SCIENCE OF FRUIT-SPRAYING 335 



bare. The explanation has been given that the night- 

 flying moths are attracted by the light of the moon in 

 the southern skies, and in flying towards it strike the 

 northern side of the tree. This, ingenious though it 

 may be, will not account for any extra quantities of the 

 female winter moth which may be found, because it is 

 wingless, and crawls up the trunk of the tree from the 

 ground. The moth probably chooses the driest side. 



In some seasons moths are caught on the bands in 

 enormous quantities. I saw one remarkable case in 

 which a band was covered so thickly that the fresh moths 

 were able to crawl over the bodies of earlier victims. 

 The grower thereupon covered the band with a second, 

 which also became packed, and then with a third, which 

 became as densely populated as the under two. There 

 were considerably more than a thousand moths on the 

 threefold band. 



The new spraying science is hardly called for in the 

 case of injury to the bark of trees through the nibbling 

 of rabbits and hares, as they can be kept away by smear- 

 ing the lower part of the trunk with a mixture of clay, 

 lime and cow manure. To make assurance doubly sure 

 the grower may stir a wineglassful of spirit of tar into 

 every pailful of the compound that he uses. 



It commonly happens that hares and rabbits are only 

 thought of when a good deal of mischief has been done. 

 The trees may be left untouched for years, and then be 

 badly barked in a night when snow lies on the ground. 

 There is a way of treating badly barked trees which the 

 owner of valued trees may like to note, for although trees 

 left to Nature do not always die they are liable to suffer 

 severely. The plan in question is to trim the nibbled 

 edges evenly and neatly round at both top and bottom, 

 and then to link them up by putting on two or three 



