SEED-TIME AIW HABVEST. 
11 
EXTRAVAGANT ADVERTISING. 
Is it not time to discountenance the utter 
•disregard of facts so palpably apparent in 
the advertisements of many sensational 
•seedsmen? Distant readers of their publi¬ 
cations of course do not know truth from 
falsehood; but those who have personal 
knowledge of the statements set forth by 
many of these parties are disgusted with 
their outrageous misrepresentations of bus¬ 
iness facilities. Every ounce of stock they 
term a hundred weight, and every square 
'inch of shop space they term a yard. Ex¬ 
travagant wood-cuts of warehouses, offices, 
work-rooms crowded with operatives, 
farms, &c., are brought forward in Cata¬ 
logues to add to the deception and as rein¬ 
forcements to their flimsy statements, till 
the whole business is regarded by the fair 
dealing trade as a worn out joke. Really 
we do not know uf any business that is so 
outrageously misrepresented as the seed 
business. 
wait ! 
Wait a little longer, is a safe maxim to 
guide amateur gardeners in sowing seed in 
the early Spring. The seedsman is often 
Mamed for selling unvital seed when the 
fault has been the u previousness” of the 
planter. The grave uncertainties inciden¬ 
tal to the germination of seeds at all seasons 
3tre many fold greater in the fickle Spring¬ 
time when transitions of heat and cold, 
lieavy rains and sweeping winds are only 
seasonable and in order. A delay of a week 
may make all the difference between suc¬ 
cess and failure; do not risk your time and 
labor by hasty seeding, or if you are tempt¬ 
ed to sow at an unseasonable period, do not 
Marne the seedsman for selling seeds that 
will not giow. 
insecticides. 
To meet the increasing depredations of 
insects upon vegetable life, the best results 
have been obtained by the use of three ar¬ 
ticles. viz., Arsenic, Petroleum and Pyreth- 
rum. 
The first, in the form of Paris Green, or 
Ivondon Purple, acts as a direct poison to 
leaf-biting insects, which eat vegetable 
tissue. These arsenical preparations are of 
little value to destroy juice-sucking inseets. 
The second and third-named articles, 
though less efficient than arsenic, have the 
best results in the destruction of juice¬ 
sucking insects which do not bite into the 
leaf but puncture into the cuticle. An ex¬ 
ternal application of poison does not reach 
these pests, so we are forced to suffocate 
them or injure them by corrosive action. 
In the powder, Paris Green may be mix¬ 
ed with 300 parts of plaster, starch or flour, 
and in solution, one pound to 200 gallons of 
water. Kerosene is often effectively ap¬ 
plied mixed with two parts of milk. Another 
good application is, Kerosene 8 parts, soft- 
soap 1 part, water 8 parts. The two latter 
heated to the boiling point, and the Kero¬ 
sene added when the emulsion is removed 
away from fire. To this add 20 parts of 
water and apply with a fine syringe. 
Pyrethrum is a preparation of the flower 
heads of a well-known plant. It may be 
applied as a powder, or in solution. 
parasitic fungi. 
Each year we have brought to our notice, 
either by personal observation or complaint 
of others, the ravage s of new pests on old 
plants, and the trouble seems to be in¬ 
creasing with a corresponding inability to 
check their extension. Cercainl} we must 
have more experts in vegetable pathology, 
not office observers, confining themselves to 
specimens sent them, but thorongh men 
active in the field. Of late years great 
progress has been made in protecting and 
extending human life, and in the study of 
the diseases of animds. The disease of veg¬ 
etable life would seem equally important, 
as many disturbances to the animal func¬ 
tions may be outgrowt s of vegetable fungi. 
To illustrate the almost illimitable exten¬ 
sion of vegetable fungi, we will cite the 
case of mildew on Turnip leaves, when 
under one observation the barrel-shaped 
spores or conidiaof this fungus were so 
numerous that more than 10,000 were es¬ 
timated to be on every square inch of leaf 
surface, and that every Turnip leaf carried 
on its two surfaces a million or more of 
these reproductive bodies. 
adulteration. 
The papers of the day are now discussing 
investigations and developments respecting 
adulteration of Foods and Drugs, but the 
frauds cannot exceed in extent those prac- 
