NURSERY PESTS 55 



(10) Lifting the Plants for Planting Out. 



This must be done very carefully indeed. It is very 

 essential that they be raised right up with a spade, before 

 they are pulled away from the earth. If they are to a great 

 extent pulled up, the greater part of the fibrous roots will be 

 severed, and the trees will suffer accordingly. When "lifted," 

 the plants are pruned as necessary, and should then be 

 counted and tied in bundles, and the roots wrapped round 

 with damp moss or straw and covered up with sacking, and 

 immediately carted to the site where planting is to be done. 

 They should then be unloaded, and their roots placed in a 

 trench, and then some earth thrown over the roots. 



Only such plants as are wanted for one day's planting 

 should be brought at a time, unless the nursery is a long way 

 off. The roots must never be allowed to become dry, either 

 from the effects of wind or sun. 



INSECT AND FUNGOID AND OTHER ENEMIES IN 

 THE NURSERY. 



The chief trouble from insect enemies in the nursery is 

 from cockchafer grubs and -wire-worms and the Pine weevil. 



The latter, though often doing enormous damage, chiefly to 

 Spruce and Scots Pine when from 3 to 6 years old, is 

 more prevalent in the forest, where it is attracted by freshly 

 cut tree stumps. 



As regards the former pests, gas-lime on the fallow 

 portion of the nursery is the best remedy, as already stated. 

 Sometimes a system of trapping is practised for getting rid 

 of the cockchafer grubs. Sods of turf are laid face down- 

 wards here and there, or potatoes, cut in half, are hidden a 

 few inches in the ground at intervals. The position of the 

 latter should be marked by sticks, and the potatoes and the 

 sods of turf should be examined constantly, and the grubs 

 destroyed. 



A preventative remedy is to dust flowers of sulphur over 

 the beds in May and June, which stops the beetle laying her 

 eggs. Land badly affected must be summer fallowed and 



