WAR AGAINST PESTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1939, Page 2

WAR AGAINST PESTS

CARE OF CROPS AND PLANTS. The wise gardener will not forget that it is not plants alone that are stimulated by warm days, and by an atmosphere still moistened by the water stored up so freely In the soil during the winter and spring. Many insect pests and the fungi which cause plant diseases, also thrive under these conditions. In many cases the old proverb “Prevention is better than cure,” holds good. For example, a thin coating of sulphur on the rose bushes will prevent all possibility of mildew growing on them, but once this deases gets a hold on unprotected leaves, it may be difficult to dislodge. Do not expect to find any single cure for every pest and disease which may attack your garden plants. No such antidote exists at present, nor is it every likely to, because of the varied character of the foes with which the gardener has to deal.

The spray that is ideal for destroying the mildew curling the the leaves of the rosses, is not likely to worry the caterpillars eating the apple leaves, any more than the insecticide, which kills the caterpillars, will harm the blight which turns the potato foliage black. Most insects either eat tell-tale holes in the leaves, or else suck out the juices, making the plants turn an ominous yellow colour, and become very distorted. In any case, insects can usually be found if a diligent search is made.

When in doubt, examine the undersides of the leaves and do not neglect to unroll any that are curled up to find out what is inside. Fungi, on the other hand, do not often make clean holes; there are some exceptions, but they are not very numerous or important. Instead, they cause brown, discoloured patches, or cover the whole of the leaf surface with rusty spots, or a white floury outgrowth. Occasionally. rusty-looking spores or yellow pusules are collected together in welldefined patches. In other cases fungus attacks the stem of the plant, often at ground level, causing a blackened ring of diseased tissue, which gradually strangles the upper part of the plant, causing it to collapse, fall over and die. If plants are attacked by insects the proper thing to do is to spray with an insecticide; that is, some chemical fatal to insect life. Fortunately, such chemicals are by no means all poisonous to human being or domestic animals. Beginners would be well advised to be cautious in the use of arsenate of lead. It is undoubtedly a good insect killer, but it is also a universal poison into the bargain. The beginner has a good substitute in the use of derris, a powder i obtained from the roots of a tropical

plant, which can be used either dry or in the form of a liquid spray. Derris is harmless even to small children or the most delicate of domestic pets, but it spells death to insects. It can be used with equal effect upon those which bite holes in the leaves, such, as caterpillars or beetles, or those which suck out the juices without doing more than making the minutest of punctures.

Judge: Why do you wish to change your name to Smith? Mac Doodle: I found a case containing 500 visiting cards of the name of Smith, and rather than waste them