The Diagnosis and Treatment of Plant Ills 
HOW YOU MAY FIND OUT THE TROUBLE WITH YOUR PLANTS SUFFICIENTLY EARLY 
TO PREVENT DAMAGE—YOUR SUPPLY OF PREVENTIVES AND THEIR TIMELY USE 
by F. F. Rockwell 
Photographs by H. H. Saylor, Chas. Jones and Others 
I MMEDIATE action is the most essential thing in fighting 
garden troubles of all kinds. Danger lies in delay, and as a 
rule only in delay. The crop that to-day is hopelessly ruined by 
blight or bugs, could in most instances have been saved by a half 
hour's, or even a few minutes’ work, but a few days ago; 
frequently twenty-four hours 
spell the difference between 
success and failure in our ef¬ 
forts to bring to maturity the 
crops so carefully prepared 
for, planted and cultivated. 
In fact, the worst feature 
about many garden troubles 
is their insidiousness. If a 
woodchuck destroys half a 
dozen of your cabbages you 
notice it at once, and proceed 
to get him, but if the whole 
lot of them is attacked by 
club-root, which will work 
much greater havoc than the 
chuck, you do not notice it at 
once, and perhaps never sus¬ 
pect its presence until the 
crop is beyond assistance. Or 
you ignore the few big black- 
bugs on your squashes, as 
they do not seem to be doing 
any harm, for a few hot days, 
and then suddenly notice that 
hundreds of their progeny 
have come into the field and 
sucked the very life juices 
from your erstwhile thriftv- 
plants. And so it goes all 
down the list of plant ills. 
The damage done often oc¬ 
curs because the gardener 
does not know what symp¬ 
toms to look for as indicating 
the first appearance of the 
trouble, whatever it may be. 
It is one thing to know the remedy for a certain thing, and another 
to recognize at once when it should be applied. The purpose 
of this article is to enable the inexperienced gardener to know 
what may be ailing a particular crop and urge upon him the 
necessity of immediate action. 
To begin with, it will help if we make a general classification 
of garden ailments and enemies, both as to their characteristics 
and the symptoms. 
Plants in both vegetable and flower gardens are troubled by 
disease of two types — those which are termed “parasitical" and 
are the result of the attacks of some funsus or germ which has 
found a lodging place and favorable conditions for growth upon 
or in the plant; and secondly those which are termed 
“constitutional” and attack the organization of the plant as 
a whole. 
The insect enemies of plants may likewise be separated into 
two classes — those which cause injury by chewing or eating the 
leaves or fruit, such as the cabbage worm, and those which suck 
the plant juices, such as the green aphis, or plant lice. 
This gives us practically four distinct classes of plant enemies: 
parasitical and constitutional 
diseases and eating and 
sucking insects. 
This is not, however, all 
it is necessary for us to 
know. The cause of plant 
troubles is often invisible 
until carefully searched for. 
Nature protects many of 
these pests bv making them 
of a color harmonious with 
their surroundings —the cab¬ 
bage caterpillar is an exact 
cabbage-green, the cut-worm 
almost the same tone of 
brown as the earth in which 
he buries himself, for in¬ 
stance. Others keep to the 
under side of leaves, and 
slim joints, or even inside 
the stalks, until their work 
of destruction is well ad¬ 
vanced. Still others work 
below the ground. 
The gardener must there¬ 
fore keep a watchful eye 
for the first danger signal. 
Among these, four, perhaps, 
are the most noticeable, and 
a pretty sure indication of 
trouble. 
Poor color. Plants vary 
a great deal in the dififerent 
shades and tones of green 
normally shown when mak¬ 
ing a good healthy growth; 
but about any of them, un¬ 
der such conditions, there is a certain depth and richness of color 
with which the eye of the gardener soon becomes familiar. When 
a light yellowish tinge, hardly perceptible at first, may be noticed, 
either in the whole crop or in individual plants, it is time to inves¬ 
tigate. The trouble may be due to root lice, or to aphides on the 
under side of the leaves; it may be only a sign of nitrogen star¬ 
vation, or of lack of cultivation, but it is the gardener’s business 
to determine at once what is the matter. 
Wilting. Another general sign that something is wrong is the 
drooping or wilting of the leaves, or the whole plant, usually 
noticeable first only during the heat of the noon hours. This 
may mean simply that you have cut in too deeply with your 
wheel hoe, severing the fine rootlets; or again it may be a warn¬ 
ing that the root maggots or the borers are making their hidden- 
attacks upon the life of the plant. Sometimes, on a very hot. 
For dusting with tobacco and hellebore a bellows gun of this sort is valuable 
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