May 2.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
71 
enemies than looking out diligently for them at feeding 
time; the shelless snails may often he tracked to their 
retreats by the slime they leave behind on their track ; 
hut even these are best found if looked for by night with 
the aid of a lamp or candle. 
White Scale. —This insect is also very injurious to 
orchids, by fixing itself firmly in one place, and by ex¬ 
cluding the air and light, causing the part to decay. 
Where frequent washing with a small brush or sponge 
is neglected they increase at a fearful rate. The best 
means to destroy them that we know is to make a strong 
lather of soap, such a.s we use for shaving with; lay it 
on warm with a fine brush, working it into every crevice 
of the pseudo-bulbs and leaves of the infested plants ; 
the soap adheres to the insects, stops up their breathing 
pores, and kills them. 
Brown Scale. —Where this insect abounds it is al¬ 
most, but not quite, as injurious as the white scale. If 
the plants are kept clean by frequent washing with a 
sponge, it will be a great preventive. Often smoking 
with tobacco is a good remedy, and the application of 
soap-lather as recommended above for the white scale. 
Mealy Bug.— This is the most formidable of all our 
insect enemies to contend with. Where a house of any 
kind of plants has become very much infested with it, 
there is nothing in the shape of application will eradi¬ 
cate it entirely.; in such a case, every plant must be 
diligently and carefully washed in every part; every pot 
must undergo the same purification; every particle of 
wood-work must be painted with at least two coats of 
paint; the walls whitewashed with hot lime. And whilst 
that is doing the cleaned plants must be placed in a 
warm pit, where some strongly-fermenting dung sends 
out its ammoniacal fumes, which will help to destroy 
any insects that may have escaped the cleansing the 
plants have been subjected to. When the painting, 
whitewashing, and scouring, have been completed, lot 
the house have abundance of air night and day for a 
week previously to replacing the plants in it. Perhaps 
some of our readers may say—Is all this necessary ? 
Does this apparently insignificant insect do so much 
harm? We answer to both questions, most empha¬ 
tically, Yes ! We have seen in a house of grapes, the 
greatest part of the fruit rendered valueless by the mealy 
bug; the bunches glued together so as to be filthy and 
uneatable. The pine apple, too, we have seen so covered 
with this filthy insect as to be not fit for the table till it 
was scrubbed and washed as much as is required for a 
head of celery. We have seen plants so infested with it 
as to be all but killed, by having their leaves covered 
with its excrement. These are, it is true, but very rare 
cases; and the gardener who should so neglect his plants 
and fruits would now be justly disgraced and dis¬ 
charged; still, without diligent and severe methods of 
getting rid of these insects they would soon abound; 
though not, perhaps, to such an extreme extent as we have 
described above, yet so sufficiently so as to be very in¬ 
jurious to the plants, and not at all honourable to the 
cultivator. Therefore, whenever even a single mealy 
bug is discovered, let every plant he carefully looked 
over, and every insect destroyed. By this constant 
supervision, combined with using all the means we have 
described for the destruction of every kind of insect, the 
plants will be kept clean, and preserved from the de¬ 
structive attacks of the host of insects that will, unless 
destroyed in time, prey upon them; thus injuring their 
health, preventing them flowering in perfection, and 
taking away all the pleasure that would otherwise delight 
the eye and gratify the mind of the owner. 
We trust we have written enough about insects to 
prove to our readers that, though little taken indivi¬ 
dually, yet when by neglect they increase greatly in 
numbers, they are really formidable enemies to our fa¬ 
vourite plants; consequently, we say, keep a stiict look¬ 
out for, and constantly destroy, the intruders as they 
appear. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
The warm weather is bringing on all kinds of florists’ 
flowers, as well as other products of the vegetable king¬ 
dom. The management necessary now will be to pre¬ 
serve flowers from fading, by using shades whenever'the 
sun shines, and protecting plants from too much rain 
by canvas and glass covers. Gentle showers will be 
beneficial to all that are not actually in flower. Also 
to supply stakes to all flower-stems that need support, 
and keep the plants of all kinds clear of weeds and 
insects. In such showery weather as we have been 
favoured with lately, snails and slugs will be prowling 
about seeking for food; we have frequently found them 
underneath the pots of various plants, secreted in the 
holes of the pots: let such places be looked over, and the 
concealed enemy dislodged and destroyed. 
Seeds of various florists’ flowers may now be success¬ 
fully sown in shallow pans or boxes, such, for instance, 
as Auriculas, Polyanthuses, Carnations, Picotees, Pinks, 
Ranunculuses, &c. Sow them in light, rich compost, and 
cover them thinly with finely sifted soil, placing them in 
a cold frame, and very slightly watering them; shade 
from sunshine, and give air in mild weather. By such 
treatment the seeds, if good, will soon come up, when 
more light may be allowed to them, till they become 
strong enough to prick out; that is, to transplant into 
similar pans or boxes, to acquire stronger growth. In 
this tender state of growth they are liable to great 
danger from slugs and woodlice ; in a single night the 
greater part of a crop may be devoured. The best pre¬ 
ventive is to place the seed pans upon a pot in a saucer 
of water; neither slugs nor woodlice can swim, therefore 
your choice seedlings are safe when set upon, as it were, 
an island. T. Appleby. 
THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
At this season pay good attention to the pricking out 
of all kinds of kales, brocolis, savoys, cabbages, and, in¬ 
deed, of all the brassica family, as soon as the plants 
can be handled. If any have failed in coming up make 
another sowing; indeed, it is a favourable season for 
making another of Grange's White, Walcheren, Early 
Cape, and cauliflowers, &c. 
Surface hoeing and stirring should be well attended 
to, as well as to giving liberal soakings of manure-water; 
late peas may be very much improved by such applica¬ 
tions, aud sowings should be made in succession of the 
late dwarf kinds, such as the Fan Pea and the American 
Dwarf. 
Potatoes. —The earth about these should be well 
stirred and loosened in suitable weather ; those which 
are shewing a number of shoots should he thinned to 
two or three of the strongest, an operation which may 
be performed either by hand or by careful hoeing. A 
multiplicity of shoots left is a certain indication of plenty 
of small tubers, and but few large ones. Potatoes in pits 
and frames, now nearly ripe, may, to save time, be taken 
up, placed in earthenware pots or pans, and covered 
with moderately dry sand, iu order to keep them air¬ 
tight for present use ; and the lights taken off them may 
at once be turned to account for ridging out cucumbers, 
melons, vegetable marrows, capsicums, or chillies, which 
should be grown along freely, so as to get strong enough 
for producing an abundaut crop. 
Ridge cucumbers, melons, and vegetable marrows, should 
now, also, all be got out. The strength of the bed made 
for them, of course, must be regulated by what can be 
spared at the present season with regard to fermenting 
materials, which arc not only very scarce frequently at 
