Some of the acari species, particularly the red 
spider, are extremely noxious to the. gardener 
and floriculturist. A correspondent of the ‘ Gar- 
deners’ Gazette’ writes :—“ In all the recipes for 
destroying acari which I have seen, sulphur is an 
ingredient ; this, in its crude state, will not unite 
with the liquids used for that purpose, and there- 
fore it can have little or no effect, except when 
applied as a wash on the heated flues of a house. 
In order to make it unite with soapsuds, tobacco 
water, and other liquids usually made use of for 
destroying insects, it must be converted into a 
sulphuret, by boiling it with lime or an alkaline 
salt, as in the following mixture, which expedi- 
tiously and effectually destroys the red spider, by 
merely immersing the plant, or part infested, in 
the mixture. Common soft soap half an ounce, 
sulphuret of lime one ounce by measure (or two 
| tablespoonfuls), soft water (hot) one ale quart. 
| The soap and sulphuret to be first well mixed 
with an iron or wooden spoon, in the same manner 
as a mixture of egg and oil is made for a salad ; 
the hot-water is then to be added by degrees, 
| stirring the mixture well with a painter’s brush, 
as in making a lather, by which means an uniform 
fluid will be obtained like whey, without any 
sediment, which may be used as soon as it is cool 
enough to bear the hand in it. This mixture will 
destroy every insect usually found inthe green- 
_ house, by mere immersion, except the coccus, or 
scaly insect, which adheres so closely to the stem, 
or under side of the leaf, that the mixture cannot 
_ reach its vulnerable parts ; therefore, in this case, 
the mixture must be applied with a brush that 
will dislodge the insect. If the mixture be put 
into a wooden bowl, or any other shallow vessel, 
small plants in pots, and the leaves and branches 
of larger ones, and of fruit trees, may be easily 
immersed in it by pressing them down with the 
hand. The above mixture will not destroy the 
black aphides of the cherry-tree, nor the green 
aphides of the plum-tree, by immersing the leaves 
and branches in it, there being an oiliness on 
these insects which prevents its adhering to 
them.” 
ACCIDENTS. Occasional injuries to live stock 
or to growing corn. The most serious accidents 
which happen to live stock will be noticed in the 
articles Wounps, Bruisus, Sprains, and Poisons 
[which see]; and the chief which happen to grow- 
ing corn are such as arise from heavy rains, from 
fogs or mist, from frosts, from hail, from snow, 
from excessive heat, from blight, from calms, from 
variable weather, and from insects, birds, and 
vermin. Some of these will be fully examined, 
and others partially noticed, in their own alpha- 
betical places; and any need be noticed in this 
place, only so far as to afford an entire view of 
the injuries to which crops are liable. 
Heavy rains, when wheat is in flower, wash 
away its pollen, and prevent it fecundating and 
fructifying ; they sometimes, on insufficiently 
drained land, keep the roots of plants in so wet a 
ACCIDENTS. 
state as to occasion abortion in the ear; and they 
frequently throw large portions of a crop pros- 
trate, or, in farmers’ phrase, lay or lodge it,—to 
the risk of its not coming to maturity, or of its 
being harvested with difficulty—Fogs, when so 
prevalent as to make a succession of moist and 
gloomy weather, especially during the period 
when corn is at the height of its vegetation, 
sometimes subject whole crops, particularly those 
of wheat, to sickliness and disease.—Frost, if the 
ground is in fine tilth and full of moisture, fre- 
quently elevates the surface of the soil, together 
with the young wheat plant, and separates the 
latter from its seminal roots; and when a thaw 
comes, the plant, in consequence of its supply of 
nourishment having been cut off, turns black or 
dies. So long as wheat continues in a low grassy 
state, it usually recovers from any checks which 
frost gives it ; but when it is making its principal 
shoot previously to its producing its blossom, it 
-grows for a little time with excessive rapidity, is 
very sensitive to changes in the atmosphere, and | 
receives certain and severe damage from frost or 
from even a sudden fall of temperature. The in- | 
jury ascribed to frost, however,—except when 
roots and tissues are ruptured by mechanical ac- 
tion of the soil,—are really occasioned by the play 
of subsequent heat or of the sun’s rays upon the 
plant; and, in the case of early pease, of garden | 
potatoes, and of half-hardy flowering plants, it 
may generally be prevented by giving a watering | 
a little before sun-rise. “The damage done to 
wheat by frost,” remarks Sir John Sinclair, “ de- 
pends much on the temperature and brightness 
of the succeeding day. Should it be cold and 
gloomy, the injury is less; and if rain should fall, | 
the plants will escape unhurt. But if the morn- 
ing be warm and bright, the leaves of the plant | 
often become black, and never revive, the effect 
corresponding to the degree of the returning 
stimulus.” 
Hail, occasionally in Great Britain but fre- 
quently on the European continent, beats down, | 
shakes, prostrates, and otherwise damages corn; | 
and, in some instances, when the crops were in 
full ear and nearly ripe, it has desolated whole | 
districts of France, and occasioned scarcity and 
dearth of food—Excessive heat or prolonged 
drought deprives corn plants of their necessary 
degree of moisture, retiders them sickly and feeble, | 
forces them into premature ripeness, and occa- 
95 | 
sions them to be very light in straw and compara- | 
tively unproductive in grain.—Atmospheric in- 
fluences of various kinds, particularly those of | 
electricity and of unusual winds, are supposed to | 
occasion some of the diseases in corn-crops loosely | 
designated bights: see the article Brignr—A 
prolonged calm or a high degree of shelter de- 
prives corn-plants of the requisite degree of ven- 
tilation and exercise from the wind, arrests or 
dwarfs their growth, and sometimes forces them 
into decay and death. The circulation, the cleans- 
ing power, and the gently shaking action of the 
