COMMONPLACE NOTES. 



1093 



Babbits barking Trees. 



A Fellow inquires how best to protect young trees from rabbits. 

 The best way. no doubt, is to wire them round with small meshed wire at 

 a distance of six or eight inches from the stem, taking care to let the 

 wire go down at least six inches below the surface to prevent the rabbits 

 burrowing under, and having it high enough to keep them from leaping 

 over. Save, however, with a few specimen trees this is generally con- 

 sidered too expensive, and as a rule tar is used instead. But tar is not 

 always satisfactory, as it sometimes itself kills the trees, particularly if 

 applied after the rabbits have commenced to bark them. In any case 

 Stockholm and not gas tar should be used, and a better plan than putting 

 it on the young trees is to drive in a few stakes round the stem and smear 

 them with the tar, as rabbits have a great dislike to their fur sticking 

 to anything. We have found the following preparations very useful for 

 the purpose : (1) Davidson's Composition, made by a Leith firm ; (2) a 

 teaspoonful of the tincture of assafoetida in half a bucketful of liquid 

 soil applied with a brush, perhaps twice during winter ; (3) a mixture of 

 lime, water, and cow manure, pretty strong, is excellent ; so is any 

 strong-smelling grease. 



Gritty Pears. 



" Why are my Pears, especially late varieties, so gritty now ? They 

 used not to be so," is the query more than one Fellow has put to us during 

 the past year or two. It is said that the pruning and manuring and 

 other treatment is just the same as in former days, and the poor quality 

 of the fruit is put down to the roots being too far from the surface, tap- 

 roots, the stock worn out, or some chemical constituent lacking in the 

 soil. While admitting that one or more of these causes may in certain 

 cases have such an injurious effect on the fruit, we believe that the 

 principal cause is want of water, and if that necessary element could be 

 supplied in copious quantities during the summer and autumn months 

 those varieties of Pears that were esteemed for their high flavour and 

 melting flesh, would again be as good as ever they were. Very few 

 people realise what an enormous deficit there has been in the rainfall 

 for a number of years past, and as a large proportion of the late varieties 

 of Pears are grown on wall trees this shortage is greatly increased, as 

 when the wind is in certain directions most of the rain falls on the 

 opposite side of the wall to that on which the trees are planted. Again, 

 bricks absorb a large quantity of moisture, and if the rainfall were normal 

 it would still be very advisable to give the roots a good soaking of water 

 occasionally to make up for any deficiency ; therefore how much more 

 essential it is to water freely in such dry years as we have had recently ! 

 All wall trees are immensely benefited by a liberal watering occasionally 

 during the hottest months of the year, but our experience is that no fruit 

 is so much improved by it as those varieties of Pears that are slow in 

 development, even that overrated variety, ' Beurre Diel,' will lose a great 

 part of its grittiness if supplied with plenty of water while the fruit is 

 swelling up to ripeness. 



