PROTECTING THE SEEDLINGS 75 



clumps, at intervals of a few feet, and the netting be 

 pegged down to the ground at the sides, this will prove 

 to be a most simple and effective protection until the 

 plants are quite well advanced. Both the last-named 

 protection and the galvanised pea-guards may be 

 removed when all danger is past, and stored away in the 

 dry for use another season. 



The simplest and most inexpensive protection, how- 

 ever, is that of simply straining two or three rows of 

 black thread or black cotton over the quarters sown or 

 planted with Sweet Peas. We have occasionally heard 

 of failure where this method of protection has been 

 observed, but such a statement it is very hard to give 

 credence to. Provided the thread or cotton be kept 

 taut by the insertion of short stakes at regular intervals 

 of about six feet, more or less, throughout the rows, and 

 the lines be maintained at from four to six inches above 

 the ground level, we have never experienced any trouble 

 from the birds. Of course, if the lines are allowed to 

 sag, and rest on the ground, the grower cannot >ery well 

 expect protection in such circumstances to be afforded. 

 White cotton or thread is useless, and the practice of 

 tying on strips of paper to the cotton, etc., to frighten 

 the birds has no deterrent effect whatever. Some 

 growers assert that they have never failed to bring their 

 plants through such a period when they have strained 

 black cotton or black thread two or three inches above 

 the soil. Those who have a cool greenhouse may of 

 course raise their choicer varieties under glass, and by 

 subsequently placing them in the cold frame to harden 

 off preparatory to planting outdoors, may raise a batch 

 of plants of a hardy kind, that the birds are less likely 

 to give their attention to. Scarce varieties and novelties 

 we should hesitate to sow outdoors, and those raised in 

 heat under glass we should not place in their permanent 

 quarters outdoors, until they had been subjected to the 



