I keep close watch in early spring, and whenever I find the newly hatched young I kill every one of them, which is usually not difficult to do, for they huddle close together on a plant stem and are not very active. It is well worth while to watch closely and when they are found make a most careful search in order that none may escape. I remember my poor slaughtered plants of the year before and take murderous revenge. And I find that by so doing there are few left to do damage later. Of course one must watch through the growing season, but here they become scarce by August.

They are especially bad about swamps and they no doubt migrate over the adjoining country. They seem to have no enemies and fowls will not touch them but a friend, Mr. William Matheson, believes that Guinea fowls will destroy them.

Other grasshoppers do considerable damage though none are so harmful as the lubber. If plants are sprayed with kerosene emulsion from time to time it will prove a tolerable protection against these insects and bran mash and arsenic will help to keep them down.

Some of the injurious insects seem to come in waves to such an extent that they threaten utterly to wipe out the vegetation on which they prey. Then the tide appears to ebb and their numbers are greatly diminished and the cultivator has a respite. At one time I became so alarmed over the swarm of cottony scales that I cut off and burned all the small branches and leaves of a number of my trees. In a short time the scale entirely disappeared from nearby trees that I had not touched. I have seen a hedge of Acalypha so covered with this pest that it looked as though it had been snowed on, yet in a short time, without any remedy being applied, all the scales had disappeared.

Insects, however, constitute but a part of the animated enemies of the plant grower. The great blue West Indian land crab has become thoroughly established on our coasts from somewhere in the neighborhood of Palm Beach to Cape Sable, and probably to some distance north of there on the west coast of the state. Fortunately it does not extend far into the interior at any place, but it makes up for that by its pernicious activity along shore. It swarms in the brackish marshes and is only a little less abundant in fresh water swamps near the sea, digging out its holes into which it hastens when disturbed. During the dry season it is less in evidence, but when the rains come it commences activities. It then goes out in great numbers into cultivated lands, tearing down and destroying quantities of plants. I have seen banana stems as large as a man's thigh so pulled to pieces by them that they toppled over, and they can and do invariably distinguish between a twenty-five-cent plant and one that cost five dollars, always taking the latter. They are to some extent nocturnal, but in the rainy season are much in evidence in the daytime, especially in wet weather, and they often move out into the highlands. They then live temporarily in holes, sometimes in the pine woods; they climb up trees and enter chicken-and out-houses, they invade dwellings and it has been reported that they sometimes play on the piano. Usually they swarm over the entire shore region sometime in early autumn; this perhaps being the mating season. At such times I have seen acres so thickly covered with them that they almost touched each other.

Something may be done in the way of destroying them by dipping a wad of cotton, oakum, old cloth or anything that is an absorbent into gasolene, putting it into a fresh hole and tightly closing it with mud. Small pieces of bread partly coated with Rough on Rats or any roach paste will be eagerly eaten by them with fatal results. It is almost impossible to protect anything from their ravages. I have set a barrel with the heads knocked out over some choice plant, pushing it well down into the earth, only to find a little later that one or more of these wretches had tunneled under the rim, come up inside, and utterly destroyed my plant. The best protection I have found is to stick branches of trees or palmetto leaves closely around a plant several rows deep, but even this often fails.

Rabbits are sometimes very destructive, being especially bad during the dry, cold weather of winter. I have never been able to catch one though I have had several traps that were warranted to get them every time. A gun in the hands of a good marksman, or pieces of apple doped with rat poison or roach paste, will help to keep them down. They are prone to cut off the leaves and stems of young palms, and these may be protected by setting branches or palmetto leaves around them in the manner directed for protecting from land crabs. Sometimes, however, they manage to push these away and destroy the plant.

There is a wood rat that makes his home in and around our dwellings that often is very destructive to plants, especially to epiphytes. I have only been able to get a very few of them with traps or poison. After one or two are taken the rest become wise and rob the bait from traps with immunity. There is a preparation made by the Pasteur laboratories which works by inoculation, that seems to be a good thing.

I can say but little about the many plant diseases which work destruction for every grower. I have spoken of Orchid blight elsewhere and I consider sulfur an excellent remedy for various blights, or perhaps a preventive. It sometimes happens that a lot of apparently healthy cuttings suddenly die even when they have made fine calluses, and this is probably caused by a fungous blight. I think it would be a good idea to wet the cuttings before setting them and then dip the lower parts of them in dry sulfur. They should be planted with a dibble so that the sulfur will not be brushed off. Rose and oleander cuttings are particularly liable to be troubled with this blight.

Prevention is better than cure and it is always best, if possible, to put. out only healthy, vigorous plants and then by good care keep them in good condition. Healthy specimens are less liable to attack from disease, as a rule, than sickly plants and have far more power to resist disease.