(VAVAVAVAYAVAVAVAVAVAVAYAVAY AA AVA IR ii ei MY SCA 
gases through cells located on the reverse side of 
the leaves. So unless they’re coated with mud or 
something, they’ll “breathe” all right!! 
Am unable to cope editorially with the use of 
face powder in the potting mixture. This unortho- 
dox practice may have been suggested originally 
by the mistaken idea that talc is the same thing as 
powdered limestone, but my correspondent speci- 
fied the shade—Rose Beige No. 2, if you're in- 
terested. 
A good old down-home practice is to sprinkle 
snuff around the dirt in the pot to keep the bugs 
away. An occasional spraying with nicotine sul- 
phate (Black Leaf 40) will keep away the same 
bugs more effectively and is much less embar- 
rassing to purchase. As we have said before, 
nicotine sulphate is dandy for aphids. We still 
recommend NNOR for general all-round effec- 
tiveness. 
The use of the terms “sweet” (for alkaline) and 
“sour” (acid) in reference to soils is confusing be- 
cause of the thought-association with food. A 
“sweet” soil will not turn “sour”, like milk. Once 
the soil is mixed, the reaction has been determined, 
and won’t change unless other elements are in- 
troduced, say in the water or by scratching into 
the surface of the soil after the plants are potted 
up. If you put a piece of charcoal in each pot of 
dirt, for instance, you don’t do it to KEEP the 
soil “sweet”, but to MAKE it “sweet”. See? 
Ran across a bizarre theory the other day, to- 
wit: “The leaf immediately below the flower 
stalk exists only to support and nourish that parti- 
cular group of flowers; when they fade, the sup- 
porting leaf may be removed since its function 
has been fulfilled and it is thereafter only a bur- 
den to the plant.” Pfui. 
Another theory with which we would take is- 
sue is the “sucker” idea. This theory maintains 
that small plants taken from a parent plant, or 
crown divisions, are of inferior quality and should 
be discarded. In our experience, this hasn’t proved 
valid at all. Also, we note with interest the case 
histories of many prize-winning specimens which 
were originally removed from other plants as 
suckers. In propagation, where as many as six 

