CULTIVATION 175 



How very true is that trite old saying, 

 " One year's seeding gives five years' weed- 

 ing " ! and especially so of the rock garden ; 

 not, indeed, that weeds seed more freely 

 there than they do in the ordinary border, 

 but that the weeds, once established, are so 

 much more difficult to dislodge, owing to 

 the way they have of getting their roots 

 around and behind the rocks, choosing gener- 

 ally the largest and hardest to get at. Some- 

 times, indeed, the only way to exterminate 

 them is to remove the rock itself. This 

 should, however, be the last resource. 



Garden pests ! I cannot say whether it 

 is more in sorrow or in anger I write these 

 words ; a good deal of both perhaps. In 

 sorrow at the picture it recalls to my mind 

 of tender and choice plants mutilated almost 

 beyond recognition by some bird, or in one 

 short night by the attention of one voracious 

 slug. In wrath certainly at the spoiler of 

 these treasures. Gardening is, alas ! one 

 long fight against the elements and against 

 nature in the shape of birds, beasts, and insects. 

 Fishes, so far, have not yet attacked me. 



