50 



JOUEKAL OF HOETICULTDRE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ January 19, 1S71. 



then that on the upper part would have slid right off. The 

 truth is, that we wanted the snow to lie as a good protection, 

 and even in this respect we shall be gainers by it, as the benefit 

 derived will greatly exceed the value and trouble of replacing 

 five or six squares of glass. 



From such a simple matter a useful lesson may be learned. 

 If there had been no artificial heat, if the lower snow had been 

 moved, it the squares had been 4 or 5 inches less in width 

 from bar to bar, or if the squares had been 21 or more ounces 

 to the foot instead of about 13 ounces, then in either case it is 

 likely that no square would have been broken. 



We are quite aware that glass is often broken by ice forming 

 and expanding in the lap betwixt the panes of glass. In steep- 

 roofed houses, and even in sashes to pits that have a good in- 

 cline, this is most apt to take place in frosty weather at the 

 lowest squares, where the first square rests upon the wood, and 

 that all the more in proportion to the heat used inside and the 

 severity of the frost outside. When long squares are used, 

 this often entails great loss from the chipping and cracking in 

 front of these terminal squares. We have known cases in 

 which, owing to very sudden and extreme changes of tempe- 

 rature, this cracking from the expansion of frozen water would 

 take place here and there over a whole roof. Generally, how- 

 ever, it is the terminal front square of glass that suiJerg most 

 from this cause. We say nothing now of puttied laps, and 

 glass laid edge to edge without laps, and how far these would 

 in the body of the house neutralise this ice-expansion. In our 

 practice we have without glazed laps, but narrow laps made 

 in the usual way, the glass lying as close as possible, square to 

 square, suffered very little from the ice-expansion generally ; 

 but we have had a good many front squares cracked where the 

 glass joined the wood. To counteract this, many years ago we 

 had small squares of zinc, say, according to the space between the 

 sashbars, of from 3 to 6 inches in depth, that terminated the glaz- 

 ing in front, the zinc instead of the glass resting on the front 

 wood. The zinc was roughly grooved beneath to let condensed 

 moisture out. In severe frost we have had these small zinc 

 squares raised from the wood f ally an inch in the centre by the 

 expanding ice, but the squares of glass behind them were un- 

 touched. The zinc squares were easily brought to their level 

 when the frost was gone. We have nothing of the sort in the 

 orchard houses. As it is, we think we have escaped very well 

 with so few squares cracked. It is where heat is used inside 

 that the ice is so apt to accumulate at the bottom squares of 

 the roof. With improved rafters and sashbars, to collect the 

 condensed moisture, so that it shall neither fall over the house 

 inside nor find its way out over the front plate of the sashes, 

 there would no doubt be less of this accumulation of moisture 

 and ice-espansion ; but most of us are glad to get common 

 conveniences, though we duly estimate all improvements. 



There is another case in which these small terminal zinc 

 squares are useful. Sashes for frames and pits are now often 

 made with a narrower rail or plate in front than used to be the 

 custom. These are often moved from the front as well as back. 

 It matters not if you have ever such a nice handle for this 

 purpose, if the front rail is at all narrow, the chances are if 

 one hand holds the handle, the other seizes the front rail or 

 plate, and smack goes a heavy thumb on the front glass, almost 

 with the certainty of cracking it. The zinc terminal would 

 save the cracking. "Ah! but how careless and slovenly." 

 True, most true ! but, unfortunately, the careless and the slovenly 

 seem inbred and natural to most of us. Ton may paint all 

 your garden and house doors very nicely, furnish them with 

 all needful handles for opening and shutting, and you will be 

 fortunate if in a fortnight you do not find your paint disfigured 

 with dirty thumb and finger marks above and beneath the 

 handles, where there is not the least occasion for them to be. 

 Even nice finger-plates screwed on will not thoroughly save 

 yon from the annoyance, and yet the handle would have been 

 sufficient for all that was wanted, without using the other 

 hand to the Btyle of the doorway at all.— E. F. 



SOME PREDATORY INSECTS OF OUR 

 GAEDENS.— No. i. 

 So5iE persons when hurrying along a country road or lane on 

 a cold day in December or January, and endeavouring to per- 

 suade themselves that because they were walking quickly they 

 were really getting a little warm, may have given a glance in 

 passing at a paling or wall, and seen there sitting very com- 

 posedly some male individuals of the Winter Sloth (Cheimatobia 

 brumata), shown in the accompanying figure. The dumpling- 



Female. 

