496 



THEY SA y. 



The water is dashed against the plants with some force 

 and the insects are knocked off. This forceful watering 

 at the same time removes all dust from the leaves, and 

 keeps the plants clean and vigorous. The aphis and 

 most other insects can be treated in the same way with 

 success. We have lately become the possessors of an 

 innumerable horde of minute spotted mites, apparently 

 an introduction from Europe, and which is just now 

 getting a foothold in some parts of this country. It is 

 by far the most formidable of all the greenhouse pests 

 with which I am acquainted. We have tried many 

 insecticides, and none have had any effect upon this pest, 

 but we have been able to keep it in check in a cucum- 

 ber and melon house by the vigorous use of water. 



At times we are obliged to syringe twice a day for 

 the mites, and, this in certain cases is some disadvantage 

 to the plants, but we found that we could not hold our 

 own against the pests. The aleurodes or white tly, also 

 a recent importation from Europe, can be held in check 

 in the same way. A light syringing of the plants will 

 cause the flies to start up in great numbers, when the 

 water is turned on to them as they fly and they are 

 brought to the floor. Eor the last two months I have 

 discarded all fumigation in a little conservatory attached 

 to my residence — much to the delight of the family — 

 and have fought insects with water, and my plants never 

 looked so well as now. — L. H. Bailey. 



There are Geniuses whom nature or more acute 

 powers of observation and application raise above their 

 fellow men, but all of us are not geniuses. A few great 

 singers find engagements whenever they want them at 

 enormous salaries. Good singers meet with difficulties 

 because we have so many who can sing ; but poor actors 

 and singers are never wanted. If we bring good fruit 

 and vegetables to market there will be a rate for them 

 unless there is an over stock, which never happens for 

 any le.ngth of time with the best productions. We or 

 other people do not care for the habits or morals of 

 those who make the cloth or raise the vegetables we 

 buy. But with a private gardener it is a different thing. 

 Consumer and producer are brought into contact and 

 more is mutually e.xpected. 



It may be said on both sides that to be respected they 

 must be respectable. If an employer takes a mean ad- 

 vantage of his gardener it is human nature to retaliate 

 when opportunity offers. If an employee is taught dis- 

 honesty and untruthfulness by example he may be ex- 

 pected to practice them. If people will instruct their 

 gardeners to sell plants and flowers and give them the 

 money, while saying that they never raise anything ex- 

 cepting for their own use or amusement, they may 

 expect to be deceived in their turn. If a gardener sells 

 the flowers or fruit belonging to his employer and keeps 

 the proceeds he is worthy of no consideration, and the 

 mercies of the law are too good, for him ; but if he has 

 been taught such ways by those who intrusted him, 

 they are morally to blame; Some of the graduates 

 from "our largest commercial establishments " seem to 

 have devoted more time to learning the tricks of the trade, 



than all else, and are a constant menace to a respecta- 

 ble establishment. A good gardener and a good man 

 becomes a friend to all about him, above or below, and 

 is honored and respected by the community in which he 

 lives.— J. D. W. 



A Trick of the Trade. — One house receives a whole 

 car-load and sells it out at as good rates as possible to 

 other houses, acting in that case as a jobber. Before 

 the whole car-load is sold he has ordered by telegraph 

 another car-load from Chicago, where the market is 

 very low at the time. He orders them on commission. 

 He is informed by telegraph as soon as his car is start- 

 en, and perhaps before it has started from the point at 

 which it was loaded in the country. He has time, if he 

 deems it necessary, to sell a fair portion of the car-load 

 and order his car from Chicago before the one coming 

 to him from the country, and have it arrive the day after. 

 Now he has got the bulge on the market, and as his 

 Chicago goods cost him less than he has sold at, he can 

 undersell those that he sold to and still get his ten per 

 cent, from the grower. Neither is that all. When he 

 makes his returns to his country grower, he can make 

 them the basis of the sales made on a market he has 

 himself broken down, and get his ten per cent. Besides 

 that he makes as clear profit the difference at which he 

 sold his car and the market price, after he has broken 

 it. — Fiiiit Groivers' JoHrnal. 



Companion Plants. — While it is true that there is a 

 struggle for life going on between various species of 

 plants, and that in the struggle only the fittest survive, 

 it has seemed to me equally true that certain plants 

 love company. I am quite sure there are some that do 

 better for growing together. As a rule, a pine hates 

 solitude, and, whether it is one of its own kind, or one 

 of some other species, so long as it is not alone, your 

 pine tree rejoices when it has the sympathy of a com- 

 panion. Many a planter of a " pinetum " has reported 

 that this one or that one has not proved hardy (hardy 

 being often a term including the results of all kinds of 

 bad treatment), when one of the chief grounds of 

 failure, was a too great degree of ground loneliness. 



Certainly there are some species that have to grow 

 together to such a degree that only their best efforts are 

 displayed in fellowship, and of this I saw a few days 

 ago a striking instance. It was in regard to the common 

 periwinkle, Vitica niinor, anent which, if you are a 

 nurseryman, you must disguise your disgust when 

 customers ask you for "myrtle," It is one of the 

 grandest of dwarf evergreens when put under the 

 drought of large trees. These, with their millions of 

 water carriers in the earth, make it so dry, that often 

 even grass will not grow, and the only green thing we 

 can have is this periwinkle. It does not seem to care 

 whether it has water or not. I never saw a spot too 

 dry to conquer it. Now we have another shade-loving 

 plant, the moneywort [Lysitiiachia nitm>iiularia), that loves 

 shade, but does not love drouth. Put that under your 

 dry-ground trees, and it languishes away. But don't it 

 love to get in among the myrtle ! Try it and see. The 



