220 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



better tliaii anytliing else : by sticking up a few upright props 

 in tbe ground about a foot liigli, and laying the net- work over, 

 the net is kept from the surface ; it does not obstruct the light, 

 nor can any bird approach the seed. Some, however, put a 

 rod of willow, or some slight taper wood, sloping in the 

 ground, and long pieces of paper to flap about with the wind ; 

 some put threads of worsted across and across the bed ; some 

 tie pieces of paper to string, forming something like the tail 

 of a boy's kite, and hang tliis from one end of the bed to the 

 other, so as almost to reach the surface. But we believe almost 

 everything in time loses its efi'ect : see, for instance, a bird 

 perched on a scarecrow; what does that say for the efi&cacy of 

 a stuffed suit of old clothes'? Yet the scarecrow may be seen 

 in many country gardens, and the birds hard at work all 

 round it. We beUeve that nothing but netting, so placed as 

 to keep birds off, can be depended on ; other remedies 

 may be used sometimes with success, but occasionally, without 

 the netting, they fail, whether in preserving seed or fruit : 

 netting keeps the intruders at a distance. There is now a 

 sort made, called hexagonal netting, so fine as to stop a fly, 

 and yet light and lasting : this may be used against walls, or 

 thrown over trees, or in any situation where flies and wasps 

 are troublesome, because it is only a little coarser than a lady's 

 veil, and the same make. This forms a most impenetrable 

 barrier against the smallest insect that flies, and if it be 

 fastened so that nothing get behind it, we are quite sure 

 nothing will ever get through it. 



We have said nothing of hares, rabbits, and other larger 

 animals that plague the gardener, for there are only two ways 

 of managing them ; the one is to keep them out with a wire 

 fencing, the other is to trap and shoot, or otherwise kill, any 

 one that can be sacrificed. If rabbits burrow under the wire- 

 work, their holes are soon detected, and they are easily 

 trapped ; and unless the garden is in the neighbourhood of a 

 warren, we have generally found that a dog and a gun would 

 keep them tolerably well under. 



Mice must be caught or poisoned, and the most effective 

 is plaister of Paris and oatmeal ; they eat it greedily : the 

 plaister sets sohd inside them, and they trouble us no more. 

 -Vlany poisons would answer the same purpose, but scarcely 

 any animal will touch the plaister but rats and mice, so there 

 is DO danger of poisoning dogs and cats. 'No wet must 



