THE V SA } . 



never shoot well, except they be brought up in it; it is 

 a worthy game, a wholesome kind of exercise, and much 

 commended in physic. — An old English Preacher. 



Improved Plant House. — After an examination of 

 many hot-houses, and much study of methods of heat- 

 ing, a plant house has been designed and built which I 

 think is a great improvement. The rafters and caps 

 are of original design, and the entire arrangement is a 

 combination of the best principles of hot-house con- 

 struction. The joints are so fitted as to exclude more 

 of the cold air than in other plans. The plants are 

 nearer the glass. The mechanical work, except setting 

 boiler and fitting pipe, is all completed in the sash fac- 

 tory, and may be readily set up or taken down by any 

 farmer alone. The beds are five feet six inches wide, 

 and may be cultivated by horse power, if desired, in the 



fall, the roof put on and lised for winter crops until 

 early spring, when the beds may be planted with toma- 

 to, egg-plant, or cauliflower plants much earlier than 

 would be safe outside ; and after all danger of frost is 

 past, the sash, caps and rafters may be piled out of the 

 weather, and the crops cultivated and matured in ad- 

 vance of field crops. 



I have one house 26x124 feet, which I enclosed about 

 the middle of last January over several inches of frozen 

 ground, and set with several thousands of plants as fast 

 as the ground was thawed, and carried them through 

 the severe weather ranging from 6° to 30° below the 

 freezing point, with less than one-half the heating 

 power used in other houses From the ist to the 9th 

 and from the 13th to the 15th of February, when the 

 thermometer ranged from 1° above to 12° below freez- 

 ing at sunrise, we had no fire in the heater, the warmth 

 in the ground, with the sunlight, being sufficient to keep 

 the plants growing well. It is more convenient to work 

 than most plant houses, costs 25 per cent, less to build, 

 and more than 50 per cent, less heating power than those 

 of other plans. The ordinary hot-bed sash may be 

 used, and farmers who grow their early plants with heat- 

 ing manure would find this house much more conveni- 

 ent and economical to work, as planting and cultivating 

 may be done during the stormy or coldest weather. — 

 RuDOLPHUtf Bingham, Camden, N. J. 



Some Hints about Insects. — Some insects, the com- 

 mon green aphis or plant louse for instance, are so 

 nearly omnipresent that it is scarcely within the range 



629 



of possibility to do anything more than keep them in 

 check. Others can be exterminated by using the proper 

 means. Perhaps the mealy bug cannot fairly be classed 

 among the later, yet I think in small collections of plants 

 it is entirely practicable to get rid of it. From my ob- 

 servations of its habits, I think it rarely, if ever, stays 

 in the soil in the winter, unless where bottom heat is 

 given, but in summer it works at the roots of the plants 

 as well as at the tops, and is often found in the cracks 

 and corners of pots, etc. The best time, therefore, to 

 exterminate it is in the winter, and all that is necessary 

 is to pick off and crush every one that can be found, say 

 once a week, and then wash the plants thoroughly with 

 strong soap suds. P'ollow this ix&^Xrci&ai persistently un- 

 til none can be found. After this carefully examine the 

 plants once a week, for several weeks, to make sure that 



a ■ 



no bugs have escaped. These insects are apt to get into 

 the axils of the leaves and it is sometimes difficult to 

 pick them out without breaking the leaves. In such 

 places I use the point of my pocket knife. If any of the 

 leaves of the infested plants drop they should be care- 

 fully picked up and burned or otherwise destroyed, as 

 they often have some of the small insects on them. An 

 old newspaper should be spread underneath the plants 

 while picking off the insects, as some will occasionally 

 be dropped when handling the plants, but by this means 

 they can be easily collected and destroyed. Whenever 

 soil, sand or moss has been used to set the pots on, it 

 should be replaced with new once or twice a year, the 

 old being carefully cleared out. 



The black aphis or chrysanthemum fly, which is about 

 the worst pest the grower of these plants has to contend 

 with, can be got rid of in the same way. I think if all 

 the chrysanthemums were wintered out of doors, there 

 would be no trouble with this insect : but a very few, 

 kept over in the greenhouse or cellar, will furnish enough 

 of these pests in the course of the season, to spoil a 

 large lot of plants. This insect requires to be treated 

 in the same manner as the mealy bug, except that as it 

 works wholly above ground, summer is the best time 

 to destroy it, or rather spring. It is especially liable 

 to be shaken from the plants in handling, and after all 

 seem to have disappeared, a straggler may crawl up or 

 get carried up by the ants, and before one is aware of it 

 another colony will be well under way. As everything 

 of this kind increases faster in summer than in winter. 



