Gardening for Amateurs 



8 77 



large trees or bushes the following are good 

 representatives : V. armata, amurensis, 

 cinerea, Coignetiae, flexuosa major, Thun- 

 bergii, Thomsoni, orientalis and vinifera 

 purpurea. They must be given rich and 

 deep loamy soil. 



Wistaria. The two most popular sorts 

 are W. Chinensis and W. multijuga, both 

 natives of China. They may be planted 

 against high buildings, on pergolas, or at 

 the foot of trees. When grown on houses 



and pergolas it is necessary to keep the 

 side branches cut well back in order to 

 induce a dense, spur-like system of growth. 

 W. Chinensis bears racemes 6 to 8 inches 

 long of fragrant mauve flowers in May and 

 early June, and W. multijuga produces 

 racemes up to 3^ feet in length of similar 

 coloured flowers in June. Each sort has 

 a white-flowered variety, multijuga alba 

 being the best owing to the length of 

 its flower bunches. 



The Leather Jacket Grub. Leather 

 jacket grubs are virulent pests in some parts 

 of the country, where they make their 

 presence obvious by extensive damage to 

 seedlings and the roots of more tender 

 plants. The grub is easily recognised ; it 

 is about 1 inch long, and somewhat variable 

 in colour, but generally very dark, either 

 dark brown or dark green ; when it is 

 washed, two light-tinted lines will be seen 

 down the back. It can push its black head 

 out at will, and, though it is legless, it can 

 move about very easily. Now, these larvae 

 are hatched from eggs in autumn, and they 

 hide in the soil all winter without doing 

 any visible damage ; when spring comes, 

 however, they soon begin their depredations 

 and work extensive havoc about the flower 

 borders. After voracious gluttony the grub 

 becomes a dormant pupa ; from this emerges 

 the mature insect which everybody knows 

 as the daddy-long-legs or crane-fly, the 

 pupa case being left protruding from the soil 

 with two horn -like processes on either side. 

 The crane-flies are generally plentiful about 

 the months of August and September, when 

 the females are engaged in laying eggs around 

 the garden, to continue the wonderful cycle 

 of changes common to all insects. 



The old adage that prevention is better 

 than cure applies with great force in the case 

 of this pest. Cold, wet, continuously sodden 

 soil is a fine breeding ground or nursery for 

 them and plants grown in such a place have 

 to withstand this pest besides the uncongenial 

 nature of the land. Too much farmyard 

 manure is also favourable to them, and he 

 will be a wise gardener who employs artificials 

 at times instead of the organic stuff, more 



particularly where the ground is in bad con- 

 dition. Lime is the best tonic I can mention ; 

 let it be applied regularly (see the article on 

 " Lime and Liming "), and at the same time 

 make every effort to get the soil into good 

 condition, and the number of pests will be 

 lessened. Soot is another common substance 

 that may be worked freely into the ground 

 in order to check them, and soil fumigants 

 undoubtedly help to lessen their numbers. 

 All these things may be applied in autumn 

 to kill the young leather jackets, or a week 

 or two before planting-out time, to act in a 

 similar way. The friendly starling is a 

 help, too, at the beginning of the year, for 

 he does not seem to object to this rather 

 tough specimen of animated nature. 



There are two kinds of manures which 

 must never be neglected when leather 

 jackets are in the soil. The first of these, 

 kainit, should be applied in autumn or 

 winter when digging is going on, and be 

 dusted along the face of the fresh soil through- 

 out the digging operation, a handful to 

 2 or 3 yards. Then, in spring, nitrate of soda, 

 ground fine and placed in a ring round 

 seedlings, renders the soil distasteful to the 

 grubs, and, at the same time, aids in urging 

 the plants past the stage at which they 

 suffer seriously. Watering the plants with 

 soft rainwater containing a small quantity 

 of a bitter insecticide, like quassia, Cyllin, 

 Kerol, Lysol, and the like also seems to 

 make the ground unpleasant for these in- 

 habitants, while soil fumigants of any reliable 

 kind undoubtedly serve a similar purpose. 

 During hoeing be on the lookout for the 

 destructive leathery grubs, and be sure that 

 you kill them. 



