"8? ENEMIES IN THE GARDEN 95 



I put hens in the garden; but instead of eating 

 the hoppers they scratched out some of my best 

 plants. 



A number of times daily I chased them out 

 of the garden with brush. My friends said I 

 presented a funny sight in doing this, and no 

 doubt they were right. What was particularly 

 annoying was that these hoppers preferred the 

 glorious blossoms of my imported Japanese iris 

 plants to everything else in the garden! When 

 I put cheesecloth around them they ate through 

 it and got the blossoms all the same! The only 

 way we could get our share of the iris flowers 

 was by cutting the stems with the buds and let- 

 ting them open in the house. 



Perhaps I ought to have felt some professional 

 sympathy with these floral epicures because of 

 their good taste; but I didn't, any more than I 

 have felt with cutworms, though they, too, 

 eat only the daintiest young plants. With 

 them and other garden visitors of their kind I 

 must forever remain on a war footing. Let me 

 name but two more of them, epicures both, the 

 "cornivorous" crow and the festive woodchuck. 



Thanks to Laddie, I have never had any 

 trouble with woodchucks. One summer he 

 killed fourteen, mostly with my aid, he on one 

 side of the stone fence, I on the other, removing 

 the stones one by one; or else digging them out 

 of their tunnels, I with a spade, he with his 

 paws. Less fortunate are gardeners who have 



