FRUIT DESTROYERS AND GARDEN PESTS 



and easier of application. A simple plan, and one which the writer 

 has found very useful, is to run a thread of stout „. ^ r tt 

 black cotton from branch to branch all round the bush. ^"^ ° "^ 

 The cotton being black, the birds do not easily see it, and alighting 

 on a branch thus protected, their claws become entangled and they 

 are alarmed, so that they shun the spot for the future. The same 

 method may be usefully applied to protect the young shoots of the 

 peas, which being succulent and tasty morsels for the birds, are often 

 nipped off immediately they appear above ground, thus destroying 

 the crop. It is a good rule, therefore, to run two or three lines of 

 black cotton along the rows of peas as soon as the sowing is com- 

 pleted, for to delay this protection until the shoots appear is often 

 fatal; the birds are sharp-sighted and will probably perceive the 

 young shoots before the gardener has noticed them. Another plan 

 for the protection of fruit-buds is to place on the 

 ground beneath each bush a shallow pan kept filled m* th'^***^ 

 with water — the ordinary flower-pot saucer is as good 

 as anj^hing for the purpose. These saucers of water make a con- 

 venient drinking supply for the birds, and it is asserted that if they 

 have free access, in shallow receptacles such as these, to water which 

 they can drink and splash about in without danger, they will re- 

 frain, in a great measure, from attacking the buds, to which they 

 have recourse chiefly because of the moisture they contain. The 

 same theory is applicable to the ravages made by birds on ripe fruit, 

 and there seems no reason to reject it as mere idle fancy. Indeed, to 

 a certain extent, it has been substantiated by the writer's personal 

 experience, for with the use of water pans he has succeeded in gather- 

 ing a full crop of cherries (of which starlings and blackbirds seem to 

 be inordinately fond) without any serious depredations by the birds, 

 while with a neighbour, who has a similar tree in a garden close at 

 hand, but who disdains any such precautions, nearly aU the cherries 

 were devoured by the birds. 



CATS 



It may be that some lovers of cats wiU almost tcike offence at 

 these domestic pets being included in the Ust of garden pests, but in 

 the subxurbs of towns, where gardens are small and adjoin each other, 

 there can be no doubt that the gambols of cats are a serious nuisance, 

 especially in the spring. A seed-bed, either in the vegetable or 

 flower garden, h£is been carefully prepared, the seed sown, £ind 



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