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 perfectp 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.” 
Fumuagating. 
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 José scale, and mills 
