60 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



begun to grow, a pretty strong thread is passed 

 by a needle through the peas, leaving two _ of 

 them on every 9 inches of thread, at which 

 lengths the thread is cut off. Tie a knot at the 

 end of each length ; take two pieces of straight 

 wood, cut them into 1-foot lengths, make a slit 

 about an inch deep in the top end of each, 

 and stick them in the ground near the line of 

 pease. The thread is then drawn through the 

 slit ends of the sticks, and a brick is placed 

 with one end resting on the ground, and the 

 other resting on the thread about 3 inches from 

 its end, the two peas on the thread being near 

 the middle of the brick, and 2 inches apart. 

 The mouse, in attempting to eat or take away the 

 peas, cuts the thread, and lets the brick down 

 upon itself. It has been stated that mice will 

 not take peas until they have begun to vege- 

 tate, and this is given as a reason for sprouting 

 the bait : we do not think them so very fastidi- 

 ous ; but if it is really so, they may be set the 

 one way as well as the other. If people would 

 only persevere with any of these traps, they 

 would soon rid their garden of such pests, with- 

 out the dangerous expedient of using poison. 

 Phosphorus paste may be safely used in gardens 

 for the destruction of both rats and mice. It is 

 thus prepared : To 8 parts of phosphorus, 

 liquified in 180 parts of lukewarm water, placed 

 in a mortar, add immediately 180 parts of rye- 

 meal (any other meal will do as well) ; when cold, 

 mix them up with 180 parts of butter and 125 

 parts of sugar. These animals will greedily de- 

 vour this mixture, after which they will swell 

 out and die. It may be kept for many years 

 without losing its efficacy, and can never injure 

 human beings on account of the smell. This 

 receipt was published some years ago by order 

 of the Prussian government. Meal, butter, and 

 sugar, mixed dry with plaster of Paris, and laid 

 down where damp cannot affect it, will have a 

 similar effect. The animals eat it readily. It 

 soon afterwards causes in them a great thirst ; 

 as soon as they take water, the plaster of Paris 

 powder swells out and bursts them. Pease, beans, 

 or any other grain, steeped for several hours in 

 water in which nux vomica has been boiled, and 

 placed in the way of mice, destroys them with- 

 out even endangering the life of the cat that 

 may afterwards eat them. 



Amongst the feathered tribe, the sparrow, 

 tomtit, chaffinch, and jackdaw are very destruc- 

 tive to pease at most seasons, but particularly 

 so in spring, when their other kinds of food are 

 less plentiful. The three first of these we can 

 ill dispense with, because of the valuable services 

 they render us in the destruction of myriads of 

 even more formidable enemies during summer; 

 as for the latter, we can hardly say a word in 

 his favour, further than that we know God made 

 nothing in vain ; and even this " gentleman in 

 black " may be of far greater service to us, in 

 some less direct way, than we may be aware of 

 at present. We never destroy birds, believing 

 them far more useful than hurtful, which we 

 hope to show more clearly when we come to 

 speak of fruit and fruit-tree buds. To protect 

 young pease in spring, we dust the rows over 

 every morning, or every second one at furthest, 



with a little hot lime in powder, so as to render 

 them quite white. Our mode of application is 

 to have a stock of lime in a dry place, and to 

 send a boy with a thin canvass bag in each 

 hand, containing the lime in powder, and as he 

 passes along between the rows, he shakes the bags 

 over the pease, when the finer particles, passing 

 through the canvass, powder the pease quite 

 white, in which state these creatures will seldom 

 touch them. This process answers another end 

 —it greatly saves the crop from the pea weevil. 

 The operation is best performed when the 

 plants are dry, else the caustic property is soon 

 destroyed. As the attacks of birds take place 

 generally soon after daybreak, the dusting is in 

 general done in the evening previous ; but, no 

 doubt, it would be more effectual if done soon 

 after daylight in the morning. The jackdaw 

 not only crops off the tops of the young 

 plants, but, preferring the seed, it with great 

 sagacity often begins at the end of a row, and 

 abstracts every pea in the line. Liming the 

 surface pretty thickly tends to keep them 

 away, but no means are so thoroughly effectual 

 as having wire cages, of a semicircular shape, 

 and in lengths of from 6 to 8 feet, or more, to 

 place over the drills, and these can most readily 

 be thus constructed : Take a web of octagon 

 wire-netting, 18 inches in breadth, cut it into 

 convenient lengths, lay them flat over the gar- 

 den roller or any other cylindrical body, bend 

 them down at the edges, and by this mode a 

 dozen of cages may be made in half an hour. 

 Such cages are of vast importance in a garden : 

 they not only protect pease from the attacks of 

 birds, but they protect all other crops in like 

 manner, and are valuable for laying over parsley, 

 endive, young cauliflower plants, lettuce, &c, 

 during winter, when a little litter is laid over 

 them, and frost thus repelled. The litter can 

 be removed on fine days, and put on again when 

 required, without injury to the crop. Such 

 netting, 18 inches wide, costs 9d. per lineal 

 yard ; and cages so formed will last for years, if 

 not wantonly injured when out of use. 



In forming these cages, it will be of advan- 

 tage, for giving them greater strength for moving 

 about, as well as for keeping them in proper 

 shape, if a bar of round ^-inch iron be secured 

 along their bottom sides — which can readily be 

 done by a handy labourer, by splicing the edges 

 of the netting to the bars along their whole 

 length, and welding on a cross-bar at each end 

 of the same sized bar, and one or two, according 

 to the length of the cage, across from side to 

 side. Such cages are next to invaluable, as 

 means of protecting from cold and cutting winds 

 all newly-planted crops in lines, as a few ever- 

 green branches may be tied tightly to them, so 

 as to prevent their being blown away; or water- 

 proof canvass, or asphalt felt, may be employed 

 when keeping the crop dry is an object. Two 

 laths of wood may be used instead of the rods 

 of iron ; but they, of course, would be less 

 durable. 



We were driven to this expedient some years 

 ago, when grievously persecuted by pheasants, 

 and where to have killed one would have been 

 accounted little less than a high misdemeanour. 