 Cheimatobia bramata. 



bodied females are, however, rarely seen in such positions, their 

 business lying elsewhere. A momentai-y feeling of surprise^ 

 may come across the observer, if he is at all interested in natural 



phenomena, that in the winter 

 ilale. season insects should thus come 



forth ; and if he think about it, 

 he may propound the theory 

 that the specimens are in a state 

 of hybernation, and are waiting 

 for the advent of spring. This 

 is not so, however. The Winter 

 Moth comes out from its state 

 of torpor in the ehrysahs state, 

 and though it usually emerges 

 during some mild break in the 

 weather, it will live a certain 

 time through frost and snow. 

 A pleasant windfall many indi- 

 viduals prove to certain hungry 

 spiders, who make prey of them in fault of better food. The 

 appearance of this Moth seems suited to the season. It is not 

 at all downy, but the wings present a bare aspect, which befits 

 its wintry though brief life. 



Now this brumata, harmless as it might be deemed when 

 viewed only in its moth state, is a terrible destroyer of vege- 

 tation. The ravages of the species are to be noted most years, 

 sometimes in the woodland scene, sometimes in the orchard, 

 then again in the garden ; for the caterpillar, though it has a 

 great liking for Hawthorn, is in no wise particular, and will 

 transfer itself very comfortably from one species to another as 

 opportunity offers. But its penchant for Hawthorn is a decided 

 annoyance to those gardeners, of both sexes, who pride them- 

 selves especially on their trim and verdant hedges. In other 

 days I can remember more than once being warned off sternly 

 by the owner of a garden plot, from whose hedge I had simply 

 plucked a few leaves, without injuring a bough or even a twig; 

 and in fact there have been cases where persons have beea 

 absurdly particular about their hedges enclosing their grounds, 

 which said hedges were seen by their neighbours, and yet almost 

 careless about the arrangement of the ground within and not 

 open to inspection. Are not these persons comparable to cer- 

 tain others one meets with, who devote much time to the deco- 

 ration of the exterior of the head, and trouble themselves very 

 little about the right ordering of the brain which fills it ? 



To return to our Winter Moth, however. It is clear that a 

 garden pest of this sort can only be effectually kept under by 

 attacking it in its various stages at the different seasons of the 

 year. Mr. Newman, whose labours in this direction — that is, 

 in the investigation of the economy of predatory insects — have 

 been so persevering, and as yet scarcely appreciated, points out 

 minutely what may be done. The eggs of this moth, which 

 are greenish white and of a tolerable size, are laid by the wing- 

 less females in crevices in the trunks of trees, sometimes also 

 on the branches, and in nooks and comers. Every batch of 

 eggs destroyed means not only the reduction of the caterpillars 

 in the coming season, but cuts off also those of which, had they 

 lived and thriven, they would have become the parents when 

 they emerged as moths. Egg-hunting of this sort is tedious 

 work, though one way of killing these eggs, Newman shows, is 

 by deferring the pruning of fruit trees until after they are 

 deposited, when the prnnings will carry away a number of eggs 

 wilh tbem. Of course it is understood then, that they must 

 not be buried or scattered about. The moth is, perhaps, the 

 most important object to attack, for it is as certain that dead 

 moths lay no eggs as it is that dead men tell no tales. The 

 German mode of proceeding is to daub a compoti;ion around 

 the trunks or stems of trees likely to be ascended by the female 

 moths. The best composition for the purpose, says Mr. New- 

 man, is a mixture of Stockholm tar and cart-grease, a sticky- 

 enough compound ; and since the absence of wings necessitates 

 the use of legs, and the moths, when they quit their chrysalis 

 state in the earth, naturally move upwards, they may be taken 

 in numbers by this expedient, the capture of the males being 

 a matter of secondary importance. 



The number of eggs deposited by each female varies froM 

 150 to 200 ; and when thousands of these are thus entrapped 

 and settled, the following spring is likely to show a great dimi- 

 nution in the number of caterpillars infesting the garden. Nor 

 does any evil result then ensue to the trees or shrubs about 

 which a circle of this composition is drawn, though it is ad- 

 mitted that " applied in the warm weather of April and May i-t 

 has proved destructive in many cases, probably from its greateT 



