, we had made up our mind to dispense with 

 the unnatural system of smearing the stems, and be satisfied in 

 the case of deciduous plants with giving a good washing. The 

 smearing can only be useful as a means of shutting up all 

 small insects, and keeping smaller eggs from the air, so that if 

 hatched the young have no chance to breathe. For this pur- 

 pose, as the simplest means, perhaps nothing is more effectual 

 than clay paint with or without a little soft soap in it. 



Numerous remedies have been proposed for American bliglit 

 on Apple tiees, an insect which in its woolly clothing mnch 

 resembles the mealy bug. Among them are washes, turpentine, 

 oil, tar, &c, more or less prejudicial to the trees, as well as to 

 the insects, but we have never seen anything more effectual 

 than a good washing with warm water" when the leaves fall, 

 followed by covering all over with clay paint, or a mixture of 

 elay and lime, and even limewashing itself. Towards spring, 



if there was a crack or two, or the insects appeared at any crack 

 or hole, there was needed but a fresh daubing. Once we had 

 some standards 20 feet in height very much infested with the 

 insect. These, after the fall of the leaf, were syringed with the 

 nozzle end of the syringe, using rather thick limewash, and 

 had the dose repeated at midwinter, and once again as the 

 bads were swelling in spring, and no more American blight 

 appeared. With low pyramids or bush standards the brush 

 might have been used, but even in their case the wash ap- 

 plied with the syringe, so as trickle into every cranny, is gene- 

 rally effective. Some time ago we had the American blight on 

 some bush Apple trees, but after using limewash with some 

 soot and clay in it in spring, to deter the birds from picking 

 the fruit buds, the insect disappeared. At other times, when 

 the insect appeared just here and there, we have known it de- 

 stroyed by daubing up the places with thickish clay paint, and 

 if this cracked, so as to let some air in, the operation was re- 

 peated. On the whole, then, for encasing eggs and small 

 insects, we question if there is anything much better and 

 simpler than clay ; anything nasty, but harmless to vegetation, 

 might make it a little more effectual. 



In the case of scale on growing plants, we consider all mix- 

 tures in which turpentine or strong acids form a part to be 

 dangerous to plants as well as insects. StroDgish soap water, 

 glue water, &c, are useful, to be followed with hard syringings 

 with heated water, say 120°, in twenty-four hours or so ; but 

 when the foliage was very fine, as in the case of some Acacias 

 that are rather subject to the scale, we have found dipping the 

 plants overhead in a thin clay paint as good as anything we ever 

 tried, syringing when the plants were too large to be dipped. 

 The efficacy depended on every part of the plant being covered, 

 and then laying it carefully down in a dry shady place. In 

 from twenty-fonr to thirty hours the smearing would be dry 

 enough to shake off or rub off between the hands, and in general 

 the scale would go with it, and some good syringings would 

 make the leaves all clean. By such means the bug and scale 

 may be got rid of if confined to the tops of plants, but it will 

 be more difficult to clean them when the insects go down to the 

 roots. In such a case, as they will be sure to rise at their 

 leisure, the whole of the earth would require to be washed 

 away, and the roots well washed before the plants were repotted. 

 As a sort of test or trap, if you wish to know if a thrips is in a 

 house, put a few Kidney Bean plants in it — the thrips will be 

 sure to find out the plants ; and again, a healthy Coleus plant 

 in a stove or warm greenhouse will soon tell you if you have 

 a mealy bug at hand, for of that plant they are very fond. 



Planting and Transplanting. — These matters will most likely 

 occupy a considerable portion of our time. The last two seasons 

 have been unfavourable for all planting on a large scale, 

 whether for ornament, for profit, for cover, or for all combined. 

 The ground was so dry twelve months ago that planting in the 

 autumn was in many places quite impossible, and spring plant- 

 ing was followed by the driest summer, on the whole, we ever 

 experienced. Now, the rains, though they have not gone down 

 much, will render planting more practicable. Taking circum- 

 stances as they are, a few hints may be useful, and the old 

 rule still holds good for all exposed places, " plant thickly and 

 thin quickly." The first part of the rule is based on the fact 

 that purchased plants generally stand thickly in the nursery, 

 and setting them out thinly exposes them to a greater danger 

 of having their vital juices sucked out of them by the keen 

 frosty winds of spring. Whilst they stood close together in the 

 nursery rows, the one protected the other. On this account 

 where muoh planting is to be done in exposed places, the time 

 and labour would be anything but lost, if the youDg trees wera 

 set out thinly in nursery rows for a year or two on the estate 

 before being moved to the plantation. The thinning quickly 

 is just as important where a healthy plantation is desirable, 

 and the thinning should commence as soon aB the branches of 

 the young trees approach each other. If the thinnings at first 

 are not large enough to be useful, the trees might be pruned-up 

 considerably for a year or two before cutting out, so that the 

 others might have room. For anything in the way of cover 

 the permanent trees should feather to the ground. When 

 trees are left thickly, all the lower branches must die from 

 want of air. Frequently a whole plantation becomes unhealthy 

 and covered with insects from mere exhaustion from want of 

 thinning. The soil that would have supported one hundred trees 

 in luxuriance, will hardly keep three or four hundred alive. 

 The same rule holds true as to ornamental plants. To make 

 them grow quickly they must be nursed, but the nurses 

 must be removed as the principal plants need the rocm. To 



