606 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Dec., 1899. 
This is the month to fight insects. Everything is fighting on your side this 
month, but if you let the enemy get the benefit of the tropical growth and of 
their own inerease in numbers you will, at the best, be only able to hold your 
own, while if you attack them now you will be able to inflict grave losses on 
your foes. If you fancy that you will discover some means of getting rid of the 
necessity of constant and watchful attention to this subject, you are doomed to 
disappomtment. So long as you cultivate you will have to fight “the worm 7 
the bud” and his allies. 
At this time you will note that mildew is very much in evidence. 
Bordeaux mixture with molasses is a good remedy. It is made by taking 5 |b. 
of fresh lime, 5 lb. of molasses, 5 lb. of bluestone, and 25 gallons of water. 
The lime should be slaked in water and mixed up into a cream, and then 
strained through a coarse cloth into a wooden vessel. Then dissolve the 
molasses in water, and add to the strained lime mixture. Dissolve the blue- 
stone in four times its bulk of water, stir up all together, and then add 
sufficient water to bring the whole up to 25 gallons. You must use this with 
judgment. Every plant will not stand the same strength of the mixture. 
Tn summer you may add sufficient water to bring the whole bulk up to 50 
gallons, and when the foliage is delicate you may dilute it until the above 
ingredients make 75 gallons of the mixture. In small gardens, dusting with 
sulphur is good in cases of mildew. Fill an old stocking with flowers of sulphur ; 
tie this to a Stick of a convenient length, and then go amongst your plants, dusting 
the affected ones over with the sulphur, which will pass readily through the 
stocking or a coarse cloth. Rosegrowers will find this fungus a great plague 
just now. I know one very successful grower who says that he is so disgusted 
with it that he seriously contemplates pulling out the greater part of his plants, 
You can easily recognise mildew, although, strange to say, I have met many 
persons who grow plants, but who did not know it. You will notice on the 
leaves of your roses—especially those leaves growing near the end of the shoot 
—patches of a white powdery substance. ‘This sometimes spreads over the 
whole back of the leaf, which curls up. With a good glass, by looking at the 
fungus from the side, you can make out that it is growing on the leaf, whose 
spores it rapidly chokes. Frequently it attacks only one side of the leaf at 
first, and then that side shrinks: inward and curls up, conveying in a curious 
manner the idea that it is in pain. Aphis is very likely to prove troublesome 
in this kind of weather. These gentry usually choose the growing point of the 
shoct, which they soon injure very seriously. Kerosene emulsion seems. to be 
the best remedy for these. Two gallons of kerosene and 3-1b. of soap will make 
80 gallons of the mixture, which should be applied in a fine spray. 
Weeds must be vigorously fought. If you have a patch of weeds which 
you cannot reach upon to root out, run the scythe or mower over them if they 
are about to seed. Do not let them bring up reinforcements in the shape of 
seedlings. Do not let nut-grass flower. Keep it cut off as it attempts to do so. 
Look after hedges, and keep them cut as they grow. If you allow them 
to throw out robust shoots without cutting, you will find that they will become 
bare. The value of hedge plants as -shelters does not seem to be taken 
advantage of in this country as much as it deserves. Camphor laurels planted 
8 feet apart make asplendid shelter hedge. They have the recommendation that 
their roots always go downwards, and do not rob the immediate surface soil. 
That is why you so often see such miserable specimens of camphor laurels on 
land having a clay subsoil. Camphor laurels can be cut with the knife into a 
compact and very beautiful hedge, and they harbour no insect foes. 
In the flower garden a few annuals may still be planted, such as balsas, 
calendulas, cosmos, coreopsis, marigold, nasturtium, portulacca, zinnia, cockscomb, 
and celosia. A small sowing of each of the above may be made. If you have 
amaranthus pricked off ready for planting, you can plant them out now. They 
should be planted in masses against a dark background of foliage, where their 
gorgeous colours can show up to advantage. If you have not seedlings, you 
can still sow in boxes, and prick off when the little plants can be handled. 
