160 



GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



Traps • — Hang up common porter bottles, though wide- 

 mouthed bottles are preferable, during the insect season, 

 with a few spoonfuls of sweetened water or molasses and 

 vinegar in them, to be renewed every second evening, and 

 hundreds of moths that would have been the parents of a 

 new race of destroyers will be caught. This is the most 

 promising mode of waging war also upon the melon-worm, 

 as well as the corn and boll-worm, and many other insects. 

 For filling the bottles, a better preparation still is a pint of 

 water to half a pint of molasses, the water having as much 

 cobalt dissolved in it as it will take up before mixing with 

 the molasses. Put a wineglassful to each bottle, and 

 empty once or twice a week. Mr. Downing mentions an 

 acquaintance who, using the molasses and water only one 

 season, caught and exterminated three bushels of insects 

 in this manner, and preserved his garden almost free from 

 them. Mr. Robinson, of New Haven, caught over a peck 

 in one night. 



Hand- picking — In some cases, the only effectual mode 

 is hand-picking. If the leaf-roller, the beetle, or the grub 

 is crushed under foot, by preventing reproduction, a thous- 

 and enemies are destroyed at once. 



Descriptions of the principal insects, and the means of 

 destroying them will be found in that portion of the 

 work which treats of the plants which they attack. 



Mice may be caught in traps, or poisoned with arsenic ; 

 but the latter is dangerous if fowls or children have access 

 to the garden. 



Moles are often very troublesome in undermining beds 

 of cuttings or young plants in search of worms and insects. 

 They may be caught in various traps sold for the purpose, 

 but by putting tarred sticks in their burrows they will be 

 driven from them. Salting the soil is fatal to many insects 

 that are the food of the mole. 



Hares and RabMts are very destructive to trees and 



