Sections:

Tent-caterpillar.--The insect hibernates in the egg stage. The eggs are glued in ring-like brownish masses around the smaller twigs, where they may be easily found and destroyed.

The caterpillars appear in early spring, devour the tender leaves, and build unsightly nests on the smaller branches. This pest is usually controlled by the treatment recommended for the codlin-moth.

Destroy the nests by burning or by wiping out when small. Often a bad pest on apple trees.

Violet gall-fly.--Violets grown under glass are often greatly injured by a very small maggot, which causes the edges of the leaves to curl, turn yellowish, and die. The adult is a very minute fly resembling a mosquito.

Pick off and destroy infested leaves as soon as discovered. Fumigation is not advised for this insect or for red-spider.

White-fly.--The minute white-flies are common on greenhouse plants and often in summer on plants about gardens near greenhouses. The nymphs are small greenish, scale-like insects found on the under side of the leaves; the adults are minute, white, mealy-winged flies.

Spray with kerosene emulsion or whale-oil soap; or if infesting cucumbers or tomatoes, fumigate over night with hydrocyanic acid gas, using 1 oz. of potassium cyanide to each 1000 cu. ft. of space.

White grubs.--The large curved white grubs that are so troublesome in lawns and strawberry fields are the larvae of the common June beetles. They live in the ground, feeding on the roots of grasses and weeds.

Dig out grubs from beneath infested plants. Thorough early fall cultivation of land intended for strawberries will destroy many of the pupae. In lawns, remove the sod, destroy the grubs, and make new sward, when the infestation is bad.

Treatment for some of the common plant diseases.

The following advice (mostly adapted from Whetzel and Stewart) covers the most frequent types of fungous disease appearing to the home gardener. Many other kinds, however, will almost certainly attract his attention the first season if he looks closely.

The standard remedy is bordeaux mixture; but because this material discolors the foliage the carbonate of copper is sometimes used instead. The treatments here recommended are for New York; but it should not be difficult to apply the dates elsewhere.

The gardener must supplement all advice of this character with his own judgment and experience, and take his own risks.

Apple scab.--Usually most evident on the fruit, forming blotches and scabs. Spray with bordeaux, 5-5-50 or 3-3-50; first, just before the blossoms open; second, just as the blossoms fall; third, 10 to 14 days after the blossoms fall.

The second spraying seems to be the most important. Always apply before rains, not after.

Asparagus rust.--The most common and destructive disease of asparagus, producing reddish or black pustules on the stems and branches. Late in the fall, burn all affected plants.

Fertilize liberally and cultivate thoroughly. During the cutting season, permit no plants to mature and cut all wild asparagus plants in vicinity once a week. Rust may be partially controlled by spraying with bordeaux, 5-5-50, containing a sticker of resin-sal-soda soap, but it is a difficult and expensive operation and probably not profitable except on large acreage.

Begin spraying after cutting as soon as new shoots are 8 to 10 in. high and repeat once or twice a week until about September 15. Dusting with sulfur has proved effective in California.

Cabbage and cauliflower diseases.--Black-rot is a bacterial disease; the plants drop their leaves and fail to head. Practice crop rotation; soak seed 15 min. in a solution made by dissolving one corrosive sublimate tablet in a pint of water. Tablets may be bought at drug stores.

Club-root or club-foot is a well-known disease. The parasite lives in the soil. Practice crop rotation. Set only healthy plants. Do not use manure containing cabbage refuse.

If necessary to use infested land, apply good stone lime, 2 to 5 tons per acre. Apply at least as early as the autumn before planting; two to four years is better. Lime the seed-bed in same way.

Carnation rust.--This disease may be recognized by the brown, powdery pustules on the stem and leaves. Plant only the varieties least affected by it.

Take cuttings only from healthy plants. Spray (in the field, once a week; in the greenhouse, once in two weeks) with copper sulfate, 1 lb. to 20 gal. of water. Keep the greenhouse air as dry and cool as is compatible with good growth.

Keep the foliage free from moisture. Train the plants so as to secure a free circulation of air among them.