Pests and Remedies 131 



stalk off just one inch from the ground. After 

 feeding upon the sweet fresh juices of the plant, 

 they snuggle down into the soil close by — only 

 just under the surface — and sleep and grow fat, 

 until the following night, when they repeat their 

 operations. They are easily found when the 

 ground is stirred near the injured plant, all curled 

 up tight and too lazy to move — of light gray 

 colour with yellow head. Kill every one you 

 meet if you value your dahlias. 



Cutworms are easily kept away by a "collar" 

 of building paper. Cut a strip three or four 

 inches wide and about ten inches long. Pin 

 the two ends together, making a collar about 

 three and one haK inches in diameter. Place 

 this around the young plant when first set out, 

 or as soon as it has started up from the tuber, 

 forcing it about an inch and a half into the 

 ground. No cutworm can burrow more than an 

 inch below the surface of the soil, and as he can- 

 not crawl up on any object he is unable to get 

 over the barrier. 



If the garden soil is much infested with cut- 

 worms, with slugs, or pupae of any destructive 

 insect, there is a very efficient remedy which 

 can be used with definite result, ridding it of all 

 such things and at the same time when used in 

 very large quantities killing weeds and seeds of 



