2OO NEW ZEALAND GARDENING. 



Cats are sometimes very destructive to young trees, by 

 tearing the young bark with their claws ; protect the stems 

 by tying a thin layer of gorse round the stem for two feet 

 high ; wire-netting will also answer. 



Hares and Rabbits, especially the former, are very 

 destructive to all kinds of deciduous trees while young. 

 Scores of trees, especially fruit trees, may be destroyed in 

 one night by hares stripping the stems of their bark. It will 

 pay to enclose the whole orchard with wire netting, which 

 may be had at from 4d. to 6d per yard. Where there are 

 only a few trees they may be protected by tying gorse round 

 the stems for a couple of feet from the ground upwards. 



Fowls and Pigs in the Orchard. Fowls do a large 

 amount of good during the Winter and Spring and early 

 Summer, scratching about the trees and feeding on insects 

 and grubs. If pigs are turned in in Autumn, after the crop 

 has been gathered, they will pick up the waste fruit. 



How to know the Edible Mushroom. When any 



doubt exists, put a little table-salt over the gills, which, if 

 the mushroom be genuine, will turn black in a short time. 

 Salt has no effect on poisonous fungi. 



A Compost Heap. W T hat is it ? A heap of manure 

 properly made ; a repository of all kinds of otherwise 

 obnoxious matter, converting the same into harmless yet 

 most valuable plant food. I say properly made, for there 

 are heaps and heaps, and it is almost rare to find one so 

 built as to rot well, and not to be either surrounded by 

 valuable liquid which is too often allowed to run waste, or 

 else the heap is thrown up anyhow to dry instead of rot, 

 and much of its value is lost in that way. 



To make a proper compost heap there, must be a fair 

 proportion of stable manure. Having that at command, first 

 dig out an oblong trench in a convenient situation ; say 

 eight feet or twelve feet for a garden : twice or three times 

 the size for a field ; throw out all the black soil down to the 

 clay on one side, leaving the other side clear for wheeling 

 or carting alongside. Commence with, say, a layer of 

 coarse stable manure about six inches thick, spread evenly 

 over the bottom, then build up layer by layer evenly and 

 flat with the clearings of hedge rows, ditches, grass walks, 



