288 SATURDAY IN MY GARDEN 



preparation needs to be used carefully owing to its burning pro- 

 perties, and it should only be applied in winter, when the trees are 

 without foliage 



THE PEAR MIDGE. This small fly lays its eggs in the centre of 

 the flower when the trees are in blossom. The maggots thus pro- 

 duced feed inside the young fruits, cause malformation, and induce 

 premature falling. The object to be aimed at therefore is to 

 prevent the midge settling on the blossom, and this is best done 

 by spraying with liver of sulphur at the rate of one ounce to the 

 gallon, just before the buds open for blossoming. 



WASPS. These do great damage just as fruit is becoming ripe 

 in the orchards. Nests should be sought for and destroyed, 

 which can most conveniently be done by pouring in a quantity 

 of gas-tar. Wasps may be trapped by placing jars containing a 

 mixture of beer and sugar among the trees. 



SLUGS AND SNAILS The amateur gardener who sallies forth 

 with lighted lantern on moist summer evenings in search of snails 

 and slugs is often held up to ridicule by his non-horticultural 

 friends. But this plan of attacking the foe has everything to 

 recommend it, and he should not be discouraged from pursuing it 

 if he have time and patience enough for the task. Slugs, especi- 

 ally in neglected gardens, make their appearance in thousands 

 after heavy rain, and then is the time to make war on them. A 

 useful check to their work of devastation may be found in frequent 

 dustings of a mixture of slaked lime and soot along rows of sweet 

 peas, and round the roots of violas, pansies, delphiniums and other 

 tender plants. Where they can be obtained an excellent trap 

 can be made of brewers' grains. Place a handful, in the evening, 

 near the plants attacked, but by no means in contact with them, 

 and if the day has been dry water the surrounding earth slightly. 

 Go out when it is dark, carrying a lamp and a jar of strong solution 

 of salt, and if you are troubled with slugs you will find many of 

 them congregated all round and on the grains, and, indeed, coming 

 towards them on all sides, quite forgetting the plants which ap- 

 peared so tempting before. If dropped into the solution men- 

 tioned as they are gathered they seem to die almost directly. As 



