1907.] 



Birds and Fruit Growers. 



669 



make up too gallons, and passing the mixture through a 

 strainer of fine brass wire gauze. It is important to obtain 

 lime of the best quality, and freshly burnt. 



It is further to be observed that in spraying trees and bushes 

 to prevent bud-eating the usual caution against applying the 

 wash otherwise than in a very fine spray, applicable to the 

 operation when trees are in leaf, does not apply. On the con- 

 trary, sprayings should be done so freely that the trees or 

 bushes will be as well coated as if they had been whitewashed 

 with a brush. As the buds are smooth, they are less easily 

 coated than the branches, and a slight spraying does not cover 

 them sufficiently. 



The chief object of including soft soap in the mixture is that 

 of making the stuff stick on the trees and bushes. A trial with 

 a little linseed oil proved that it was less effective for the 

 purpose named than soft soap. 



As the spinning of a web (jf fine cotton over gooseberry 

 bushes by means of a convenient tool known as Royle's threader 

 is often recommended, it seems desirable to repeat the state- 

 ment made in the article mentioned above, to the effect that the 

 plan proved a complete failure with me in the winter of 1903-4. 



The period of the year when it is necessary to spray to pre- 

 vent bud-eating varies with the kind of fruit, with the season, 

 and with the situation of the plantation. Gooseberries are 

 usually attacked sooner than plums, and, in my own experience, 

 the former are disbudded near the homestead sooner than those 

 which are further from the principal haunts of the house spar- 

 row. In a mild winter little or no damage is done before the 

 buds begin to swell ; but in severe weather birds, from lack of 

 other food, may begin the attack prematurely. Except near 

 the homestead, I have not noticed an attack before the New 

 Year has begun ; but in that exceptional situation it has been 

 commenced in or before the last week in December. This 

 season, for example, disbudded gooseberry bushes were noticed 

 near the homestead on the 19th of December, and spraying, 

 therefore, was done on the 20th. In a distant field, however, 

 the gooseberries were not touched by birds before January 17 ; 

 nor could any case of the disbudding of plums be found up to 

 the end of the month. Some families of bullfinches were on the 



