42 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
January  9,  1902. 
'(Phlogopliora  ineticulosa.).  It  is  notable  for  its  elegant  markings 
more  than  for  its  colouring,  and  we  have  two  broods,  one  appearing 
in  May,  tlie  second  in  September.  It  is  decidedly  shy,  hence 
seldom  noticed.  Its  caterpillar  is  tolerably  familiar,  some  shade 
of  green,  having  numerous  white  dots,  and  a  velvety  skin,  the 
head  striped.  Usually,  it  is  not  abundant  enough  to  be  very 
injurious.  Its  preference  is  for  low  plants,  such  as  the  Auricula 
and  the  Primrose.  Occasionally  it  ascends  the  Chrysanthemum, 
more  particularly  the  summer  brood,  hatched  about  June.  The 
second  brood  feed  slowly,  and  seem  to  live  till  March,  when  the 
pupa  state  is  assumed.  There  is  also  a  small  Angleshades  moth, 
the  pupa  of  which  may  turn  up  amongst  Ferns,  but  it  is  local. — 
Entomologist. 
The  Uses  of  Cellulose, 
A  recent  number  of  the  “  Cliemiker  Zeitung  ”  gives  an 
account  of  the  many  purposes  for  which  cellulose  is  now  used. 
As  long  ago  as  1846  succe,s!5ful  attempts  were  made  to  utilise  raw 
vegetable  products,  wood  and  straw  in  particular,  for  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  cellulose.  It  was  prepared  from  these  substances  by 
means  of  caustic  .soda  as  a  reagent.  Of  late  years  the  reagent 
employed  for  the  purpose  has  been  a  solution  of  calcium  sulphite 
in  sulphurous  acid.  The  sulphite  cellulose  process  is  due  to  the 
labours  in  the  laboratoi-y  of  Al.  Mitscherlich  and  Tilghmann. 
The  slight  variations  in  the  chemical. properties  of  the  celluloses 
are  of  considerable  importance  to  the  manufacturer.  By  hydrat¬ 
ing  cellulose  with  acids,  continues  the  translator  in  the 
“  Westminster  Gazette,”  we  obtain  hydro-cellulose,  which  pos- 
sefsses  the  peculiar  property  of  falling  to  powder  at  the  smallest 
provocation.  This  proiierty  accounts  for  the  brittleness  of  paper 
made  from  cellulose  in  which  some  of  the  acid  still  remains.  It 
explains  how  in  the  cloth  mnnufacture  cellulose  is  removed  from 
wool  by  treatment  with  sulphuric  acid,  aluminium;  chloride,  Ac. 
The  carbon  fdanients  for  (dectr'c  lamps  are  made  from  the  plastic 
substance  obtained  by  heating  cellulose  with  H>jS04.  Grape 
sugar  is  formed  by  hydrolysing  cellulose  with  acids.  By  this 
means  wood  refuse  can  lie  made  available  for  the  manufacture  of 
sugar  and  alchol.  Count  Chardonnet  discovered  a  way  of 
utilising  the  fibres  of  cellulose  for  textile  purposes.  Sulphite 
cellulose  has  a  sillry  lustre  when  moist,  and  the  fibres  fonn'ed 
therefrom  retain  the  sheen  of  silk.  Cellulose  treated  with  cold 
concentrated  soda  lye,  or  mercerisation,  as  the  process  is  called, 
is  used  in  the  manufacture  of  crepon,  which  has  partially  replaced 
crinkled  crape.  The  artificial  silks  can  be  readily  distinguished 
from  the  real  article.  They  are  not  so  strong  as  real  silk,  and  in 
water  they  become  still  weaker,  so  that  microscopic  examination 
differentiates  the  tivo  products  at  once.  Verily,  things  are  not 
what  they  seem. 
Moles,  and  Mole  Trapping. 
The  common  mole  (Talpa  curopsea)  is  familiar  in  England, 
Wales,  and  Scotland,  but  comparatively  rare  in  Ireland,  and  is 
the  only  British  representative  of  the  fa.mily  Talpidas.  The 
females  bring  forth  four  or  five  young  about  the  month  of  April, 
and  these  are  lodged  in  a  special  nest  carefully  prepared  by  the 
jiarent  animals.  The  nest  is  generally  formed  at  the  inter¬ 
section  of  several  passages,  and  is  lined  by  young  grass  and  soft 
roots.  A  hillock  usually,  though  not  always,  marks  the  site  of 
the  nest.  The  galleries  of  moles  exhibit  great  ingenuity  and 
skill  in  their  excavation  ;  the  habitation,  fonned  under  a  hillock, 
consisting  of  an  upper  and  lower  gallery.  From  this  central 
point,  the  galleries  communicating  by  five  passages,  the  pi’incipal 
chamber  being  contained  within  the  lower  and  larger  gallery, 
the  mole  excavates  a  series  of  tunnels  leading  to  the  foraging 
or  hunting  ground  of  the  animal,  these  roads,  called  “  runs,” 
being  so  arranged  as  to  afford  easy  and  instant  access  from  any 
point  to  the  central  galleries  or  place  of  habitation. 
