SYRINGING plants with water has two general offices: to clean the plants of pests or of dirt; to check evaporation or transpiration from the plant itself.
Gardeners look upon water as a good insecticide. That is, if it can be thrown upon the plants somewhat forcibly by means of a syringe or pump, or by the hydrant hose, it will wash off the insects and drown many of them. The water should be applied in a fine and somewhat forcible spray. Care should be taken that the plant is not torn or bruised. The red spider is one of the most serious pests on house plants, and, in a dry season, on plants about the lawn. It thrives in a dry atmosphere. It usually lives on the under sides of the leaves. Syringing the plants frequently will destroy the pests. The thrips and slugs on rose bushes can nearly always be kept in check if one can spray or syringe his plants frequently. See _Spraying_.
Syringing to check transpiration from the foliage is very useful with plants which are recently transplanted. For instance, when carnations are taken from the field and placed in the house, it is well to syringe them occasionally until they have become established. The same is true with cuttings.
In Syringing plants, it is well to take care that the ground does not become too wet; otherwise the plant may suffer at its root. In the house, plants should rarely be syringed except when the weather is bright, so that they may soon dry off. The plant should not go into the night with wet foliage. Out of doors in hot weather, it is best to syringe toward nightfall. The foliage will ordinarily not suffer in such cases. With plants in the house, it is necessary to keep the leaves dry most of the time in order that fungi may not breed. This is true of carnations, which are very liable to attacks of the rust.
Plants are sometimes syringed or sprayed to protect them from frost. See _Frost_.
TERRACES may be desirable for two reasons: to hold a very steep slope; to afford an architectural base for a building.
It is rarely necessary to make a distinct Terrace in the lawn. Even if the lawn is very steep, it may be better to make a gradual slope than to cut the place in two with a Terrace. A Terrace makes a place look smaller. It is always difficult to make and to keep in repair. The surface is not readily cut with a lawn mower. Unless the sod is very dense, the upper corner tends to wash off with the rains and the foot tends to fill in. Nature does not have straight banks unless they are rock. The illustration in the margin shows how it is possible to treat a sloping lawn. In the distance is a distinct, sharp-angled Terrace; but in the foreground this Terrace has been carried out into the lawn, so that the slope is an agreeable one.