324 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July. 19 17 



plants, and are 

 known as "chew- 

 ing insects"; or 

 Suck the plant 

 juices from below 

 the surface, remain- 

 ing apparently im- 

 movable, and mak- 

 ing no perceptible 



''^lliSS 





Spray pump attached to 

 pail; 

 outfit 



/ a'-pail; a useful all around 



"holes," and are known as " sucking in- 

 sects"; or 



Burrow down below the surface, attacking 

 the roots of the plant, and may be desig- 

 nated as "root- workers"; or 



Bore into the inside of the stem or 

 branches of the plant, and are termed 

 "borers." 



Therefore when you find trouble in your 

 garden, and are satisfied that some insect is the 

 cause, it is a comparatively simple thing to 

 hunt around or watch long enough to satisfy 

 yourself as to which of these four classes the 

 intruders belongs. 



The chewing insects are usually the first to be 

 spotted, because the damage they do is at once 

 apparent. They include such well known and 

 unwelcome friends as the potato-bug, the 

 green cabbage 

 worm, the asparagus 

 beetle, the horned 

 tomato worm, the 

 rose bug, the aster 

 beetle, and many 

 others which actu- 

 ally consume por- 

 t tions of the foliage 

 f*g or flowers. The 

 deadly "cut-worm" 

 is also an "eater," 

 but he is in a class 

 by himself, as ex- 

 plained later. 

 The suck- 

 ing insects 

 have a tend- 







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The " knapsack " sprayer is easily portable and can be car- 

 ried to any part of the grounds. Has continuous pressure 



ency to choosethe undersides of leavesof tender 

 growing tips and buds, and to start in crowded 

 and out of the way places where they are not 

 readily observed unless one is looking for them. 

 One of the first indications of their presence is 

 contorted or twisted leaves, on an otherwise 

 healthy looking plant. If they are allowed to 

 continue unmolested, even for a short time, 

 however, the whole plant soon gets a drooping, 

 dejected looking appearance, and looses its 

 green color. In an incredibly short time it will 

 be injured beyond saving. The "aphids" or 

 plant-lice attacking peas, cabbage, melons and 

 many other things, the various forms of 

 "scale," and the "nymphs" or young of the 

 small white fly and the odoriferous black flat 

 "squash bug," all belong to the sucking class. 



HOW TO LOCATE ROOT-WORKERS AND BORERS 



The root-workers are even more difficult to 

 spot. Usually it is necessary to take the plant 

 up by the roots, quite carefully, to find them. 

 But their presence may be suspected when 

 here and there a plant along the row has a 

 drooping or wilted appearance compared to its 

 neighbors, and does not seem to be making 

 satisfactory progress. It is likely to lose 

 color, also. Frequently it is too late to save 

 the first plants attacked before their presence 

 is suspected at all. The onion and cabbage 

 maggot; the large white grub of the June 

 beetle, and the wire-worm, are the most 

 common pests of this type. 



The borers take more freely to fruits and 

 ornamental shrubs and trees than to vegetables 

 and flowers, nevertheless they are occasionally 

 to be encountered among the latter. One fel- 

 low, sure to show up every year, is the 

 "squash-vine borer." You can begin to 



suspect his presence when your biggest and 

 best vine begins to show signs of wilting at the 

 growing tip on a bright day. 



FITTING THE PUNISHMENT TO THE CRIMINAL 



Diagnosis is important; but of course that 

 doesn't amount to much without a suitable 

 prescription. Having learned how to "place" 

 the various insect intruders in your garden, the 

 next step is to know what to do in each case 

 to stop them. They cannot invariably be 

 stopped. But prompt action and the right 

 kind of "dope" will usually hold them under 

 control at least. The first part of the remedy 

 — prompt action — is however just as im- 

 portant as the last; you should never forget 

 that. 



The chewing insects can, for the most part, 

 be controlled by internal or stomach poisons. 

 The most convenient and effective of these for 

 general purposes is arsenate of lead. It may be 

 applied in a wet spray, or dusted on dry. The 

 main thing is to get it on before the bugs or 

 worms have a chance to do much chewing, and 

 cover all parts of the plant evenly. It is made 

 by a number of reliable companies. It is also 

 the chief ingredient of several "patent" or 

 trade-name concoctions. Helebore is some- 

 times used instead of the lead on currants or 

 cabbages that have begun to form, as it 

 washes off" with the first rain. Paris green is a 

 similar poison, but arsenate of lead has largely 

 supplanted it. 



The sucking insects cannot be poisonea by 

 any of the above materials, because there is no 

 way of getting it on their food. So for them 

 the so-called "contact poisons" are used. 

 They are not really poisons in the sense that 

 the above are, but are capable of causing 

 death by direct contact, through asphyxiation 

 or smothering. The most convenient and 

 effective of these <s nicotine extract. It comes 



in several degrees of strength, some as high as 

 forty per cent, nicotine. It also forms the Dasis 

 of a number of trade-name compounds. A 

 high per cent, of nicotine is desirable. It is 

 used diluted with water; if by itself a little soap 

 is added to make the spray stick and spread. 

 It can easily be added to a wet arsenate of lead 

 spray, both being applied at once; only the 

 nicotine must hit the insects directly, while the 

 lead remains on the foliage to be eaten later. 

 Kerosene emulsion is used for the same pur- 

 pose. A stock solution may be kept on hand, 

 making it a convenient spray. 



The root-workers and the borers are more 

 difficult to get at. Lime, nicotine extract, und 

 special preparations poured about the roots, 

 first removing the top soil, are sometimes help- 

 ful, but by no means sure. Badly infested 

 plants should be removed and burned. A top- 

 dressing of nitrate of soda, with cultivation' and 

 slight hilling up, and irrigation if possible, to 

 stimulate strong new growth should be given, 

 as the attack is usually transient, and the 

 plants may outgrow it if they are not de- 

 stroyed. The squash vine borer may be taken 

 out by slitting the stem lengthwise on one side; 

 after which the wound and several joints 

 beyond it should be covered with moist soil. 

 Strawberries and other plants attacked by the 

 large white, or June beetle grub may be taken 

 up, the grub destroyed, and the plant trimmed 

 back and reset. 



FORESTALLING THE CUT WORM 



The cut-worm is a chewer, but not of the 

 regular type. He eats through the stem of the 

 plant, or a branch of it if the stem is too large, 

 destroying the whole plant or branch for the 

 few bites he gets out of it. So that, even if he 

 could be got by poisoning the plants, he would 

 have done his damage before succumbing. 

 The cutworm is particularly harmful to newly 

 transplanted plants, and to young seedlings. 

 If you will dig carefully around a cut off plant 

 early in the morning, the culprit can usually be 

 unearthed. But the only way to head him off 

 beforehand, is to trap him under small pieces 

 of shingle or board over night, on newly pre- 

 pared surfaces ready for planting, or to use a 

 poisoned mash before as well as when planting. 

 A combination of these methods will greatly 

 reduce the damage they will do. The mash is 

 made of one quart of wheat bran, a teaspoonful 

 of white arsenate of Paris green, and a tea- 

 spoonful of molasses, mixed with enough 

 water to make a moist mash, to be spread 

 around toward night fall in small quantities. 



THE BEST TO BE DONE WITH DISEASES 



The various fungous diseases which attack 

 some vegetables and flowers are known as 

 mildew, blight, and rust, or 

 anthracnose. No satisfactory 

 "remedy" has yet been dis- 

 covered, Bordeaux mixture, 

 or lime and sulphur prepara- 

 tions, used before the disease 

 starts, and applied frequently 



A type of dust gun for use with dry powders. 

 The long tube gives adequate reach 



