44 



HOW TO DESTROY IXSECTS. 



find on the under side of rour leaves little white specks 

 adhering to the leaves. These I take to be the egg or 

 germ from which the insect is developed, and they must 

 all be washed off carefully. 



" May's Migxoxette." 



Mooperiments tvith Salt and Mot Water, 



Everv season I have tried some new idea. One 

 season it was salt — so I sake J to death some very 

 flourishing carnations and roses. The recipe said a 

 teaspoonful of salt to a small pot. I tried it in a good- 

 sized one, .and the leaves fell off from the plants or dried 

 upon the stems ; so I learned a lesson not to use salt. 

 Then lime-water was certain death to them. I tliink 

 the worms in my pots fed upon it, for they increased 

 daily. So I took the matter in liaud, and turned boil- 

 ing water into tlie saucers of plants tliat were injured 

 by them. This made an end of all the tiny mites tluit 

 were in the saucers, and the roots sucked up the bottom 

 heat, and grew in grace and beauty. Then I 

 continued to give them a hot sud every morning, but 

 still the miserable crawlers luxuriated upon the roots 

 of my plants and covered the surface of the pot. So a 

 tablespoonful of warm — not hoi — wood-ashes was spread 

 over the surface of the pots, and with a hair-pin tliev 

 were dug into the soil. They exercise a very beneficial 

 effect upon the intruders, who could not enjoy a taste 

 of lye, while the roots of the plants were thankful for 



