776 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



October 12, igi^;^ 



are intersect^ by a well-furnished pergola, 

 with American Pillar, Tausendschon^ Lady 

 Gay, Dorothy Perkins, Hiawatha, Madame 

 Abel Carriere, Blush and Tea Ramblers, 

 Alberic Barbier, etc.^ were all in good 

 health, and showing evidence of having pro- 

 vided a good display during the summer. 



Remarkable crops of apples and pears 

 were to be seen in the walled-in garden, 

 and also in the orchard. This abundance 

 is not general in the Thames Valley, and 

 many fruit gardens that I have seen this 

 season have been only thinly cropped. In- 

 door fruit is well managed, and though 

 the poaches and nectarines were practically 

 over^ tlie trees looked in excellent order 

 for <*anyin(; a good crop next year. Of 

 the tour vineries the only house not cut 

 was one of Alicantes, and this was carry- 

 ing a fine <'rop of good-sized and particu- 

 larly well-coloured bunches. The plant 

 houses also are of considerable in- 

 toH'st, tlic l.'ir<>;«. house of winter-flowering 

 (aniatlons |>i-onusing well for a good dis- 



POINTS ABOUT GREASE 



BANDING. 



Just now apple growers are busy picking 

 apples, storing or marketing the same, but 

 at harvest time in the orchard and fruit 

 plantation thoughts turn in the direction 

 of next sea^ion, and the moment is oppor- 

 tune for taking early precautions to prevent 

 the ravages of insect pests in the future. 

 The leaf-eating caterpillar of the winter 

 moth is one of the worst pests that fruit 

 growers have to deal with, and unlike 

 some other insects, for it is broad in its 

 tastas, as it feeds on the young foliage 

 of apples, pears, plums, and cherries, in 

 orchards and fruit gardens, lacerates the 

 leaves on hedgerows, and plays havoc with 

 the leafage of oak trees in the woodland. 



It is no wonder that a pest capable of 

 doing such widespread damage is difficult 

 to cope with, and in providing ways and 

 means this is one of the cases in which 



In dealing with insect pests prevention 

 is better than cure, so the idea suggested 

 itself that if means were adopted to capture 

 the female moth as she journeyed up the 

 tree, egg-laying would be prevented. Thil 

 led to fastening bands of grease-proof 

 paper round the stems of the trees and 

 smearing them with a sticky kind of grease 

 and in practice it must be said that the 

 process answers. There are, of course 

 some people who are sceptical about grease! 

 banding, but the proof of the pudding is 

 in the eating, and they may not have seen 

 as I have, grease bands so thickly covered 

 with both male and female moths that dead 

 bodies made bridges for live insects to crawl 

 over. Neither can the sceptics have been 

 in that splendid fruit-growing district in 

 the Vale of Evesham, where every grower 

 grease-bands his trees as a matter of rule 

 and where, by adopting this co-operative 

 plan, winter moth infestation has been 

 reduced to a minimum in the localitv. The 



science has come to the aid of the cultiva- Evesham fruit grower does not spend time 



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VIEW IN SLOWER GARDEN OF THE iFRIARY. 



play 



f excels 



all 



Mr. West tor. 



through the winter. 

 in the cultivation of these plants, 

 ami hi-s exhibits; of perpetual carnations at 

 the autumn slu)w, and of his Malmaisons 

 at the summer show, of the Windsor and 

 District Horticultural Society, are always 

 much admired. 



^ Calanthe Veitchi is also a feature, as also 

 is Begonia Gloire de Lorraine, these latter 

 being cultivated in comparatively small 

 pots, though the plants often reach a yard 

 m height. Single chrysanthemums are ex- 

 tensively grown lx)th for cutting and group- 



tlie fine groups of these put up 

 at Windsor Show have from time to time 

 been favourably commented on, and, in one 

 instance, illu,strated in the Gardeners' 



The wlu)le ])lare bears evidence of irood 

 managonuMit. tbe onthuaiastic efforts of an 



onor^t'tu^ and skilful 



K^,.. , , ' gardener being 



or ^nd sympathetic 



^^mployer. Thomas Stevenson. 



i ruit growers might have been con- 

 tented to include the winter moth along 

 with other pests under the comprehensive 

 heading of -blight,'^ but the scientist 

 studied the habits of the pest, found that 

 the dull grey little moth that flits through 

 the evening air in the autumn is the male 

 and that the female has only rudimen- 

 tary wings, and is unable to fly. Nature 

 prompts her to lay her eggs in the branches 

 ot trees and near to the shoots on which 

 the young caterpillars will feed so she 

 crawls up the stems in order to deposit her 

 eggs in crevices on the limbs and near the 

 ends of the shoots. Towards the end of 

 March hatching begins, and the looper 

 caterpillars, first a dirty grey and then 

 ^roon with pale lines, devour an amount of 

 lea [age that is quite out of proportion 

 thtir size, until they are about an i..^„ 

 long, and when full fed they let themselves 

 down to the ground and remain in a pupa 

 stage until the moths emerge in the autumn 



to 

 nch 



and money on grease banding for amuse- 

 ment^he is out to make his business pay? 

 and adopts this operation as a means to 

 that end. 



Many people fail to obtain the full benefit 

 from grease banding because they are not 

 persistent enough. Perhaps they put bands 

 on one year and do not catch many moths, 

 for the simple reason, probably, that the 

 pests were not so numerous as usual that 

 season. Not having caught many moths 

 one year, they give up banding, whereas if 

 they had continued they might have cap- 

 tured thousands the next. As a matter of 

 fact, this spasmodic grease banding is »o 

 good, and if it is to be efficacious it must 

 be done as a matter of rule and in anti- 

 oipation of what may happen. 



Secondly, there is^^the mistakf^ of putting 

 the bands on too late, and many a pouml 

 in time and money have been wasted on put- 

 ting on grease bands after the motlts wcr<j 

 safe in the trees. Grease banding shoukl 



