File:The century book of gardening; a comprehensive work for every lover of the garden (1900) (20401545960).jpg

Title: The century book of gardening; a comprehensive work for every lover of the garden
Identifier: centurybookofgar00cook (find matches)
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Cook, E. T. (Ernest Thomas), 1867-1915, ed
Subjects: Gardening
Publisher: London, The Offices of "Country life" (etc. )
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
( 507 )
Text Appearing After Image:
AN OLD GARDEN IN IRELAND. INSECTICIDES. BEFORE selecting an insecticide it should always be remembered that some insects teed by sucking the juices of plants, others by eating away the part of the plant on which they are feeding, and that some insecticides are destructive to insect life by poisoning the food, others by choking up the breathing pores of the insects, or acting as a caustic to their skins. Those insects that have jaws and eat their food can be poisoned, but those that live by suction cannot, for it is impossible to impregnate the juices of a plant with a poison. Whatever insecticide be used will probably not kill the eggs (except the very caustic ones), so that, particularly in the case of those insects that undergo their transformations very rapidly, it is essential to use them two or three times, with an interval of three or four days between each application, so as to make sure of killing the young as soon as they are hatched. An ordinary syringe, as a rule, is not a very good instrument to apply insecticides with, as they are not thrown on to the plants in such a finely-divided form as when a spraying machine or a syringe with a spraying nozzle is used, and more of the insecticide is wasted than when applied as a spray. There are various spraying appliances sold by those who supply horticultural implements ; perhaps the most useful are the "knapsack" sprayers, so called on account of their being carried on the back" like a knapsack. Thev hold about 3 gallons, but spraying nozzles are sold that can be attached to ordinary syringes or garden engines. Whatever form is used, it is important that it should be capable of applying the spray to the under sides as well as to the upper sides of the leaves, as it is there that red spider, thrips, aphides, etc., most frequently congregate. In making up the following recipes, soft water should always be used ; if it is impossible to procure this, a little soda should be added to the water before it is used. The following are the insecticides which are generally found most useful, and instructions for making them

Note About Images