Mine Enemies 131 
or more. Do not wait until the rust appears before you begin 
treatment, but start with the first growth of leaves. Mean- 
time I advise a renewal of the stock by raising a yearly crop 
of seedlings and replacing old plants with strong young ones 
from time to time. 
Then there is mildew that attacks roses, Michaelmas 
daisy, larkspur and other plants. It is due to continued wet 
weather, sour soil or unfavorable situation. Various remedies 
are offered. As a preventive, apply once a month Bordeaux 
mixture diluted to half strength, using the formula: sulphate of 
copper, six pounds; lime, four pounds; water, ninety gallons. 
This renders the foliage unsightly, and a milder preventive 
is often used: sulphide of potassium, one half ounce; water 
one gallon; apply once a week if the weather is wet and washes 
off the mixture. Another remedy is one tablespoonful of 
sulphur and wood-soot, made into a paste with water. Add 
boiling water, perhaps one or two quarts, and when cool, 
sprinkle plants or bushes. For mildew that has actually ap- 
peared, powder the plants and the ground beneath with 
flowers of sulphur; also stir into the soil a little slaked lime. 
The Clematis Jackmanni has an artless way of disappearing 
without a word of farewell—mine did before I learned the 
probable cause and remedy. The bark on the stem of the 
Clematis is very brittle, and easily scraped when packed for 
transportation, and when this has occurred, the wounded 
place becomes an easy entrance to the eel worm that burrows 
in and destroys the vine. It travels at the surface of the earth, 
and if the wound is near the ground it has access. The 
remedy is to cut the stem off to the very root when planting, 
hill up sand about the plant, and cover the crown at least an 
inch with soil. 
My Physostegia sometimes suffers from a blight that turns 
the plant yellow, and rots the stem off at the root and it dies. 
