188 MANUAL OF GARDENING 



attached to the handle as to make a close joint with the blade. 

 The latter is beveled from the outside all round, so that by- 

 removing the part making the star-shaped cut, the edge may 

 be ground on a grindstone. It is important that the angles in 

 the blade be made perfect, and that its outline represents an 

 exact half hexagon. To use the tool, place the tarred paper 

 on the end of a section of a log or piece of timber and first cut 

 the lower edge into notches, as indicated at a, Fig. 232, using only 

 one angle of the tool . Then commence at the left side and place 

 the blade as indicated by the dotted lines, and strike at the end 

 of the handle with a light mallet, and a complete card is made. 

 Continue in this manner across the paper. The first cut of 

 every alternate course will make an imperfect card, and the 

 last cut in any course may be imperfect, but the other cuts will 

 make perfect cards if the tool is correctly made, and properly 

 used. The cards should be placed about the plants at the time 

 of transplanting. To place the card, bend it slightly to open the 

 slit, then slip it on to the center, the stem entering the slit, 

 after which spread the card out flat, and press the points 

 formed by the star-shaped cut snugly around the stem." 



Fumigating. / 



An effective means of destroying insects in glass houses is by 

 fumigating with various kinds of smoke or vapors. The best 

 material to use for general purposes is some form of tobacco 

 or tobacco compounds. The old method of fumigating with 

 tobacco is to burn slowly slightly dampened tobacco stems in a 

 kettle or scuttle, allowing the house to be filled with the pungent 

 smoke. Lately, however, fluid extracts and other preparations 

 of tobacco have been brought into use, and these are so effective 

 that the tobacco-stem method is becoming obsolete. The use 

 of hydrocyanic acid gas in greenhouses is now coming to be 

 common, for plant-lice, white-fly, and other insects. It is also 

 used to fumigate nursery stock for San Jose scale, and mills 



