Seeds 55 



the basis of all hotbeds, and there lay their eggs. I won't de- 

 scribe the white grub, for it is a horror to think of with its thin, 

 shiny, bluish-white skin, thick body, and unnecessary equip- 

 ment of legs. When you see something from half an inch to 

 two inches long that turns your very soul with revolt, it is the 

 white grub, that never comes to the surface in bold fashion to 

 stand tiptoe on the end of its little tail to eat a plant right 

 through above ground as the manly brown cut-worm does. 

 No, it wanders just below the surface, eats the roots and 

 tender stalks of seedlings that can utter no sound but just 

 die. If you are new to the business you stand around futilely 

 witnessing the infant mortality, and declaim against the acts 

 of Providence. I was happy in capturing six victims in the 

 hotbed though the rows were already decimated, and I knew 

 that a whole year had been lost for many of the seeds 

 planted. The following June, after my annuals were re- 

 moved, I decided to dig over the hotbeds I then had four 

 which had been prepared in the usual manner with manure 

 and loam, except that they were planted late enough not to re- 

 quire glass, and to my amazement I found not six grubs, but 

 literally hundreds. I immediately understood the cause of my 

 former losses, and determined never again to use manure as 

 an underpinning of a hotbed, for it is manure alone that at- 

 tracts the brown May beetle. In recent years I have gone 

 much further and do not use manure anywhere in the garden, 

 unless it has been thoroughly mixed with other ingredients in 

 a compost heap, and has stood a year or more, and is carefully 

 forked over before applying to the beds. I have not found a 

 single grubworm for four years and believe this is the only 

 safeguard against them. 



Having despatched the battalions, I planted perennial 

 seeds again in faith, strengthened by a quantity of wood ashes 

 mixed through the soil, as a protection against pests, using no 