Moles  live  in  pairs,  and  appear  rarely  to  invade  the  terri¬ 
tories  of  neighbouring  families.  The  food  consists  of  worms, 
insects,  and  larvae ;  and  they  are  said  to  skin  the  worms  before 
eating  them.  In  habits  they  are  exceedingly  voracious.  Hunger 
soon  kills  them,  and  that  they  are  of  a  pugnacious  disposition  has 
been  proved,  the  weaker  forms  being  inevitably  slain  when  an 
encounter  takes  placCj  as  occasionally  happens  in  the  roads  and 
tunnels  of  the  habitations.  The  moles  appear  to  require  a  large 
supply  of  water,  and  miniature  wells  are  sunk  in  various  situa¬ 
tions,  when  they  are  situated  at  a  far  distance  from  a  brook 
or  ditch.  The  question  of  their  hibernating  habits  in  winter  is 
not  definitely  settled.  It  is  certain,  however,  that,  during  the 
colder  season  they  display  much  less  activity  than  in  spring  and 
summer. 
Thei  great  fostering  places  of  moles  are  woods  and  commons. 
There  they  do  good  in  destroying  larval  pests,  but  from  such 
places  they  make  excursions  into  cultivated  ground,  and  on 
account  of  their  tunnelling  the  soil,  cutting  the  roots  of  plants, 
they  do  much  harm  to  crops  in  fields  and  gardens,  whilst  their 
earth-heaps  interfere  with  grass-cutting  in  meadows  and  orchards, 
and  are  a  great  eyesore  on  pastures,  parks,  and  lawns.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  mole  is  a  most  useful  animal  in  the  semi- 
nature  of  woods,  woodlands,  moorlands,  commons,  and  other 
uncultivated  tracts.  In  nurseries,  gardens,  parks,  and  fields  it 
drives  the  cultivator  almost  to  distraction  with  tlie  mischief  it 
works.  It  burrows  under  tbe  beds  of  seedlings  in  the  nursery, 
delights  in  the  seed-beds  in  kitchen  gardens,  loves  to  tunnel 
in  flower  beds,  bedecks  the  verdant  grass  of  lawms  with  little 
heaps  of  mould,  ploughs  under  crops  on  richly  manured,  drills, 
and  top-dress  pastures  and  meadows,  cutting  up  the  ground  into 
trenches,  with  here  and  there  a  little  heap  of  fertilising  mould. 
The  bull  is  a  very  useful  animal  in  the  field,  but  in  a  china^shop 
notoriously  destructive,  and  in  a  similar  fasliion  the  mole,  which 
is  beneficial  to  semi-wild  woods,  woodlands,  moors,  commons,  and 
other  uncultivated  tracts,  is  by  no  means  a  proper  inlrabitant  of 
the  field,  nursery,  and  garden. 
One  thing  about  the  mole  calls  for  particular  note — namely, 
its  taste  for  a  rich,  nourishing  dietary,  it  always  taking  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  feeding  in  the  best  soil,  where  the  worm  is  fattest  and 
larvse  fullest  fed  and  most  luscious,  hence  its  penchant  for  culti¬ 
vated  land  ;  and,  once  there,  seldom  leaves  it  for  the  relatively 
indifferent  fare  of  the  wood,  woodland,  common,  and  waste. 
There  is  , therefore,  nothing  for  it  in  the  way  of  riddance  tlmn 
either  to  drive  the  mole  away  or  trap  it,  nothing  short  of  driving 
away  or  extirpation  being  of  any  avail. 
Driving  Moles  from  Gardens. 
