OF SELB011NE. 151 



in a decaying state. This may prove 

 a hint to assiduous gardeners to fence and 

 shelter their wall-trees with mats or boards, 

 as they may easily do, because such annoy- 

 ance is seldom of long continuance. Dur- 

 ing that Summer also, I observed that my 

 apples were coddled, as it were, on the 

 trees ; so that they had no quickness of 

 flavour, and would not keep in the Winter. 

 This circumstance put me in mind of what 

 I have heard travellers assert, that they 

 never ate a good apple or apricot in the 

 south of Europe, where the heats were so 

 great as_to render the juices vapid and in- 

 sipid. 



The great pests of a garden are wasps, 

 which destroy all the finer fruits just as 

 they are coming into perfection. In 178J 

 we had none ; in 1783 there were myriads ; 

 which would have devoured all the pro- 

 duce of my garden, had not we set the boys 

 to take the nests, and caught thousands 

 with hazel twigs tipped with -bird-lime : 

 we have since employed the boys to take 

 <and destroy the large breeding wasps in the 



