i8o 



miSH GARDENING 



but he has been working with definite aim, and 

 step by step the teacher has assisted liini to dis- 

 cover new truths and to verify old ones. Physi- 

 cally and mentally he is better for the training, 

 and, what is more, he has been using as educa- 

 tional material some of the processes of an in- 

 dustry which surrounds him, and on which the 

 prosperity of his country and of his father's 

 home depend. 



^V'hen the boy leaves school he takes with him 

 something the garden has taught him. If he 

 becomes a farm worker he brings to the work a 

 mind ready to be interested in the soil. He is 

 no less fitted to be a merchant for having learned 

 how closely in nature cause and effect follow 

 each other. In a profession his work v/ith a 

 developing plant will have shown iiim the need 

 for patient efi'ort. Should he become merely a 

 townsman he will take M'ith him something which 

 may, on unexpected occasions, develop into a 

 taste for gardening in slum window boxes, in 

 dark back yard&, or on garden plols. Whichever 

 path he takes the garden will have helped to 

 Tnake him, in Lord Koseberry's phrase^ ' a 

 gardener in taste." 



It is then not to be wondered at that in 

 Ireland nearly 000 national teachers have given 

 up their leisure to learn as part of an educational 

 method how to manage a school garden and how 

 to teach lessons in science which illustrate the 

 functions of the plant and the work of the soil. 

 11 IS more to be wondered at that of 8.000 primary 

 schools fewer than 200 have obtained school 

 gardens, and that none of these are girls' schools. 

 But the numbers are growing each year, and they 

 will grow more rapidly when all that a school 

 garden can achieve in the educationa], aesthetic or 

 civic sense, apart from the utilitarian and 

 economic aspect of garden work, is more generayr 

 realised. Generations of school garden boys and 

 girls when they grow up will want the fruit and 

 the Howers thej' grew in the school gardens, and 

 they will grow them. They will set out to remove 

 the reproach of unfilled plots and half- used gar- 

 dens. The village will become, to the eye at least, 

 a more attractive place. If to follow this work of 

 the school garden we can find a common interest 

 for the village, which is being brought nearer to 

 the town by science and machinery, we can hope, 

 withimproving economic conditions, to keep for the 

 farms the brains and the labour which the land 

 will always need. The school garden is a t.r;t 

 link in tiie long chain wiiich will retain a popula- 

 tion on the land, but with all the evidence which 

 is accumulating there is very good reason to 

 regard it as an essential one. 



Winter Moths. 



There are several moths whose wingless females 

 crawl up the stems of fruit trees in the autumn 

 and early winter and spring and deposit eggs in 

 the interstices of the rind of the twigs and 

 brnnches. From these eggs caterpillars are 

 li^tched in the spring which eat the leafage and 

 tjlossoms, and, in conditions favourable to their 

 development, cause much injury to the fruit crop, 

 ^imong these moths the Winter Moth {Cheimai 

 tobia brumata), and the Mottled Umber, or Gre 



Winter Moth {Hibernia defoliaria), and the March 

 Moth (Anisopieryx aescularia), are the principal 

 offenders. 



About the second week of October, the Winter 

 Moths come from chrysalids in the ground, under 

 and near the trees that were infested with cater- 

 pillars in the preceding summer, and the wingless 

 females crawl up the trees for the purpose of egg- 

 laying. The eggs of the Winter Moth are very 

 small, cylindrical, and at first of a light green 

 colour, afterwards becoming red. They are 

 placed in snifiU groups, usually at the base of 

 buds and on pruned surfaces, sometimes in the 

 chinks of the rind of the branches and shoots, and 

 fastened there with a sticky substance. From 

 150 to 200 eggs are laid by one female. The 

 Great Winter Moth lays larger, rather rusty- 

 coloured, long eggs, and more in quantity (as 

 many as 400), which are placed in lines, or small 

 groups, according to circumstances. 



From the eggs the caterpillars come in the early 

 spring, usually about the middle of March, and, 

 as it appears, just before the buds begin to burst. 

 The Winter Moth caterpillars are at first grey, 

 with dark heads, and so small that it is difticult 

 to see them. Later on they become greenish, 

 with white stripes and brown heads, and are 

 finally rather yellow. When full grown they are 

 about three-quarters of an inch long. They, as 

 well as those of the Great Winter Moth, are called 

 " loopers," or " measures," on account of the 

 position they assume when moving. They have 

 six trvie legs, and only two pairs of prolegs, so 

 that they can easily be told from caterpillars of 

 other moths. These larvae eat the leaf, blossom, 

 and fruit, and spin tlie blossom heads, and also 

 the leaves, together, and live under their pro- 

 tection. When food fails, or when they are fully 

 fed, they let themselves down to the ground by 

 silken threads and bury themselves in it. The 

 moths of both species begin to appear in the first 

 V. eek in October, and may be seen throughout 

 November and December, and even in January 

 and February, depending on the weather. 



The caterpillar of the Great Winter Moth is 

 chestnut-brown in colour, with a tinge of yellow 

 on the under part of the body. It is much larger 

 than the Winter INIoth caterpillar, being 1 ^ inches 

 in length. When the period of pupation arrives 

 the caterpillar descends to the ground and 

 changes to a chrysalis just below the surface. 



In some seasons, especially in those when the 

 progress of the leaves and blossoms is arrested 

 by spells of cold weather, great mischief is caused 

 by the caterpillars of these and other moths, the 

 females of which are wingless. Sometimes the 

 trees are left as bare as in winter, and are, besides, 

 seriously injured for another season. The cater- 

 pillars attack apple, plum, damson, filbert and 

 cob-nut trees, and occasionally currant and 

 gooseberry bushes that are set under apple and 

 plum trees in fruit plantations. They are also 

 abundant in woods, feeding on hazel, maple, 

 hornbeam, &c. 



Methods of Prevention. — It is very necessary 

 to adopt methods of i^revention against these 

 insects. The first and most important of these 

 is to prevent the wingless female moths from 

 crawling up the trees in the autumn and winter 

 months. This can be effected by putting sticky 

 compositions round the stems to entrap the 

 moths. 



Cart grease made from fat or oils, and without 



