io8 BOOK OF OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 



in the proportion of one ounce of sulphur and four 

 ounces of soap to four gallons of hot water. 



Earwigs, which so often spoil the Dahlia blooms, may 

 be trapped by crumpling a newspaper and placing it among 

 the plants, or by filling a flower-pot with moss and in- 

 verting it over a stake — in either case examining the 

 traps daily and destroying the victims. 



Snails and slugs should be caught at night and killed 

 by placing them in a bucket and covering them with 

 salt. They may be trapped by placing cabbage or 

 lettuce leaves at intervals about the garden, examin- 

 ing beneath them each morning ; or they may some- 

 times be destroyed by watering the plants which they 

 frequent with lime-water (made by adding a gallon of 

 water to a quarter pound of freshly burnt lime, and 

 straining). 



Birds are sometimes harmful, but on the whole they 

 do more good than harm in a garden, and I am inclined 

 to agree with an old gardener, who, having caught a 

 blackbird among the gooseberries, was asked by his 

 master what he had done with it. " Oh," he replied, 

 " I just gave 'im a warning and let 'im go." 



