34 THE GARDENERS NATURAL ENEMIES [CH. 



time of sowing to stretch a square of netting on a few pegs 

 over the bed, which should not be moved until the seeds 

 are well over ground. 



In fighting our garden enemies of all sorts it is well to 

 act promptly, e.g. where the gooseberry caterpillar makes 

 his first appearance, just as the fruit is being formed, there 

 must not be a day's delay in applying the finger and thumb 

 remedy easy work that day, but hopeless when a week 

 has passed. 



Wireworms are the brown centipede grubs of a beetle 

 which I have known to destroy a whole field of potatoes. 

 They are a pest to be reckoned with in the garden, but, as 

 a rule, they only give trouble in fresh soil which has come 

 in from the field. Gas lime is perhaps the best remedy. 

 It should be spread on the ground in the proportion of 

 I cwt to every 60 square yards, and allowed to remain 

 during the winter, and afterwards dug into the soil ; 

 i stone of coarse salt to the same space dug in during 

 the late autumn has been found to kill the larvae. 



Wireworm may be discovered sometimes in the earlier 

 stages of his depredations in some particular part of a 

 flower-bed, and it may be possible to arrest his progress 

 without sacrificing the crop all round by the use of such 

 drastic measures as applications of salt or gas lime. It is 

 worth while in such cases to try and trap the larvae by 

 inserting a few scooped potatoes stuffed with pieces of 

 sweet plum cake amongst the roots, and examining them 

 each morning for a few days. Perhaps the simplest and 



