200 The Flower Garden [Chapter 



do well in any good garden soil and under ordinary 

 cultivation. Iris should be taken up and divided 

 every three or four years, removing all dead or ex- 

 hausted growth, and setting one live toe, or point, in 

 a place. They will not do well the first year of divid- 

 ing, but the following year will be very fine, especially 

 if there have been enough roots to make several long, 

 parallel rows. 



While not troubled with any disease or insect pest, 

 the moles seem to have an especial liking for the roots 

 of the Japanese Iris, and have caused me much loss. 

 The only preventive is to shut the moles out of the 

 bed by sinking a close wire netting around it to a depth 

 of eighteen inches, or by making early and persistent 

 use of good mole-traps one at each end of the row, 

 or at the spots where they enter and leave the bed. 

 By this method I caught ten moles in as many days in 

 the Iris beds, and was comparatively free from them 

 the remainder of the season. Salt pork or bacon 

 rinds buried in their runs will sometimes drive them 

 away for a time, but this is not to be depended on, 

 neither is the presence of Castor-oil plant, which, so 

 far as I have observed, has not the slightest value. 

 The only method is to trap them early in the spring, 

 before they begin to breed; setting the trap in the 

 runs from the nest and not in the shallow feeding runs 

 they make close to the surface. These they may not 

 visit again in days, if at all, but the main runs, which 

 usually extend in several directions from their bur- 