For  driving  moles  from  gardens,  green  leaves  or  parts  of 
dwarf  Elder  (Sambucus  cdulus^  may  be  placed  in  their  runs.  The 
smell  of  common  Elder  (S.  nigra)  is  also  very  offensive  to  the 
mole,  and  fresh  leaves  placed  in  their  main  subterranean  paths, 
particularly  where  they  enter  gardens,  orchards,  or  pleasure 
grounds,  which  is  also  the  best  place  to  set  traps, 
will  soon  cause  them  to  disappear.  It  follows,  however, 
that  the  mole  being  “  in,”  it  will  be  hindered  passing 
out  by  the  objectionable  substance,  and  it  may  be  stated  here 
that  if  the  mole-catcher  does  not  want  to  catch  moles  he  has  only 
to  use  a  forked  piece  or  table  of  Elder  in  the  trap. 
I  do  not,  however,  desire  to  entoench  on  the  province  of  the 
mole-catcher;  therefore,  if  there  be  a  professional  mole-cateher 
in  the  neighbourhood,  he  should  be  summoned  to  the  spot  where 
the  mole  or  moles  commit  havoc  and  set  on  the  track.  Failing 
this,  the  ingenuity  of  the  cultivator  must  be  brought  into  play. 
He  may  proceed  against  the  mole  by  poison,  of  which  Sandford  s 
mole  poison  (in  paste)  is  most  in  repute,  or  by  setting  traps,  of 
which  the  iron  ones  sold  by  ironmongers  are  useful ;  and  any 
intelligent  labourer  will  catch  the  moles,  setting  and  looking 
after  the  traps  in  his  leisure  time  at  a  bonus  of  2d.  or  3d.  per 
head.  Moles,  however,  are  less  suspicious  of  wooden  traps  than 
they  are  of  cast-iron  ones,  not  any  trap  being  so  “  killing  ”  as  the 
old-fashioned  wooden  one  wdth  stake  spring,  to  which  I  would 
now'  briefly  refer,  as  the  explanation  of  the  construction  is  clearly 
defined  in  the  references  to  the  illustrations.  . 
Fig.  1  (A)  is  a  mole  trap  for  setting  level  with  the  ground  in 
a  run  of  the  mole.  In  setting,  care  is  taken  to  opeii  out 
lead  inside  the  wooden  loops  the  catch-wires,  using  a  little  wet 
earth  if  nccessai-y ;  affix  the  spring  string  firmly  by  means  of  the 
fork  piece  or  table ;  peg  well  down,  and  then  adjust  the  spinng 
string  to  the  spring  stake.  In  setting  the  trap  care  is  taken 
to  disturb  the  run  only  enough  to  allow  the  loops  to  enter  it.  A 
mole  passing  through  the  run  has  to  go  through  the  loops,  ^d 
in  its  passage  has  to  push  away  the  fork  or  table, 
string  is  forced  upward  by  the  spring,  drawing  up  at  the  ^nie 
time  the  loop  wires,  between  which  and  the  board  the  ^^le  is 
caught.  The  trap  is  useful  in  shallow  runs,  but  too  wide  tor 
deep  runs,  hence  I  give  sketch  of  another  wooden  mole  trap  use- 
able  either  with  a  stake  spring  or  steel  spring,  and  either 
shallow  or  deep  runs.  i,  « 
The  trap  alluded  to  I  call  the  Kent  wooden  mole  trap,  s^wn 
set  at  B,  and  its  construction  given  in  the  references.  With 
the  steel  spring  it  is  very  handy  for  gardens,  fniit  plantations, 
&c.,  and  may  be  employed  for  shallow  runs,  and  even  tor  tho^ 
4in  to  Gin  beneath  the  surface  by  taking  out  a  notch  of  soil_  to 
allow  the  spring  to  pass  down.  For  a  run  the  steel  spnng 
may  be  taken  out,  the  spring  string  added  to  so  as  to  len^hen 
to  the  surface  of  ground,  and  a  stoke  spring  employed.  It  is  a 
very  killing  trap,  handy,  and  durable,  the  frame  and  loops  being 
of  hard  wood,  with  all  the  edges  rounded  off.  _  . 
The  chief  art  in  catching  moles  is  in  choosing  the  runs  in 
which  to  set  the  traps.  In  soft  ground  a  mole  makes  a  new 
run  in  order  to  avoid  a  trap.  In  the  case  of  shallow  runs  it  is 
advisable  to  tread  the  run  down,  closing  it  with  the  foot,  tor 
about  a  foot  length,  and  if  the  mole  passes  through, 
new  run,  set  the  trap  in  the  relatively  firm  ground.^ 
usually  return  to  banks  and  di-y  places  to  rest,  a  run  throug 
