MANGOLD AND BEET FLY. 
67 
thoroughly amalgamates with whatever proportion of this may be 
added,—that is to say, the paraffin may be put into the boiling soap 
and water in any quantity, and the whole will mix together of an equal 
strength throughout. Heat helps much in quickly producing thorough 
amalgamation of all the ingredients, and hence I have stated that they 
should be mixed in a boiling state. 
“ My object in using common wine-bottles for mixing the lye and 
paraffin is, for one thing, they cost me nothing, and the cost is not 
heavy in any case ; but further, by having two gills (four wine-glasses) 
of paraffin in each bottle the men can make no mistake in using it at 
the proper strength. By using one bottle of the mixture (containing 
four wine-glasses of paraffin) in an ordinary four-gallon can, the 
mixture is at the rate of one wine-glass of paraffin to a gallon of 
water, and so on. 
“ Few plants in a green state will stand a strength of four wine¬ 
glasses (two gills) to the gallon , but at the same time it is not necessary 
to use it so strong for even Scale insects, the most difficult to kill of all 
ordinary plant-pests. 
“ One wine-glass full of paraffin to a gallon of water is strong 
enough to kill Aphides, and such soft insects ; two wine-glasses for 
Thrips, and three wine-glasses for Scale is our ‘ regulation ’ strength. 
The tender young fronds of ferns and the young green growths of most 
plants will not be safe if over one wine-glass to the gallon is used. 
“ This mixture is such a safe, cheap, and easily applied remedy for 
insect-attack that a knowledge of it must prove a boon to many who 
have their crops annually destroyed by insects.” 
The above recipe, which has now been in use with success for 
some years, will probably be of service for a large number of attacks 
on bush-fruit trees (as for Gooseberry caterpillars, &c.), and (at least 
in garden cultivation) for Aphides on Cabbage, Carrots, Turnips, &c. ; 
but I place it under the heading of Mangolds, as this is one of the 
regular field-crops to which paraffin solution has been successfully 
applied in the case of leaf-maggot, and would have been more used 
but for the difficulty of keeping the paraffin permanently mixed. 
