Pests of garden plants

    This is one of the most baneful insect pests that the gardener has to deal with either in the open air or in greenhouses or hothouses, in which it is very prevalent when they have been kept too hot or too dry. There are various acari or mites which infest and injure plants, but this is accounted the most prevalent and therefore the worst of them. They are almost invisible even to the keenest vision, but their presence is indicated by the state of the leaves on which they are, and which present a burnt or scorched appearance, being brown, red, or yellowish in color in patches, or over the entire leaf. Greenhouse walls should be dressed with a mixture of soft soap, sulphur, and clay, beat up to the consistency of paint with warm water and the same dressing may be used for trees. Fumigation with flowers of sulphur vaporised on hot plates is also useful, the houses, pits, etc, being carefully closed while the work of destruction is in progress. After fumigation the plants should be well syringed from time to time with fresh clean water.