“Remember this stuff is not to be fooled with, as it is poisonous and also takes fire readily.  Never open the can inside by a fire, in too great a heat, or near a lighted match.  Invite your fathers to help in this.  By no means do anything silly.  Keep the can closed except when pouring out a teaspoonful.

“This question is constantly being asked, ’How can I tell what insect is doing the destructive work?’ Well, you can tell partly by the work done, and partly by seeing the insect itself.  This latter thing is not always so easy to accomplish.  I had cutworms one season and never saw one.  I saw only the work done.  If stalks of tender plants are cut clean off be pretty sure the cutworm is abroad.  What does he look like?  Well, that is a hard question because his family is a large one.  Should you see sometime a grayish striped caterpillar, you may know it is a cutworm.  But because of its habit of resting in the ground during the day and working by night, it is difficult to catch sight of one.  The cutworm is around early in the season ready to cut the flower stalks of the hyacinths.  When the peas come on a bit later, he is ready for them.  A very good way to block him off is to put paper collars, or tin ones, about the plants.  These collars should be about an inch away from the plant.

“Of course, plant lice are more common.  Those we see are often green in colour.  But they may be red, yellow or brown.  Kerosene emulsion is the medicine for plant lice.  Lice are easy enough to find since they are always clinging to their host.  As sucking insects they have to cling close to a plant for food, and one is pretty sure to find them.  But the biting insects do their work, and then go hide.  That makes them much more difficult to deal with.

“Rose slugs do great damage to the rose bushes.  They eat out the body of the leaves, so that just the veining is left.  They are soft-bodied, green above and yellow below.  Since they are eating insects Paris green will kill them.  But the kerosene emulsion penetrates their soft bodies; so this also may be used.

“A beetle, the striped beetle, attacks young melons and squash leaves.  It eats the leaf by riddling out holes in it.  This beetle, as its name implies, is striped.  The back is black with yellow stripes running lengthwise.  White hellebore powder kills these pests.  Ask the druggist for five cents’ worth and you will have a great plenty for any of your gardens.  It, too, is a poison.  This poison is also good to use for the caterpillars that eat many of our garden plants.  Make a circle four inches from the stalk of an infested plant and sprinkle the powder in this.  Evening time is good for this, because the dew moistens the powder just enough to make it a nuisance to the insect.