IRISH GARDENING 



i8i 



tar, is recoininended as the best and safest com- 

 position to use for banding frnit trees. In all 

 cases the grease must be spread on bands of grease- 

 proof paper. These bands should be half a foot 

 wide, and tightly tied to the tree above and below 

 by a piece of string. The bands are best placed 

 four or five feet above the ground. 



Grease-banding must be commenced early in 

 October, and renewed from time to time when 

 the coniposition has become dry and hard. 



It will be necessary to keep the bands in good 

 working order as long as moths are seen about. 



In February or March, or as soon as frosty 

 weather has gone, the wingless females of some 

 other species of moths come forth, and ascend 

 the trees for the purpose of laying eggs upon them. 

 These other moths ax'e not nearly so numerous as 

 the Winter Moths, but it is necessary to keep 

 the bands in working order for them also in some 

 districts ; it is desirable upon the breaking up 

 of winter to watch whether the male moths are 

 flying about the trees in thi dusk, and if they 

 are seen to put the bands in working order at 

 once. 



In the case of cultivated fruit land, many of 

 the chrysalids might be destroyed by digging or 

 hoeing late in the summer the ground all round 

 trees that were infested in the spring, and by 

 digging or hoeing in lime or gas-lime. In grass 

 orchards, the herbage should be close-fed off by 

 slieep. Poultry should always be kept in orchards 

 for they devour many larva?, and also the female 

 moths as they escape from the ground. Many 

 fruit growers also reconimend pigs, which help 

 to keep the trees in a comparatively clean state 

 by destroying insects in the ground. 



Remedies against the Caterpillars. — 

 Spraying trees with arsenites is always necessary. 

 Small apple, plum, and damson trees, filberts, 

 cobs, and fruit bushes can be easily sprayed by 

 means of proper knapsack sprayers. Large trees 

 beyond the reach of hand sprayers can be sprayed 

 with hop- washing machines, but there are 

 machines especially manufactured for this pur- 

 pose. 



Only arsenical washes are of any use against 

 the caterpillars. Two of these are strongly re- 

 commended — viz., Paris Green and arsenate of 

 lead. Pai-is Green costs from lOd. to Is. per Hb. 

 It should be obtained in the form of paste, which 

 is safer than powder, and used at the rate of 

 1 lb. to from 200 to 280 gallons of soft water, 

 according to the age and conditions of the leafage 

 and the kind of tree sprayed. With it should be 

 mixed a few pounds of lime. It must not be 

 iTsed too strong or the leaves will be burnt. The 

 solution must he kept constantly stirred so that 

 it may be maintained of an uniform strength. 



Arsenate of lead is prepared as follows : — 

 Dissolve 1 oz. of arsenate of soda in warm soft 

 water, and add to 16 gallons of soft water. Then 

 dissolve .3 ozs. of acetate of lead in water and 

 add to the 16 gallons of liquid. Add 2 lbs. 

 soft soap. This may be mixed with paraffin 

 emulsion. 



It is not advisable to spray with arsenical 

 solutions when the trees are in blossom unless 

 the attack is very severe, as bees may be killed. 

 As the object is not to dislodge the caterpillars 

 but to poison their food, the arsenical solvations 

 should be made to fall like gentle mist upon the 

 leaves, fine spray jets being used for this purpose. 



Live stock can be kept in orchards where 

 arsenical compounds have been used. Such 

 conipounds must not be used where gooseberries 

 for early picking, and herbs and vegetables for 

 early use, are grown under the trees. — Leaflet 

 No. 4, Board of AyricuUure and Fisheries. 



Review. 



How to Collect and Dry Flowering 

 Plants and Ferns.^^ 



In the preface to this very practical little work 

 the author expresses the hope that it may " be 

 found useful to many yovithful botanists of both 

 sexes, and especially to those in elementary and 

 private schools who have not, in numerous cases, 

 the advantages ottered in some of the best 

 secondary schools."' We have no doubt that this 

 hope will find satisfaction ; for, in fulness of 

 detail and simplicity of language, this brorhnre, 

 of some fifty pages, leaves nothing to be desired. 

 A short introduction leads up to sections dealing 

 in succession with " Equipment and Collecting," 

 with " Drying,"' and with " Poisoning and 

 Mounting." Instructions for sending pressed 

 plants by post and a sliort glossary of technical 

 terms give the last touch of completeness to a 

 treatise which errs rather on the side of exhaus- 

 tive minuteness than of obscure brevity. This, 

 no doubt, is a pardonable error, though one can 

 hai'dly suppress a smile when he is informed, on 

 p. o.j, tha,t in drying botanical paper, " dry, hot 

 weather greatly helps the collector " and " in 

 wet weather access to a lire or oven or kitchen 

 rack is necessary." Such truths are so solid and 

 indisputable as to soar into the region of truism. 

 But if one who has wrestled with the worries of 

 paper drying in alpine cabanes, where he has been 

 forced to rig up complicated lines of string over- 

 night in his cubicle to serve as clothes lines for 

 his damp sheets, is tempted to smile at the 

 enunciation of these elementary truths, his 

 superior mirth is checked by a recollection of that 

 reference in the preface to " youthful botanists 

 of both sexes." For them such truths may have 

 all the gloss of newness. 



It is, perhaps, not quite fair to submit such 

 works as this to literary criticism, yet one cannot 

 help wondering that the author, wiien he set ovit 

 to sing the praises of Nature, could hit on nothing 

 better in the way of quotation than the cryptic 

 and alTected uttei'rance of Max Pemberion on the 

 subject of Velernal j&ndnin, v.'hich he gives us 

 on p. 0. What Pemberton may mean by his 

 qijery — " When was woman known to qualify 

 the affirmative of her heart's desire ? " — is by no 

 means obvious ; and we fear that tiie youthful 

 botanists of both sexes will be puzzled to verify 

 Mr. Thompson's assertion that •' the affirmative 

 of one's heart's desire is found in every held and 

 hedgerow." 



We must refrain, however, from any attempt 



* " How to Collect and Dry Flowering Plants 

 and Ferns." By Harold Stuart Thompson^ 

 F.L.S. George Routledge &. Sons. I 'rice Yd. 



